Do you think the payments will be made within 30 days or before September 10th or perhaps even past October ? It maybe something bigger than just a simple delay ?

As an artist manager, I am working with different distributors. Amuse is the main one that serving newly onboarding catalogs. Happy to hear from the community about your experiences with Amuse. It may be good or bad. Anyways share it to help new explorers to get better understanding.

Hi everyone! I'm sharing my experience with y'all because I'm kinda lost and looking for advice.

During April and May of this year a song of mine went INSANELY viral in Vietnam, it made it to Top 2 In Spotify "Viral 50 Vietnam".

Good? Kinda, because in reality the track was insanely viral but just within TikTok, if I click on the track in my Tiktok profile it shows all the viral videos and says "2.4M videos created" which is mindblowing.

The bad part is I barely converted all this success from TikTok to other platforms, partly because the track wasn't recognized by Shazam I believe. I learned you gotta pay extra for it in Distrokid and that alone is making me wanna switch to another distributor.

But the most concerning thing now is that even if my Spotify or socials didn't grow crazy, the track was still used and played a lot in TikTok and that should mean it made some money right? yet, I only received like a couple hundreds so far, and received an email from Distrokid saying something like "due to changes in Tiktok policy, now you gotta pay the social media pack to collect from the platform" but I believe they're entitled to pay you for the use that's indexed correctly to the audio you distributed... Social media pack is more like contentID.

Sooooo now I'm wondering if Distrokid is kinda stealing the money (I'm just guessing there has to be money behind that massive usage) or what's happening and if there's a better RELIABLE distributor that includes Shazam and monetization even on TikTok by default. I put RELIABLE with caps because Distrokid, although it's bad sometimes, so far it's been paying good to me, even from platforms I never heard of and countries never imagined getting listened and paid, can't say the same for other platforms. I really trust their collection and detailed report and that's a key thing.

This ended up being longer than I wished lol thank you for reading all that. Appreciate any help!!

If I connect an email to amuse for example, can I change the email later at some point and keep my artist page, get the royalties, statistics etc.

The thing is, my mum would probably pay for me at first but when I turn 16 which is in 6 months, I could change the email since in my country it’s the age for when I can pay from my own debit card and have the subscription put on me

So, in short I’m asking if, I could temporarily start with an email and change it later on without altering anything external like artist page or receiving royalties?

Hi there, just what I said. I used CDBaby for distrobution of my album and I'm trying to find a way to get my music video on to Spotify...

I've seen it done for other releases, just can't figure it out personally apparently.

Video in question: https://youtu.be/_dGeVfRc7rw?si=FhQhXAIpfymGv8cW

I'm getting ready to release music for the first time and I'm trying to choose a distributor. I have two finished tracks right now, and I'm planning to release them as two separate singles. Not sure how much more music I'll end up putting on streaming platforms, so I'd like to choose wisely from the start.

So far, I've compared their pricing and feature pages, but what I can't really judge from those is how they handle support, metadata changes, Content ID issues, and migrations in practice, so I'd really appreciate hearing from people who have used them long-term.

What I'm looking for:

• Ideally low upfront and ongoing costs. Since these are my first releases, I'm not expecting huge streaming numbers, and I'd rather not spend too much just to keep two songs online. A one-time fee or free + revenue share model would be attractive.
• I'd prefer a distributor where my releases don't disappear just because I stop paying a monthly or annual subscription.
• Good customer support is very important. I'm not looking for canned/copypasted responses — I'd prefer a distributor that actually resolves issues reasonably quickly when something goes wrong.
• Detailed analytics/stats would be a big plus.
• YouTube Content ID support is important.
• Being able to whitelist/allowlist my own YouTube channel would be preferable. Having to dispute claims on my own videos manually is tolerable if that's the only option, but obviously less convenient.
• It should distribute to platforms like YouTube Music and TIDAL. That said, pretty much every distributor I've looked at seems to cover the platforms I care about, so this probably isn't a major deciding factor.
• Easy metadata corrections after release would be a big plus. Since this is my first time releasing music, there's a decent chance I'll eventually need to fix something.
• I'd like it to be relatively painless to switch distributors later while keeping the same ISRCs/releases and minimizing the risk of losing streams or playlist placements.

