Getting your music in streaming services...

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stm113

Power User
Hello fellow home based rock stars!

Are any of you like me and have multiple recording projects that you just want to get out there for people to hear i.e. Spotify, Amazon music, Apple Music etc and not really concerned with selling the music?

If so, have any of you used a service like Tunecore, CD Baby, Distrokid etc for this? I’m just curious because since I’m not concerned with selling the music I want to limit my costs.

I welcome any opinions/experiences!
 
I use CD Baby. I like them for 2 reasons:
1) There's no annual fee to keep your music on the services. It's a little more expensive up front because of that, but you don't have to worry about making the annual payment. Keep an eye out for CD Baby sales. When they have a sale, you can buy the service for an album, then use it later when you need it.
2) They have a nicely integrated CD duplication service. No need to upload your music again to get some physical CDs. And, their artwork layout tools are quite nice.
 
I like the absence of an annual fee for sure. One thing I don’t like, but maybe I don’t understand how they do it, but I don’t like having to pay so much for single releases. I want to be able to release singles and full releases.
 
When I researched this a couple years ago, I decided to go with CDBaby; I didn't think that, for me, any other option was close to what they offered. However, unlike you, I'm not planning on releasing singles. I haven't looked at any changes in the industry that might have occurred more recently; so things might be different now.
 
I've used the tie in to CD Baby via Disc Makers...

However, in the future I'll probably do the streaming/digital stuff with DistroKid.
 
So why Distrokid
unix-guy said:
I've used the tie in to CD Baby via Disc Makers...

However, in the future I'll probably do the streaming/digital stuff with DistroKid.
Click to expand...
so why Distrokid now? Have you done a lot of research into it?

I like the idea of paying once to release an album like CD baby does but we definitely want to put out some singles ahead of the release. I just can’t see paying $27 to release 3 singles then turn around to pay $29 to release the same 3 songs plus 6-9 more.

what I’m not digging about Distrokid is paying the year by year especially since we don’t care how many we sell, we just want our stuff out there for people to stream. But it would make the singles thing easier to do.
Am I making sense at all here?
 
stm113 said:
So why Distrokid

so why Distrokid now? Have you done a lot of research into it?

I like the idea of paying once to release an album like CD baby does but we definitely want to put out some singles ahead of the release. I just can’t see paying $27 to release 3 singles then turn around to pay $29 to release the same 3 songs plus 6-9 more.

what I’m not digging about Distrokid is paying the year by year especially since we don’t care how many we sell, we just want our stuff out there for people to stream. But it would make the singles thing easier to do.
Am I making sense at all here?
Click to expand...
I didn't do a super in depth research, but I read an article several months back comparing about 8-10 services.

I felt like DistroKid was the best choice for digital for me. We do sell (not much!) and have primarily been more album focused... But wanting to have the freedom to release how and when we want without the setup charges that CD Baby has are a big factor.

I mean, it is $19.99 a year... I spend more than that on IRs I'll never use ;)
 
unix-guy said:
I didn't do a super in depth research, but I read an article several months back comparing about 8-10 services.

I felt like DistroKid was the best choice for digital for me. We do sell (not much!) and have primarily been more album focused... But wanting to have the freedom to release how and when we want without the setup charges that CD Baby has are a big factor.

I mean, it is $19.99 a year... I spend more than that on IRs I'll never use ;)
Click to expand...

Do I recall that Distrokid will allow you to put up singles for streaming only (not to sell) for free?

I wonder if there is a way to do something like use Dristrokid to upload singles for free, then use CD baby for the full releases.... hmmm
 
Have used CDBaby for...a very long time. Works great. Priced well. I dig the metrics I get out of it too.
 
stm113 said:
Do I recall that Distrokid will allow you to put up singles for streaming only (not to sell) for free?

I wonder if there is a way to do something like use Dristrokid to upload singles for free, then use CD baby for the full releases.... hmmm
Click to expand...
Not that I know of, but maybe... I'm not yet a user.
 
iaresee said:
Ah. I’ve only done complete albums. None of them make anything more than coffee money. 😅
Click to expand...
stm113 said:
Yea I don’t anticipate making money, I just wanna get the music out there.
Click to expand...
I've only done albums so far, too... But my band is changing directions and I think we may do a lot more single track releases.

CD Baby is something like $35 per release regardless of single track or album.
 
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