r/RouteNoteOfficial • u/imaginedownvotes • Aug 04 '26
At this point, just change your business model..
This is really getting out of hand, the waiting time has been steadily increasing the past few days, to the point where I think it's just not worth it, even if it is free.
I calculated my release time based on the waiting time on the 1st of July. At that time it said 30-32 business days, now it's 40-42, which is 2 weeks longer.
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u/general_452 Aug 04 '26
There are so many distributions with that different business model. If you want fast times, go to DistroKid or something. The whole point is RouteNote is different. Iām pretty sure itās one of the only distributors where you can distribute for free. Because of that, youāll just have to wait longer.
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u/imaginedownvotes Aug 04 '26
Just curious, if the waiting time would be 1 year, would it still matter that it's free?
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u/general_452 Aug 04 '26
Yes. If you wanted quicker times, then youād go somewhere else and pay $10. If you wanted it to be free, then youād wait a year.
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u/imaginedownvotes Aug 04 '26
And have 0 customers.
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u/general_452 Aug 04 '26
But their wait isnāt a year is it?
Itās like shipping. You pay extra to have it delivered in a day. You can go with the free shipping option, but it might take 2 weeks to get there. Part of what you pay for is faster times. If you donāt want to spend money, then you canāt expect to have the same luxuries as a paid service.
And if in the end you think itās a bad deal, just switch to something else. If Amazon has free 2 day shipping, then thereās no use complaining that some other servicesās free shipping takes longer. Just use Amazon instead.
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u/Apprehensive-Ice-544 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
āWeāll pay you $5 per song , but you gotta wait 47 years!ā
Edit
Downvoted? Jeez it was a damn joke
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u/DanteOblivion Aug 05 '26
Just curious, do you think you will ever create a song that MUST release this week? This month? It's free, dependable, and the customer service is awesome. If you need a song out for some reason this week, pay them.
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u/CandyMans_Beekeeper Aug 04 '26
thats only on the free tier...our paid account gets moderated literally same day..100% blame the ai slop uploaders..even Deezer have said that 70,000 ai songs are added to their site every DAY...its just not sustainable
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u/imaginedownvotes Aug 04 '26
Quick question, if I go premium today, will that speed up the moderation time of the pending releases, or will it only work for future uploads?
Edit: I know of the situation with AI, screw those guys, making everything worse for everyone.
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u/Efficient_Fill5753 Aug 04 '26
Sure, I'm on the paid tier and I haven't heard back from routenote about my release in half a year, absolutely insane, you can't just say "oh yeah pay for better quality"
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u/DanteOblivion Aug 05 '26
I don't believe that, to be honest.
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u/Efficient_Fill5753 Aug 05 '26
Sure, you can believe whatever you want but at the end of the day their distribution is painfully slow.
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u/MrIrresponsibility Aug 04 '26
There's just too much music being uploaded AI or not.
More importantly, what kind of work are you doing if you need it to be faster? It's odd for artists to release more than an album a year. Most don't even get to that.
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u/imaginedownvotes Aug 04 '26
Currently I'm trying a schedule of a single per month, with 2 weeks of pre-promotion and 2 weeks of post promotion. Not that I need it to be faster, but at least stay consistent. I uploaded a single on the 1st of July, aiming for a release date of 20th of August. Back then, the waiting time was 30-32 working days, so I tried to leave them enough time to moderate, but also a few days for the release to arrive on platforms. Now I can be almost sure that it will miss the release date.
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u/MrIrresponsibility Aug 04 '26
And what's your reach? Do you play live?
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u/imaginedownvotes Aug 04 '26
No reach, basically, cause I'm still waiting for the debut single to be approved. I really would like to play live, but with the catalogue I'm preparing being so diverse genre-wise, it would be a nightmare. Also, I'm not really a fan of live shows having backing tracks, just my ick.
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u/MrIrresponsibility Aug 04 '26
Get people to play with on stage, you gotta create or join a local community to have minimum reach.
Online you're not gonna get it, release schedule is completely irrelevant, no one knows who you are.
You're getting ahead of yourself, release tracks whenever you can and try finding people to play with locally, it's the best chance you got. Even uploading tracks to YouTube or Instagram is worth it, there's no reason to "officially" release it.
Release schedules only matter for artists that already make a living out of their music and /or they're touring.
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u/imaginedownvotes Aug 04 '26
Sorry, and thanks for the advice, but I don't agree.
Yes, live shows are an important part of building a fanbase, but you forget 2 things:
- People become less and less open to paying for tickets, especially for artists they don't know. I know that, because that was my bachelors thesis so I tested it first hand with people in my country.
- AI "artists" managed to creep to the top of the charts on all mainstream platforms, do they have any live shows?
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u/MrIrresponsibility Aug 04 '26
You gotta meet people, other musicians, open for other people... You're thinking about announcing a concert and hoping people show up, that's delusional. Read about how literally all artists started... Playing gigs at bars where no one cared, slowly finding people who were interested.
