The Concept Of Music Distribution Explained
What Is Music Distribution?
It is the process of getting music from artists to music stores, making it available for purchase by the public. Click here to read more
Types of music distribution
Basically, there are two main types.
- Physical / Traditional
- Digital
Read: Which distribution company pays artistes the most, Distrokid, CD Baby, Amuse, Ditto Music?
PHYSICAL / TRADITIONAL MUSIC DISTRIBUTION
It involves the distribution of music on CDs and Cassettes to various music shops.
Distributors as at that time do have a distribution agreement with musicians and Record labels to promote and market their works at various music shops / outlets.
It is the distributors responsibility to collect sales from various music shops and make accounts to the indie artist or record label.
DIGITAL MUSIC DISTRIBUTION
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It is the process of converting physical CDs to digital format.
With this type of distribution, the artiste would have to sign up with a digital aggregator to have his singles and albums distributed to music streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, tidal, Pandora, Shazam, boomplay, etc.
Who is a music aggregator?
A digital music aggregator or digital distributor is a company that assist to get your music to music streaming platforms.
Read: Who is a Music Curator? 4 Things to Know Before Becoming a Music Curator
Examples Of Music Aggregators / Music Distributors
The following are examples of the popular digital music aggregators / Music Distributors
A. Ditto music
B. Distrokid
C. Amuse
D. CD baby
E. Bandcamp, etc
Conclusion
Distributing your music through digital means has become the norm of the day. There are different distribution companies / distribution services available on the internet to help all artists, especially independent artists trying to build a profitable music business online.
Some of these companies help artists to distribute their music freely but takes a percentage off your royalties whilst others take upfront fees for uploads (depending on your financial status, choose what best fits you).
In some cases, an artist can hire the services of a music distributor to handle all their digital works which in includes music curation.
The more reason why all artists need to distribute their music digitally is to have their project license and make money online from their craft.
NB: Every time your music is played on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Shazam, Pandora, etc, the respective artist receive some form of royalties.
There are about six different types of music royalties.
Each type of music royalty depends on a specific metric for its calculation. With mechanical royalties, you get paid anytime your music played on any of the music streaming platforms aforementioned whilst publishing royalty come to play whenever your music is used on radio, TV, commercials, etc. Publishing Right Organizations such as Ascab, IBM, GHAMRO are responsible for collecting publishing royalties on behalf of the artist.
Song writers and music producers also collect these same types of royalties in any music project they have had with artists.
The split feature also help artists to share royalties on any collaboration they have had with other artists, including producers and songwriters.
Watch full video on the types of music distribution
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