The album is ready, but what to do now? These days, most music is listened to online. Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal and Deezer are the most popular among hundreds of sites and apps where listeners reach their favourite artists or discover new ones. The platforms don't work directly with musicians, so we need a middleman. In the following lines, we'll take a look at some of the most popular digital distributors to offer a little guidance in this digital chaos we're forced to exist in.

The two work models

There are two types of services in digital distribution - one is prepaid and the other is free. As you might guess, the prepaid services offer more perks, including positioning your music in playlists, faster upload of releases, higher deductibles, and better communication with platform employees. Free services aren't quite free, there's simply no initial fee or subscription, and the distributor takes a percentage of the revenue your music generates. With most such services you are "on your own against the world", they don't market your catalog, they don't send your music to playlist curators, but they don't charge you extra either.

The international players

TuneCore is one of the most popular distributors among independent artists. Their annual subscriptions are priced from $22.99 to $49.99, and their free option allows you to upload up to three tracks to Tik-Tok, Instagram, and YouTube alone. TuneCore are a preferred name because of their platform's extremely intuitive interface, fast and relevant stats. If a previous release generated good revenue, TuneCore can prepay for the next one. If you are on an annual plan they pay 100% of the deductions, and for the free plan they deduct 15%. Their social media distribution commission is 20%. The downside to TuneCore is the lack of marketing tools.

DistroKid offers three subscription plans. They're priced from $22.99 to $89.99, with the difference being the number of artists whose music you can upload, access to stats, and a huge database of contact information for playlist creators. The focus on managing a large number of artists and the marketing tools have made DistroKid one of the recommended platforms for independent labels. They are also a good choice for musicians who want to manage the catalog of more than one of their bands or projects. Among the downsides of the distributor are hidden fees for some additional features.

One of the oldest digital distributors in the industry is CD Baby. They operate on a very different model than the aforementioned. To take advantage of their services, you pay a one-time fee of $9.99 per release. In addition to that price, CD Baby has a 15% commission on your future deductions, but no annual fees. You can also do physical distribution of your release through CD Baby, but you pay extra for such upgrades.

The local options

There are many companies operating in Bulgaria that offer digital distribution. For young artists, perhaps communicating with a local company is the easier option. Amadea Music are one of the oldest names in this field. Their service is free, and in exchange for distributing your music they take 15% of the revenue. KMK Records operate on a model that is similar to that of CD Baby. For £10 you can upload a single and the price for an album is £30, giving you access to over 150 streaming services. In both options you get 100% of your future deductions. If you want to see other options, companies like Silver Noise, Musive and Facing The Sun also offer these services.

A huge controversy is swirling around digital distribution. Is the pay fair, is streaming the best way to listen to music, etc. All topics that perhaps we should cover in a separate post. For now, the world hasn't come to a better solution, so this remains one of the main ways our music can get out of the rehearsal room.