DistroKid has made it incredibly easy to get your music online. For only $20 a year you can upload as many songs as you want and it’ll automatically go to every store there is.
The upgrade plans allow more artists names and more features like scheduling releases ahead of time. The top plan is optimal for record labels. Tier 2 and up allow you to name your record label name for the descriptions on the platforms. Make one up!
Unlike other platforms, DistroKid does not take a cut of your earnings. There’s other features like paying $12 a year for mechanical license to upload a cover song. They have made this so easy.
Also you can pay to get your song synced with Shazam so people can scan it and find out what it is. They have Spotify for artists so you can customize your page and see who’s listening, even in real time.
DistroKid has leveled the playing field for artists. Spotify just announced info on how to get into their playlists and how it works since it’s a mysterious feat as of now.
DistroKid also allows you to make teams to automatically split and send royalties to your team mates.
Their home page features some pretty big artists on it. It seems like big players are coming to DistroKid to get their freedom and independence. This is separate from copywriting a song or registering it with your PRO.
Contrary to lots of fear monger omg, copywriting your songs isn’t really worth it until you have a batch of at least fifty songs to do at once. Bulk pricing is cheaper. Plus, a time stamped audio file or session project will hold up in court.
A PRO is a performance rights organization. This is the company that makes your local Applebees pay a flat fee per year for the permission to play music in a public space. There’s even a church version of this for church music. These companies collect the performance royalties for when your song is played in public.
So this is different than having your songs on Spotify. Terrestrial radio in the United States does not have to pay royalties for it. That’s why you hear songs pitched to weird keys on the radio too. But think of all the places your head music in public, concerts, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. All these places must pay for the right to play the music.
You probably are fine DJing at your sisters wedding, but even then still the venue may have a flat fee they pay to cover the cost of any songs played. I’m not exactly sure how they know or track it. This sector needs a lot of modernizing and the music modernization act is a first step forward in bringing the music legislation side up to date in 30 years.
The mechanical royalty rate we make 9.1 cents was determined in 1912 by congress who decided that’s how much composers should make when they sell a piano roll.
You can even register your set lists when you play out on BMI as performances and get paid for it. These companies take months to pay out though.