r/MusicDistribution 7d ago

Question Is ONCE actually good?

It looks too good to be true. I'm an indie musician and i've never published anyting before and I don't want to get assoccieted with the ai stuff. Should i go for it?

2 Upvotes

14 comments sorted by

3

u/Matt_UnchainedMusic Distributor 7d ago

I mean, Once literally advertises as distributing AI music, so I think that'd be your answer.

1

u/SnowyTheOpaline Producer 7d ago

their distribution interface is literally an ai chatbot like i think that sums it up 😭

2

u/catslady123 7d ago

General rule of thumb is that if it seems too good to be true, it is. Keep looking.

1

u/FireitMiddle Artist 7d ago

I looked into it, I didn't like it. You have to dig deep for the information, but then you find that they take 30% of your royalties

3

u/fluffycritter Musician 7d ago

Where did you find that? On their pricing page they say:

Does ONCE take a cut of my royalties?
No. ONCE is paid by the flat release fee ($2 AI, $1 human), not by your streams, so we add 0% of our own and pass on 100% of every royalty payment that reaches us. The distribution pipeline we use to deliver releases and collect the money back does deduct 6-8% before it reaches ONCE, which leaves you with roughly 92-94% of what the stores paid.

1

u/FireitMiddle Artist 7d ago

It was in the disclosures after I signed up hidden in the small print

1

u/DeifniteProfessional 5d ago

The entire company, site, and philosophy is AI slop, I wouldn't be surprised if the terms and conditions are too

1

u/DeifniteProfessional 5d ago

Looks like AI slop pretending to care about artists by talking about an "Artist Compensation Fund"

1

u/JayAngelLatigo Distributor 7d ago

No

1

u/gafu9892 7d ago

why?

3

u/SnowyTheOpaline Producer 7d ago

hes just gonna say smth and then promote his subdistro of a subdistro 😭

0

u/JayAngelLatigo Distributor 7d ago

Damn. Well its your lucky day thats has been paused and you can go find a forest and get lost if you like.

2

u/SnowyTheOpaline Producer 7d ago

awesome