An Aggregator is basically a Music Distribution company that will take your songs and make them available for people to play them on streaming and download sites around the world. Sites like Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, YouTube, Google Play, Pandora, Tidal, Amazon, Deezer and hundreds of other music websites
. They will collect any royalties or payments due to you by those sites for people playing or downloading (purchasing) your songs and pay them to you.
Unlike most types of businesses where the costs are easy to compare, aggregators are not so easy to compare. They are very creative in their pricing structures and how they differentiate themselves from their competitors. Some charge a one time fee per submission only, some a fee and a percentage of your sales, some a yearly fee and no submission fee, some a yearly fee, no submission fee and no percentage, some charge a percentage only, some charge a fee per store and lots of other pricing structures. And if that is not confusing enough, the fees and percentages are all different. Not knowing how many streams or downloads you will get makes it very difficult to calculate what the total fees would be under each price structure and to be able to compare them. We list the fees for each aggregator below. Check the website of any of the ones you are interested in, to see if there have been any changes in price or service.
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As far as we can tell, we don't think you would be too wrong in picking any of them. You can always change later on if you don't like the one you chose, although a change may incur additional fees for new bar codes, non refundable fees etc. Look closely at the details of each. Will they get you on the major streaming sites such as those listed above? Some offer other services which might interest you such as physical distribution of your CD or vinyl record album, promotional services, physical manufacturing of your CD, sync licensing, a storefront for people to find and preview your songs and other various services. Although most of those services you can obtain elsewhere on your own.
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This list is continually being added to and updated. We are giving point form details on each for their basic plan for a single or album to get your music out there. Some of them have extremely complicated or confusing multiple price offerings. Here we are trying to compare the key factors, submission price, annual fee, percentage of royalties they take to release a single or album and number of stores they are in, to give some kind of an even field to compare the various distributors. The figures are taken directly from each aggregator's own website. Here they are in alphabetical order.
Aded.US - $100. per year annual fee, for 12 singles or albums, they take 0%, you keep 100% of Royalties, - 600+ stores www.aded.us
Amuse
- submission via smart phone only, they take 0%, you keep 100% of Royalties (streaming/sales earnings), no annual fee, no submission fee, they offer full record label services on a 50/50 split, 9+ stores - www.amuse.io
Awal
- They take a straight 15% of your royalties, no submission fee, no yearly fees, 100+ stores - www.awal.comCD Baby
- Standard service $9.95 per single, $49. per album, one time submission fee, they take 9%, you keep 91% of your Royalties, no annual fee. OR (Pro service includes publishing Royalty collection $34.95 per single, $89.per album, one time fee, plus 9% of Royalties ,no annual fee.) They offer physical sales of your CD or vinyl at $4. fee per CD sold. 32+ stores - www.CDBaby.com
Distrokid
- $19.99 per year for unlimited submissions. They take 0 % of your Royalties, you keep 100%, $.99 per year per song (optional) for listing on Shazam & iphone Siri, - 165+ stores. - www.distrokid.comDitto
- $19. per year for unlimited submissions, they take 0 % of your Royalties, you keep 100%, free ISRC & UPC Codes. 100's of stores - www.dittomusic.com
EmuBands -
$42.50 per single, $84.95 per album, one time submission fee, no annual yearly fee, you keep 100% of Royalties, 61+ stores - www.emubands.com
Fonomusic
- 5.99 Euros = approx. $6.75 U.S. per single per year, 25.99 Euros = about $29.27 U.S. per album per year,(4.99/22.99 Euros per year for additional ), they take 10%, you keep 90% of the Royalties. (based on approx 1.13 exch rate) 21+ stores. website - www.fonomusic.se
