If you are using DistroKid to distribute your music but hope to sign a record deal someday, DistroKid Upstream can help you out. Performance AND mechanical royalties. Its unclear how effective Wheel of Playlist actually is at getting artists music heard, but the chances of your song getting heard are at least marginally higher if its on the playlist, since the playlist has over 15,000 followers. Sync royalties are what you are paid if your song is used (synced) in a commercial, show, movie, video game etc. Nothing on this site should be considered investment, legal, tax, financial or medical advice. Then 5% goes to any backup musicians, session musicians or anyone who is featured on the track. Performance rights organizations (PRO) collect performance rights royalties on behalf of publishers and songwriters. Distrokid Pricing The base package of Distrokid is a yearly fee for $19.99 and you get unlimited uploads and get to keep 100% of your royalties. Unfortunately, without paying for a membership, you cant get a very comprehensive overview of the types of services and tools it offers, which is why weve included several screenshots of DistroKid webpages. When you purchase through these links we will receive a small commission. Even, if youre only seeing minor success and making $1000 a year, thats still an extra $90 a year youre not getting by using CDbaby as opposed to Distrokid. CDBaby is a great option. The term mechanical royalties can be slightly confusing in todays world, but it comes from a time whenthe industry had to take a composition and mechanically reproduce it onto piano rollsor vinyl records. Songtrust handles the collection of those performance and mechanical royalties from all performance rights organizations around the world and gives that money to you. You dont actually need to be a member of DistroKid to vote for songs with Playlist Spotlight, but you do need to be a DistroKid member to submit your own tracks. Thats a nice add on by CDBaby, but it really doesnt matter as its just a matter of going to the PROs website and filling out some forms. If a record label likes what it sees, it will reach out to you directly. But as youll see there are reasons why I still use distrokid vs CD baby or other music publishers. If you don't have a PRO available in your country, or you'd rather work with BMI or ASCAP, you can still register your music with them if you live outside the United States. Throughout the year, companies report song usage to BMI and ASCAP. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. Performance royalties are split into a publisher's share and a writer's share. The big differentiators for DistroKid here are the yearly subscription model and the full royalty rights. The coolest part of Slaps is the comment/track ratio (CTR). This is something you absolutely should do. Voting for playlists with the Playlist Spotlight feature can help artists get on DistroKid's Spotify playlists, and other artists can vote for your songs too. Beyond these basic features, DistroKid has a referral program where you can offer discounts to your friends and receive money when they sign up. Youre just trying to release one song as a hobbiest and have it available on streaming platforms for fun to show your friends. For the most part, performance royalties are due to you if you, or anyone, plays your song live in a venue, over a stadium loudspeaker, on a radio station, or even in a Starbucks. One difference between these two PROs is the cost of membership. Is RouteNote Legit? But to really understand mechanical royalties, let's take a step back to understand how mechanical royalties first came about, how they've changed over the years, and the different ways they can generate income. To get your music out into the world without a label, you need to join a distribution service. When setting up your profile, you can categorize yourself on all of DistroKid's social features by genre and artists who have influenced you. Using DistroKid, artists can collect their streaming royalties all their revenue from streams on streaming services like Spotify. Required fields are marked *. DistroKid offers three options for subscription plans, and none of them come with a free trial period. Playlist Spotlight is a simple and quick way to support other independent artists you think deserve more attention. Copyright 2023 Best Friends Club Ltd., all rights reserved. DistroKid only collects reproduction royalties, which are a subset of the recording royalties generated by masters. It was almost enough to make me not use them. For BMI, since their percentage system is on a 200% scale, independent artists with no music publisher or record deals will put 200% into the songwriting section and 0% in the publishing. At CD Baby, we believe that no song should go unpublished. These companies/agents pitch your music to music supervisors and other sync opportunities on your behalf. If 200 years pass and your great-great-great-grandchildren listen to Spotify on their updated Neuralink chips, your singing or guitar playing will still be there for them to enjoy. The MLC is now the only organization in the US (designated by law) to collect and distribute mechanical royalties. My name is Matt and I release music under the name Best Friends Club. Also, digging more I learned the true cost of these extra services by comparing CD Baby Pro vs Distrokid combined with Songtrust. DistroKid is not a music publisher that offers publishing services, they are a music distributor that distributes music to online stores and streaming services. They just take 15% of what they collect. You can easily grow your audience with DistroKids tools. Home | Mechanical Licensing Collective - The MLC A distributor works hard to sell or stream your music, but their main focus is collecting royalties from your master recording. lets say on average you do it for 10 songs every year. This means that, while they are great for independent artists, if youre new and have low streaming and listener numbers its worth waiting before you invest in global royalty collection. The low yearly fee is good if youre short for cash but it will obviously become more expensive than the other publishers weve looked at if you keep your music up for a long time. That could be 1000s of dollars if a song blows up. At the time of this writing, any physical record sale or download has to pay a mechanical royalty to the compositions copyright holder of 9.1 cents. You also have the right to collect mechanical royalties on any cover versions recorded and released by other artists. It is also better than CD Babys per release model if youre releasing a lot of music. Match with the search results: Distrokid and other similar services are only for distribution and collect mechanical royalties for digital streams and sales. Collects the master recording royalties and payments for you (ie: Collects the music publishing royalties for you (ie: performance royalties and mechanical royalties), Signs up you for and allows you to easily submit your music to performance rights organizations around the world, DistroKid does not collect and payout performance royalties for the public broadcasting of your music, DistroKid does not collect and payout mechanical royalties for digital streams and sales that your music makes, Your music is being played all around the world, Your music is being played thousands of times per month, You do not want to sign up and deal with PROs all around the world, You do not want to (or cant) sign a traditional publishing deal or create your own publishing company, Youd prefer a simple way to collect all your music publishing royalties and feel confident you arent leaving any money on the table, Your music is not currently getting very many plays per month, Your music is only being played in 1 or 2 countries. A master refers to an actual audio recording of a song. There is no guarantee, however, that your Leave a Legacy releases will remain published if DistroKid goes out of business. With that said, because you can use any music distributor to get the job done, here are some articles that compare DistroKid to the competition: Thank you for reading this article, my friend, and I hope you found it helpful as you build your own successful career in music. read more 3. Before you decide on Cdbaby vs Distrokid, I still strongly recommend you read the rest of the article (at least the next couple sections) before you pick your music distributor. If a music licensing agent browses that library and uses one of your songs you get 60% of the sale and CDBaby takes 40%. 98% of the global music publishing market, from 60+ pay sources, covering 245+ countries/territories, 100% of US mechanical royalties from streams goes to the newly formed. This makes sense: in order to keep your music available in stores and on streaming platforms, you have to continue to pay an annual fee. Learn more. Songtrust charges no additional fee and only takes a 15% commission. Manage Settings DistroKid is a music distribution company that allows artists to get their music on online stores and streaming services. Bestfriendsclub.ca is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'bestfriendsclub_ca-banner-2','ezslot_4',126,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-bestfriendsclub_ca-banner-2-0');report this ad. You can set this up with Distrokid and it is $4.95 a year per single or $14.95 a year per album, and they take a 20% cut. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'bestfriendsclub_ca-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_8',111,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-bestfriendsclub_ca-large-leaderboard-2-0');With that said, if your musical project is not (yet) getting much attention or streams, it may not yet make sense to sign up for Songtrust because, although they only take a small 15% percentage of any royalties they collect, there is a $100 setup fee. Bestfriendsclub.ca also participates in affiliate programs with Bluehost, DistroKid, Loopmasters and other sites. There is a cheaper option called Songtrust that will collect your YouTube money for 15%, If you go with Distrokid, youll need Songtrust for other helpful services like collecting all your songwriter royalties. However, the caveat with this