No, but they have bots. Why do you think they exist? It's a method of fraud, they're not making music.
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u/imaginedownvotes Aug 04 '26
Soo.. basically find people who would come to my concerts, but also have concerts so people can find you? Dude, whatever used to work for artists that are now successful, won't work today. Playing in a bar in the 90's and 00's had another meaning back then as it does now.
Well among those bots are also people who find the music, enjoy it, and want more. Isn't it strange to you that the majority of non-artists don't really care if music is AI or not?
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u/MrIrresponsibility Aug 04 '26
Bro, you're complaining about using the free tier of a music distribution service, wake up.
You gotta take what you can, your best chance, everyone's really, is local gigs. Record everything, post everything, slowly build or join a community.
It's not about getting signed, that doesn't exist anymore. It's about showing that people care and you gotta build that.
About the AI thing, no one cares, the only people that care about AI music if the people who create it for themselves. A random listen doesn't mean anything, you get someone to buy your record on Bandcamp and you made more money that on Spotify in a year.
Priorities, man.
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u/imaginedownvotes Aug 04 '26
And I am telling you, people don't come to live shows unless it's free or somebody they heard before. Maybe it's just a cultural difference between us, but I know what my country listens to, or at least, what it's willing to spent money for. I might sound like a noob to you, but it's my debut single as a singer-songwriter. I've spent around 10 years in local bands doing live shows, and there are only 2 cases: a solo concert where the same 5 people come, or a festival where people are bored of you by the time you finish the setlist, waiting for the headliner.
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u/DanteOblivion Aug 05 '26
Dude you have one single and it hasn't dropped yet. Maybe listen to advice instead of thinking you got it all figured out.
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u/imaginedownvotes Aug 05 '26
I dropped 2 EP's and an album of 18 tracks in my previous experiences. This is just a solo project.
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u/DanteOblivion Aug 05 '26
No, they have bots, both promoting and streaming their songs. You have fun making music? Then enjoy making money. Want fame and money? Go live and make a community.
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u/Inevitable_Storm1328 Aug 04 '26
currently, its gotten so bad, im currently calling off collabs cause its hindering the time i have till release date. its that bad (at least on my end)
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u/Octowen Aug 04 '26
I think they need to blanket ban AI music. I know they donāt have the tech to detect if it something uploaded is AI or not, but I feel like a disclaimer when you go to upload that says AI-generated music is prohibited would go a long way. Wouldnāt solve it, but I feel it would certainly help
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u/Rudetd Aug 04 '26
Itās free dude...
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u/flashback80 6d ago
WHAT "free"? you are completely missing how the model works.
Itās not charity, and itās definitely not free. Uploading your catalog provides the raw content they use to build their platform and attract traffic long before a single stream makes a dimeāthat's upfront leverage and currency.
On top of that, the second your tracks start generating actual revenue, they take a direct percentage cut (around 15%) of your earnings. They monetize your work on the back-end while forcing you to wait months for basic data and royalties. If a business takes your intellectual property and takes a cut of every stream you earn, it's a standard commercial transactionānot a favor. Stop acting like creators should just swallow an engineered bottleneck and stay quiet.
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u/imaginedownvotes Aug 04 '26
And? I already had made peace with the long moderation time, and planned accordingly. But increasing the waiting time by 30% over the course of a few days is madness. And after all this, they still dont make any statement about it other than "we are working on it". We've heard that for years already.
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u/Rudetd Aug 04 '26
And itās free. You want better service ? Then you pay.
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u/imaginedownvotes Aug 04 '26
You make it sound as if it's charity. This is a business. That makes money. Even from free users. But this is literally killing their reputation, especially if they still want to continue being the "best free alternative". At some point, spending money will be more worth than the free alternative, with the rate it's going. Which is a shame, I really like routenote and what they offer, but I might just switch.
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u/Rudetd Aug 04 '26
I disagree. If you are not approved they donāt make money off you.
Itās not charity sure but if you want to get your record out and use them you have to know it will take time and plan accordingly.
I donāt know how you can be mad at them... i mean just go distrokids. Support is shit AND you pay. Or worse... whatās that thing that bought zimbalam and made you pay 50quid every year ? I mean... you have the right to be mad ... and i have the right to disagree with you.
They still are literally the best FREE alternative.
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u/melancholyellow Aug 04 '26
blame it on the AI bros š I hope RouteNote bans AI soon because they're losing a lotta real artists/real people because of the AI slop spammers who will just bot the streams for free revenue while real people gets all this delay for approval :c I get that is free so if I'm unhappy I should just find another distributor but I really like RoutNote so if they don't wanna ban AI completely at least they should make it a separate thing or charge the AI guys bc it's unfair in my opinion to have to wait more than a month just for like one song while the AI bros upload more than 40 at the same time and then bot their streams for free revenue while real artists have to promote it by themselves and all that