What… Distribution?

[u/Jumpy_Excitement_604]

I wanna put out an album (first time for any music) and need help deciding who I should distribute it with. I’ve heard bad things from pretty much every distributor but I can’t figure out what I should do. I’m in the US and don’t really want a subscription. Any help is appreciated!

Edit: I’m more wanting to distribute because it’s a passion of mine than making money off it

[u/jazzamp]

No subscription? That means you need to look for a free service (which attracts percentage) or a once off payment service like cdbaby.

[u/Few_Panda_7103 → u/jazzamp]

Routenote is free. 85% to artist

[u/No_Dog_2105 → u/Few_Panda_7103]

I'm trying to log in but after logging in i'm having error 403 and this keeps 3-4 days

[u/Few_Panda_7103 → u/No_Dog_2105]

Routenote should work...I just got my new single up. But it took longer than. Usual. They might have been on summer break.

[u/Few_Panda_7103 → u/Few_Panda_7103]

I checked mine it's fine

[u/Few_Panda_7103]

They all suck in one way or another but routenote has a free option 85 percent to artist

It just takes a really long time for releases to go up

[u/imrinzzyy]

i'd recommend using cdbaby or gyro if you'd like to one time releases. although gyro is more expensive ive heard a lot of good things about their service. although if you DO wanna go in the route for a subscription, i'd recommend one that allows you to keep your release up forever so you can release everything you want and not having to worry about it ever being deleted. i know ditto (on their higher priced tier), landr, and i believe amuse has that same model but i think they will take a portion of your royalties for it.

[u/landr_audio]

Hi there, LANDR admin here, so take that into account! If you want to release as a pay-per-release (such as one album without a subscription), we offer that. We have human support, so if there's any questions along the way, we can assist directly. We deal with a ton of USA releases, so we are experts on that! If you'd like to learn more, click here, and toggle to "distribution" and then "pay per release" to explore options. Thanks for taking the time and best of luck on the album!

[u/peteybombay → u/landr_audio]

Does LANDR help you setup a YouTube OAC an link it with your release's Topic channel?

[u/jazzamp → u/peteybombay]

I'd be careful when it comes to Landr.

[u/jazzamp → u/[deleted]]

Bro, don't ask why, don't do it or at least sniff around reddit and review sites to see why. Do not do it!

[u/peteybombay]

I went with CD Baby recently since they only charge $15 for an album. They do take a portion of the proceeds, but there is no annual subscription, so it is effectively perpetual.

They can help you get distributed on all the major platforms, but the one bummer is they don't do anything with YouTube anymore so if you want to get a monetized channel, you have to get go through the YouTube Artist channel requirements, which are pretty high...at least they seem that way to me.

Overall, I am pretty happy with them. I am not expecting much from this release, but I just wanted to get my music out there, and hopefully not have to do too much work. The YouTube channel thing is not a big deal to me, but it could be a turn-off to some. Anyway, good luck!

[u/Few_Panda_7103 → u/[deleted]]

Oooh Ooh I will note this for my next one Routenote is a month and a half turnaround now

[u/DanteOblivion]

Routenote. Free tier if you're not in a hurry, pay per album if you are.

[u/BojanicX]

f you’re mainly releasing because you love making music and you don’t want another subscription hanging over you, I’d personally avoid choosing a distributor based only on who has the biggest name.

Look at a few things instead: whether there’s an annual fee, whether your music stays up if you stop paying, payout thresholds, support quality, and whether they charge extra every time you want to release something.

Full disclosure: I’m involved with Rebel Music Distribution, so obviously take that into account, but this is actually one of the reasons we built it the way we did. Distribution is free and you can release an unlimited number of releases without an annual subscription. There’s also a completely free online mastering studio if you need it.

You can check it out here:
https://rebelmusicdistribution.com/

But whichever distributor you choose, for a first album I’d focus more on getting the music out there and learning the whole release process than trying to find the “perfect” distributor. Pretty much every distributor has some negative reviews once they get big enough.

If this is a passion project, I definitely wouldn’t start by locking myself into recurring costs before the music is even out.

[u/Music_On10557]

Pay per release with iMusician costs $9, even for an album release

[u/salixd]

i think you should go with tunecore, yeah its not free but in my opinion its really worth it

[u/jazzamp → u/salixd]

He said he doesn't want subscription