is that if you cancel your membership, or switch banks and forget to let DistroKid know, all your music will be removed. I will give you a behind the scenes look at campaigns I ran for my musics Youtube channel,, Read More Promote Your Music Video With YouTube AdsContinue, How to make your voice deeper is a question many people have. They also charge 15% on all royalties collected. If youre just going off what you have to shell out in order to get (and keep) your music out there it goes like this: Assuming youre releasing more than 1 single, the cheapest option is Distrokids standard plan for $19.99 a year. However, if you also want to register as a publisher, you'll save money with ASCAP. Any artist that is getting 1000s of plays per month around the world and doesnt want to deal with setting up a publishing company or setting up accounts with every international PRO will benefit from the additional royalties that Songtrust can bring in. You are now a master. In this article were going to answer the question, is DistroKid a music publisher, what do they collect, what are music publishing services, and how do you collect all your royalties. From a pure value perspective, DistroKid is a better choice if youre releasing music often and dont care about opting in to the Leave a Legacy program or any additional services. Earnings Reports (16 articles) How and When Do I Get Paid? DistroKid does not collect and payout mechanical royalties for digital streams and sales that your music makes. But I dont recommend that unless youre a hobbyist who only wants your music on services to show your friends and thats it. Does the MLC take the place of using CD Baby Pro Publishing? if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'bestfriendsclub_ca-medrectangle-3','ezslot_7',108,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-bestfriendsclub_ca-medrectangle-3-0');To better understand the difference between the kind of money that each of these services collect, it is important to understand music publishing and what money is owed to you once your music is streamed. DistroKid does not collect any publishing royalties however other music distribution services do. Furthermore, if you do decide to learn to sing it will not only improve your voice, but also your approach to a lot of areas in life. So. Theres also a Twitch affiliate program, and an AI bot that analyzes your song and tells you how danceable it is (in percentages) and its key signature. You can also send a direct message to the artists behind each of the presented songs and let them know you liked their song. However, for now, it's best to sign up for a service that collects royalties for you such as BMI, ASCAP or PRS. If you want to stop paying the yearly fee, you can always transfer and host your songs to another distributor in the future. DistroKid collects royalties every time someone interactively streams your music or digitally purchases it. Wheel of Playlist is a tool where artists can select which of their songs they want to see featured on DistroKids Spotify playlist. The CTR page features tracks by artists with very high CTR who have not received a lot of engagement on their uploads. DistroKid only collects reproduction royalties, which are a type of recording royalty. PRS (Performing Right Society) is the biggest collection society for performance rights in the UK and in the USA its Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). To begin, the prices on each platform vary widely depending on which option you choose. The audio file types DistroKid accepts are WAV, WMA, M4A, FLAC, MP3, and CDDA. Digital copies - also known as digital distributions or interactive streams - refer to music distributed on an on-demand streaming platform. Songtrust also allow you to keep 100% music copyright ownership of your work. As of May 2021, you will be able to select whether or not you want your Leave a Legacy releases to remain online when you cancel your account. 3 mountainwampus 6 yr. ago With a DistroKid membership, you gain access to a wide selection of customizable video templates that you can insert your songs into for promoting your releases on social media. Thanks for the support. Generally, the store platforms take around 30%. My personal favorite DistroKid tool is Playlist Spotlight. DistroKid collects reproduction royalties onlyits just like how record labels distribute music and collect recording royalties for their artists, but for independent artists. