Getting your music on iTunes, and other digital music outlets, is no longer just a good idea but something your band must do to generate an income. Unfortunately, many music outlets do not work with individual artists. iTunes is no exception. This means that you will have to work with a digital distributor to get your music out there. Here at Detone8.com we’ve put together a list of companies that distribute independent music. This alphabetical list gives the differences between theses companies to help you find the one that fits you the best.
- Avatar has an application process, and it is not guaranteed they will take your music.
- If accepted, your music should be available on iTunes within 3-4 weeks after you submit all the required items (contracts, CDs, W9, etc.)
- Avatar does not charge a set up fee, but will keep 20% of earnings as their distribution fee.
- Payments will be made 45 days after the end of each quarter (mid May, Aug, Nov, Feb)
- Better Business Bureau: No Rating, no complaints.
- Catapult offers self sign up, and includes multiple stores in their distribution agreement including iTunes, Amazon MP3, and Zune.
- Expect a 4-8 week time frame from the time you submit your music, to the time it will be available for download (varies by store)
- Catapult charges a $25 setup fee, and has a tiered distribution fee starting at 9% and scales down to 5% as downloads increase.
- Catapult does not require a physical CD, so you can start the process while your music is off to the replicator, or you can choose to scrap CD replication altogether.
- Payments are made once a month via Paypal.
- Better Business Bureau: A Rating, no complaints.
- CD Baby is also a self sign up service, and includes over 20 stores in the agreement.
- Expect your music to start showing up in the different stores after 3 weeks.
- CD Baby charges a $35 set up fee, with a distribution fee of 9%.
- CD Baby issues payments the Monday after they received the sales reports from iTunes, Amazon, etc.
- CD Baby also has a physical distribution offering that includes Amazon (which is required if you plan on submitting to Pandora).
- Better Business Bureau: A- Rating, BBB processed a total of 18 complaints about C D Baby Inc in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 18 complaints closed in 36 months, 14 were closed in the last year.
- The Orchard has an application and approval process.
- The Orchard distributes through iTunes, Verizon, Amazon MP3, Zune, and many more.
- Better Business Bureau: No Rating, no complaints.
- Quickstar also has an application and approval process.
- Quickstar distributes through iTunes, Amazon MP3, Napster, and “almost every other mp3 retailer on the world.”
- Better Business Bureau: A Rating, no complaints.
- TuneCore is completely self service and includes 19 different stores (iTunes, Amazone MP3, eMusic, etc.)
- TuneCore does not retain anything as distribution fee, however, it does have 3 different setup fees depending on single, album (standard), or album “a la carte” distribution.
- Better Business Bureau: No Rating, BBB processed a total of 2 complaint(s) about this business in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total 2 complaint(s) closed in the last 36 months, 0 were closed in the last 12 months.
**All the distribution fees are based on earnings after the retailer fees.
Good Luck!
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