freshtunes
- no yearly fee, no submission fee, they take 0 % of your royalties, you keep 100%, (except for your songs on their compilation album they take 40% and their youtube channel they take 100%) 15+ stores - www.freshtunes.com
Horus Music
- they charge 20 pound sterling = approx. $25.07 U.S. per year for unlimited submissions, they take 0 % of your royalties, you keep 100%, free ISRC & UPC Codes. (based on approx 1.15 exch rate) 200+ stores - www.horusmusic.global
Identity Music no yearly fee, no submission fee, they take a percentage of your royalties
, which is negotiated with each artist. www.identitymusic.comac
iMusician
- basic plan $9. per single, $29. per album, one time submission fee, no yearly fee, they take 15%, you keep 85% of your Royalties, OR ($29. per single, $89. per album, one time submission fee, no yearly fee, they take 0% of Royalties, you keep 100%,) 250+ stores - www.imusiciandigital.com
Landr
-release only plan, 10 tracks $12. per year, 30 tracks $24 per year, unlimited tracks $48 per year, They take 0% you keep 100% royalties, 250+ stores. - www.landr.com
Level Music
- $20. per year for up to 200 tracks, you keep 100% of Royalties, OR (they have an intro offer for 2 tracks for free.) 9+ stores - www.levelmusic.commondotunes taken over by Octiive
musicdiffusion
- 2.99 euros = approx $3.37 U.S. per single one time submission fee, they take 10% of your royalties, no annual fee, OR (15.99 euros = approx. $18.01 U.S. for one year of unlimited release plus they take 10% of royalties, no annual fee,) free ISRC & UPC Codes, (based on approx 1.13 exch rate) 159+ stores - www.musicdiffusion.com
Octiive
- $190. per year for unlimited submissions, for 1 to 20 artists, they take 0 %, you keep 100% of your Royalties, OR ($9.00 for 1 to 3 single release, or $19. Per Album, one time submission fee, no annual fee, they take 8% of your Royalties, you keep 92%.) 600+ stores - www.octiive.com
ONErpm
- no annual fee, no submission fee, they take 15%, you get 85% of streaming and sales, 30+ stores - www.onerpm.com
Record Union
- $15. per single per year, $25. per album per year. They take 15%, you keep 85% of royalties, (or 7.5% /92.5% Royalty for a $25. per year adder ) 16+ stores - www.recordunion.com
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Now Just $10
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Reverbnation
- $1. per single, $9. per album, per year, you keep 100% of Royalties, you choose 6 stores for your music to be in, OR ($9.95 per single, $49.95 per album ($19.95 1st year ), per year, you keep 100% of Royalties, you get 24+ stores.) - www.reverbnation.comroutenote
- free plan no submission fee, no annual fee, they take 15%, you keep 85% of royalties, OR ($10. per single, $30. per album, one time submission fee, $9.99 per year annual fee, you get 100% of royalties,) free UPC/EAN’s and ISRC codes. 50+ stores - www.routenote.comamz
Soundcloud
- Premier $180. per year, they take 0, you keep 100% of Royalties, (you have to get 1,000 plays per month on Soundcloud before you qualify and they start to pay you), 40+ stores - www.soundcloud.com/you/premier
Soundrop -
No upfront or annual fee, they take 15%, you keep 85% of your net digital revenue, 6+ stores - www.soundrop.com
SpareMusic
- $59.99 per year, unlimited submissions, you keep 100% of Royalties, OR ($19.99 per year, unlimited submissions, you keep 95%, they take 5% of Royalties,) OR (a free plan where they take 20%, you keep 80% of the revenue , no submission or yearly fees on free plan,) 200+ stores. - www.sparemusic.com
spinnup
- $9.99 per single , $39.99 per album, per year, you keep 100% of Royalties, 44+ stores. - www.spinnup.com
Symphonic
- They take a straight 15% of your royalties, no submission fee, no yearly fees, 66+ stores - www.symphonicdistribution.com
Tunecore
- $11.99 per single per year, $59.99 per album per year ($35.99 1st year only), ringtone $24.99 per year, They take 0% you keep 100% of Royalties, 150+ stores - www.tunecore.com
Zimbalam
- taken over by Tunecore
This digital music
distributor list is done on a best effort basis. Before you commit to any of them, it would be a good idea to check the terms and conditions page on the Digital Music Distributor's / Aggregator's website.Any errors or omissions contact webmaster@mycd.ca
article by Art Rock / MyCD.ca / Absolute Music copyright Absolute Music 2020 all rights reserved
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