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[468,60],'bestfriendsclub_ca-box-3','ezslot_9',103,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-bestfriendsclub_ca-box-3-0');For a complete breakdown of who collects what money for you, what the difference between Songtrust and DistroKid are, and if you need to have accounts with both, simply keep on reading, my friend. Distrokid is a distributor. DistroKid distributes your music to all the major streaming services and digital stores. This is an interesting price model as Ditto Music offer the lowest commission on collecting royalties of all the publishing administrator I have looked at. Uploads your music to Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Its worth noting at this point that both CDbaby and Distrokid will distribute your music to virtually every store you could ever hope. Distrokid doesnt. Songtrust is not a distributor but an administrative publisher so you cant just use Songtrust. Youll get it. Once you start to gain some traction you can upgrade your subscriptions. The price of this can add up if youre releasing tons of music, but you can pick on a song by song basis to apply and pay for this feature. Songtrust collects performance and mechanical royalties from about 98% of the global music publishing market. CD Baby have a publishing service called CD Baby Pro Publishing, TuneCore have a publishing arm called TuneCore Publishing, and Ditto also offer Ditto Music Publishing. This is an awesome service that I wish Distrokid had. DistroKid members can link their DistroKid account to an Audiomack account, upload their songs lyrics into the Instagram story creator, and get a Spotify verified checkmark. DistroKid prides itself on how quickly it places music in stores, but to be safe, you should set your release date 3-4 weeks in advance. Your understanding should all come together at the end, but even if you only grasp half, youll understand more than most artists and be able to truly make an informed decision not only on CD Baby vs Distrokid, but on a lot of other business decisions that have to do with your music career. They chase down the mechanical royalties that 100s or even 1000s of services may owe you for sales and streams. CD Baby Standard costs just $29 per album and is an affordable way to begin as a DIY musician. Distrokid Publishing - Is Distrokid A Publisher? Everything You Should Know Once your music is out in stores and available on streaming services, youll receive reproduction royalties through DistroKid. If you want to upload your music today and ensure it remains available for years to come, you must opt into the Leave a Legacy program. Its free to sign up for SoundExchange. If youve ever played KittenWar, it works a lot like that. Whether that same situation applies to you or not, the information is basically the same. In terms of CD Baby vs Distrokid, this is almost a moot point but CD Baby is better (kinda). Another important thing to note is that almost all of these terms and royalty systems were setup long ago when the music industry was very different. . This can be a plus or a minus depending on how often you release music. Anyone who wishes to receive digital audio mechanical royalties from The MLC will need to become a Member of The MLC. It doesnt matter which tier you choose on either platform. Mechanical royalties are paid for the right to reproduce a composition through the process of recording, manufacturing, and distributing the work. The royalties are collected by DistroKid and are redistributed to yourself. They each host showcases and conferences for members. HOWEVER, the difference between the two is like $50 at most. We can help you collect all the publishing royalties you're owed worldwide including mechanicals from interactive streams on Pandora. DistroKid and other similar services are only for distribution and collect mechanical royalties for digital streams and sales. Performance royalties are paid to songwriters and their music publisher in exchange for the right to broadcast or perform a copyrighted musical composition in a public environment. DistroKid does not collect mechanical royalties. It helps us keep the lights on here and keeps what we do free :). Must register with sound exchange. Editors note: This review was updated on July 12, 2021, to address an FAQ about artist accounts. Roll with it, and get back to creating music. DistroKid is a music distribution company that allows artists to get their music on online stores and streaming services while Songtrust is a publishing administration company that helps artists collect publishing, mechanical, and live performance royalties. DistroKid does not collect any publishing royalties, which are generated by compositions. Play Your Part continues with maintaining your works data and spreading the word with your peers. This is where Offeo comes in. 2023 Indie Music Academy | All Rights Reserved, Music Royalties Explained: The Ultimate Guide. This means that streaming services pay performance royalties through performance rights organizations who then distribute them to songwriters and publishers. In that same example, because your music was technically performed in public (ie: on the listeners phone) and because the audio file was mechanically reproduced on the listeners phone to play the music back, you are also owed both performance and mechanical royalties. To ensure you make the most money out of your music, get started with a service that will collect them for you. DistroLock is another tool that you can use to prevent your music from being stolen and uploaded without your permission. But in the meanwhile, check out https://songtrust.com. Because digital streaming is now the most popular way to listen to music performance royalties have become more important to artists.