This is a good deal and coincidentally we at Symphonic Distribution have a very similar offering! Not spamming ;) Our option 5 has a 1 time fee of $500 and you get distribution on the same retailers , including iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Beatport while retaining all NET earnings and while working with a US based company. Plus to fee  for releases sent. Anyways...good read and still pretty cool to see a foreign company pushing something that seems to benefit artists.

 

Wrong.  Janetta you are spamming.

Oh well...gotta promote that these services ARE offered here in the US, bigger cost but every company has its business models. Ours is tailored for the type size of record label we are looking for.

Why is it whenever the discussion turns to digital distribution you always see companies at the bottom end of the scale touting themselves??

Have some dignity guys.

Because, when the service your company provides is essentially identical to other companies' services you have to market any way you can.

Tunecore charges 50$ per year per release. Not 50$ per year if memory serves.its one of the most expensive services.

Anyway, the concept of doing all the admin and support for a growing number of artists without a fixed annual fee or a percentage of earnings sounds like a dead fish. Contrary to what artists like to imagine, digital distribution is not a work free process.

Forgetting everything else, book keeping alone for thousands of tiny statements is a major Annual cost for distributors. The concept of 99$ for life is to good to be true. It is non sustainable.

They'll be bankrupt soon and your lifetime deal will be sold for pennies on the dollars to a vulture who will bundle your catalogue with thousands of others and sell to an AYCE streaming company that pays no royalties.

It's not really that great of a deal. Most musicians find it daunting when a company wants that much money up front. Plus, I've never heard of this company and they have no track record.

Another aspect to consider is that most of these companies FAIL and end up quitting because they can't sustain their business model. Then all those artists that signed up for "lifetime" service feel cheated and are left out in the cold.

The company to look out for is ADEDistribution cause they only charge $5 a month so it's easy to start things off and try it out if you're an artist whose never done this before.

P.S. ADEDistribution is at http://www.aded.us

ADE = SCAM

 

 

As an artist, we've used TuneCore, SongCast, CDBaby, RouteNote, and RecordUnion. THEY ALL SUCK and are expensive over time. I might do what that other guy said and check out that ADEDistribution site. Can't beat $5 a month cause lunch costs more than that.

What is your main beef with the companies you mention?

To prove my point again, here is another bottom of the ladder distribution company surrendering their dignity.

ADE - get some achievements and then shout about them.  Please stop spamming every board going, you are not helping yourself.

ADE is a scam - be warned.

 

If you aren't making $50 in sales each year on your album, you have much bigger problem at hand...

Is this sustainable?

you might just get accused of "spamming" with your username by "broken record" here! EEK!!!

Cost is one thing - and i agree there needs to be some upfront cost largely because there needs to be some disincentive for people releasing music recorded via their webcam mic.

But then again you have to look at what the services provide in terms of services.

Tunecore, for example, provide trend reports from iTunes.

Record Union, for example, provide daily stats from Spotify.

CD baby also have some interesting things going on.

I am not sure what Music Spray or others provide it terms of performance data etc. but its important to consider these points too.

 

I have actually dealt with many and currently do use symphonic, their deal is not as good as that other sevice claims but onething is for sure if there are any issues or communication they answer quick and also they seem to have great connection with the stores as at times weve gotten charted and featured.

I'm an artist just starting out.  I got a referral to a company called catapult and they only charge $20 per album with no annual fees.. for distribution into just about every major music service out there.  Apple has referrals for all their top "aggregators" out there.  I looked at the different ones and for my purposes (I only have 2 albums out) .. it was the best deal.

I've seen some of the ones that charge yearly fees and have to ask myself.. what exactly are they charging for?  The only reason I can't deal with iTunes direct.. is because I have less than 10 albums to distribute.  
 

Here is what they are charging for

Keeping your master on disc

Invoicing all the various services

Making sure they pay the invoice

Accounting for all ingoing and outgoings

system upkeep

answering your emails about formats featured artists etc etc

paying someone to do all of this.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.