let's get something out of the way. this is not a sponsored video for Distrokid.
they did reach out to me and let me try out their service and I use the trial to
release a song on Spotify, iTunes and lots of other platforms. but in this
video, I'm going to give you my honest opinion of the service and some advice
on releasing your own songs, and how you get paid for plays, and some information
about other options available too. now if you decide to sign up for Distrokid
after this video, great! I do have an affiliate link that I requested from
Distrokid so that I can pass on a discount to you. in fact you can set up
your own affiliate link to earn a little money when you refer your friends - just
like my link. use it, or don't. it's up to you. but here's my two cents about
Distrokid
so what is Distrokid? Distrokid is a service that acts as a middleman between
you and the online music stores and streaming services out there. if you have
a song, a beat ,or pretty much any audio to share with the world Distrokid
distributes it for you. so where do they distribute? well virtually everywhere.
Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Google Play YouTube Music, Pandora, Saavn, I Heart
Radio, and lots more. yeah your track is going everywhere. it's $20 a year to
upload unlimited songs and to keep them all the platforms of your choice. it's a
subscription-based service unlike some other services that charge you by the
song or album upload. more on that later. how do you do? it well this is what I
loved most. you just sign up and start uploading. the Distrokid interface is
so simple, clean, no frills, no up-sells. there is a short waiting time before
your stuff actually appears on different platforms. Spotify and Apple Music
are really quick. those are probably the ones you want to distribute to fastest
anyway. if you already have Spotify and iTunes profiles you can connect to them
from Distrokid. it's super easy. just fill in your song name, upload an album
cover, and a few more fields, and you're done. Distrokid keeps things really
simple. after your song is live on platforms you can monitor your stats
from Distrokid with the upgraded plans. but with the basic plan you can
monitor them from your Apple Music or Spotify accounts. on the settings tab you
have some other free tools. take the time to explore this every time you upload a
track. there's some important stuff here. first, you can set up your referral code
just like I did to give your friends a discount and earn a little money when
they join Distrokid. next you can credit the people who helped you create your
song like musicians, producers, and others. after that you can set up Hyper Follow
which is an excellent feature. what Hyper Follow does is create a page that has
links to your music on all major platforms. this way, you can just add a
link to this page from Facebook, your website, or wherever, and people clicking
that link can select their preferred platform and go directly to your music.
not only that, when people use this link with Spotify, they automatically follow
you, get your song added to their list, and more. it's a great way to start
growing your audience and keeping them up to date on your releases. it takes
just a second to create and it's really helpful.
next is Vault, where Distrokid keeps a backup of all your uploaded music just
in case you ever lose it. finally, we have Fixer which is super important. I used
this immediately. more on that later. close to the bottom you have convenient
links that go directly to your Spotify and Apple Music profiles. so you can edit
your profiles and get your songs on playlists. I have some advice for you on
that. keep watching. now a word about other plans. for $36 a year, the musician
plus plan gives you some additional features. the one I like the most is the
option to set a custom release date which is valuable when you submit your
song for a Spotify playlist. more on that later in this video. you can also have
two artists or band names. the other additional features are nice to have but
not necessary. the top tier plan is great if you manage five artists or more.
what about your earnings? you earn money for plays on Spotify or if someone buys
your song on iTunes or wherever. this is another great thing about Distrokid. you
keep all your earnings. they don't take a percentage like other distributors who
can take a commission from your sales. and those typically range from 9% to 15%.
that's a lot of money lost if you get a lot of plays. so what's up with the
competition? there are lots of different models for distributing your music. CD
Baby, one of the biggest out there, charges and upfront fee for
each song or album. and you have to share a cut of your earnings, the commission,
with CD Baby. other companies will charge you less to
upload but may take higher commissions. so if you're uploading a lot of songs or
beats you end up racking up high upfront costs. and if you get a lot of plays
you're losing a percentage to commissions. so that makes Distrokid
sound really good, right? yes! for the average independent artists, it's a great
dea.l $20 a year to upload as many songs as you want. and you keep all
your earnings. great! to balance that benefit, you do need to stay subscribed to
Distrokid. that means you keep paying that yearly fee of $20 to
keep your uploaded songs on the platforms you distribute it to. but
Distrokid has an option called "Leave a Legacy," that ensures that your song or
album won't be pulled if you discontinue your service with
them. They charge $30 for a single or $50 for an album. that's a one-time fee for
that service. hey, if you end up having a song around them that does really well,
it's worth opting in for that. and you still get to keep all your earnings. so
from my uploading experience, I learned a few things and here's my most important
advice. start the process early! especially if it's your first time. you
need to get your Spotify and Apple profiles created. and you need to apply
for a Spotify curated playlists. you should set your release date Distrokid
to at least two weeks in the future. this gives you time to get your Spotify
profile and verified check mark that Distrokid helps you get. and you have
enough time to make your profile look right and write up a nice description.
most important, it ensures you enough time to submit your song to Spotify
editorial playlist for consideration. and if your song gets selected for one of
those playlists, you can watch those plays start to rack up! every time you
release a new track or album, follow that two-week rule. start early and submit to
Spotify editorial playlists. once you create your Spotify Artist Profile,
you'll be able to submit every song you upload for consideration. you do all of
that on your Spotify profile, by the way. now a couple of weird things happened
when I uploaded my song for the first time and I'll get to that in a second.
but if you want to know how I created my song "Undone," I've created a few videos
sharing all the plugins I use, and how I mastered. it I'll put a link to those in
the video description, or up here. alright some unexpected things happened when I
uploaded to Distrokid. first, apparently I'm not the only "Sanjay C" out
there. Google Play Music had another artist by the name of "Sanjay C"and when I
uploaded my song it added to that guy's profile and song list. not cool! but I was
able to use the Distrokid system to sort out the issue. remember when I
showed you that Fixer link in Distrokid settings? it's easy to fix issues like
this straight from the Distrokid website. the problem was resolved in a
few days. now another interesting thing I noticed is that most of the platforms
had my music ready quickly. I mean just a day or a few days. but other platforms
took a month or a little bit more. those platforms were Napster, Tik Tok,
Medianet, and I Heart Radio. now I don't know if this was because it was my first
upload, or what. but that's a long time! so now that I have my song out there,
am i raking in the money? not quite. earnings are super low unless you've got
a lot of plays or downloads. I'm just starting out so it'll take some
time. keep your expectations in check and be patient. most of all, find ways to
promote your music on Instagram or YouTube. these are free ways of getting eyes and
ears on your talent. like I said in the beginning, do your research, find out what
distribution services are best for you, and read the fine print. I hope you learn
all you need to about Distrokid from this video. if you have any questions
feel free to ask them in the comments below.
now if you're ready to sign up for Distrokid you can get your discount
using the link in my video description. I know many of you are already making
songs and beats. You're making the music you love, and it's time to get it out
there! share it with the world! and I'm always here to share a little advice