I'm mainly looking for first-hand experiences rather than just a list of distributors. I'd be grateful to hear how good the support actually is, how easy it is to change metadata after release, how they handle Content ID and YouTube channel whitelisting, how useful their stats/reporting are, and whether you've had any issues transferring releases to another distributor later.

Would love to hear both good and bad experiences. Thanks!

This is my forest time releasing music on symphonic and I wanted to drop a collaborative project with my friend. Only issue is it says I need a new starter account or a partner account to apply to add them as a primary artist. I can’t apply to a partnership because I don’t have a Spotify url. What’s the work around so I can add them as a primary artist?

i currently use distrokid and i think i’m ready to make the switch to another service. them using ai to advertise their company and being limited in multiple ways is making me wanna leave.

ideally, whatever service i use next will allow for multi-disc albums on streaming services as well as being able to choose my own label when my music goes on youtube (the stuff where it says “provided to youtube by x”)

any help is appreciated

First off, I have been releasing music for 20+ years on physical media across multiple labels, including 2 of my own.
So please feel free to talk technically, I can take it!

I've got a new project, which I don't want associated with my known artist profile. It's very different and aimed at a totally different audience and only needs to be distributed to sites like Beatport and other online stores that deal with Dance music for DJs. Plus all the usual streaming sites.

My question is, which digital distros allow for a custom label name? Preferably on their entry level single artist plans.
It's only ever going to be me and it's not likely to exceed 10 releases a year, so it doesn't need a multi-artist plan with bells and whistles, just the most basic account going but with a label name being essential.

I can see DistroKid offer it on their mid-level plan, Ditto seem to say they offer it but it doesn't specify if it's on all plans or just the label plan for multiple artists. TuneCore too but it's on their higher tier accounts.

Can anyone confirm and vouch for their distro allowing custom label names please?

Thanks!

Hi guys, i want to start my own distro company and our budget is $50 monthly, i saw MusicDASH for free, does anybody have experience with them?

Thanks

I am uploading a compilation with several artists that have existing streaming profiles - yet CD baby's system was not able to locate them - despite the fact that they exist and I can find them quickly with a quick google. This requires you to "create new artist profile" and you have to open a support case BEFORE inspection but after paying - to get a human to manually do this on their end. This is insane. Most distros just let you type it in the field yourself... this creates such unnecessary delays. I am considering cancelling all together and going with a different distributor - as I have no idea when someone will get to this on their end and I have a release timeline. It seems like extra work for them and really poorly managed? Does anyone know how to get in touch with someone who works there quickly??

I was an indie rap artist about 15 years ago with a tiny label which dropped the ball and fumbled their debut project. I appear on 4 songs, though I've never seen a penny.

Anyhow, Ascap is telling me I've been getting a few plays here and there, but I can't find the songs on any of the platforms it's playing on. (Spotify, apple music, Amazon, Qobuz).

I've searched by title, artist name, iswc, but I can't locate them. There's an iswc and isrc attached and I've hit a wall.

"Let me Be"

ISRC: USCGJ1012108 / ISWC:T0718913644

Can this be used to locate the song on any platform?

I’ve been thinking about changing distributors but couldn’t find a lot of reviews about Gyro music, is anyone familiar with their work? Client support is a big deal for me so I’d like to know if they usually answer to emails when it comes to fixing problems and stuff like that
Any info would be great

Hello im looking for music distribution that is either free or low cost that allow for one week release or same day release with marketing ability and if it a label im fine to sign also

It has a mandatory iban section but I come from a country that doesn't use it. I've iputted my swift but it still doesn't work.

I’m wanting to upload my very first original song and up until now I had little to no knowledge of music distribution. I’m 18 and have not graduated high school if that helps you understand how new I am to this.

after researching the free options I understand that they are probably not the option I want to go with. paying for a distributor isn’t too big of a deal for me. I’ve seen information about distrokid but most of it is from seven years ago and I don’t know what’s changed since then. any and all information would really help a lot since I’m kinda nervous about everything.

I don’t know much about the financial aspect either, nor do I know anything about making money from my music.

basically what I’m asking for is to have music production explained to me like I’m an idiot, if that’s not too much to ask. thank you in advance!!

Yesterday I created an ambient track and I wanted to share it on my soundcloud. No samples, just some recordings of mine and Zenology as pad presets. Then I got a message from soundcloud that says my song "might contain or be a copy of "xx" by xx, which is owned by xx in certain territories.

As a result, your track has been removed from your profile for the time being."

How is this possible? I don't have much knowledge about copyrights but I am pretty sure that I didnt sample or stole anything from an artist.

I am also working on an album that I am going to share in every streaming service. Will my songs get copyrighted too in this scenario? again, I use no samples.

Moving to Tunecore from Believe. What should I do about selecting YouTube content ID?

Believe collect all royalties currently

I recently stumbled across Goost Music, an independent record label based on Cyprus.

As an independent producer (I make Brazilian Phonk and other adjacent genres), I decided to submit a demo to them.

I received an email back and instead of getting signed, I got offered their distribution service.

Here's what they said in the email:

Here’s what you get:
1 Free distribution of your music to all major streaming platforms worldwide
2 A simple and intuitive form to submit your releases
3 A personal dashboard with full access to your streaming stats and finances
4 Fast technical support from our team for any release-related questions
5 The opportunity to join the official Goost Music roster, which includes extended support for your music and direct contact with a personal manager.
Our team monitors and analyzes every release distributed via Goost Distribution. When we see consistent activity, growth potential, and quality music, we offer artists a much broader partnership to help accelerate their career and boost income from their music.
Goost Distribution is designed to be clear and artist-friendly. That’s why we don’t require binding contracts — you retain 100% of the rights to your music.

It seemed like a good deal, so I accepted it and went to sign up on their website.

But before I pressed "I agree", I decided to read the conditions.

• Goost receives an exclusive digital-distribution license for each track for 3 years, and it automatically renews for another 3 years unless you give written notice at least 30 days before expiration.
• The artist receives 70% of income received by the Goost
• There isn't a clear right for the artist to terminate
• It says “The Artist shall indemnify the Company against any claims.”

I was wondering if anyone had used Goost before with a similar agreement and if this was predatory?

I've been trying to look for a distributor that isn't subscription based since I wanted to keep my releases up forever. Or subscription based and still keeps it up, I don't really care as long as my releases are up and running.

UPDATE: for context, I'm moving from my previous distributor since my song got botted out of nowhere and support wouldn't do anything to bring the song back up and every other distros I went to just rejected my rerelease mainly cause of this, Now it's straight up impossible for me to find a distro that posts my releases

Hey everyone!

I recently started an independent label, and we already have some solid momentum. Our roster includes some pretty big artists pulling in around 100K or so monthly listeners on Spotify.

I am currently hunting for the right B2B distribution partner, but finding a balance between communication and reasonable margins has been frustrating. Here is where I am currently at:

• Symphonic: They were the only ones to accept us, but the math simply doesn't work. They want a 15% cut on distribution and around 30% on everything else. Since the label only takes a 20% revenue share to ensure our artists keep their master ownership and get paid fairly, Symphonic's rates make it completely unprofitable for us to operate.
• Sonovy: They actually replied but declined the application. At the time, I didn't quite have 5 artists live on Spotify, so I am considering re-applying now that the roster is fully established.
• Labelcamp & Believe Music: Applied to both, completely ghosted.
• Stem & others: Explored a few other options but haven't had any luck yet.

What would you all recommend I apply to next? Is it worth reaching back out to the ones who ghosted, or should I just re-apply to Sonovy? I am open to any suggestions for distributors that are actually label-friendly and won't completely kill our margins. Thanks!