Distribution: A plethora of options
A lot has happened in the last 10 years in terms of music distribution. With CD’s becoming more and more a media of the ancients and new aggregation services being born every week, the boundaries that once existed between signed and unsigned artists has been redefined. If you rising to stardom in an instant is a requirement, huge budgets might also be a requirement and getting signed with a major label is most likely what you should aim for. However, if you have a bit of time, patience, the will to get to know the inner workings of digital distribution, and not necessarily have a need to earn a living from your music from day 1 (or ever for that matter), then there’s a myriad of options out there for you that will aid you in your quest to get heard.
In this editorial, I’ll talk about aggregation services, EAN and ISRC codes and a lot of other terms that may seem scary at first, but can be managed quite easily with a bit of structure and drive.
Who is it for?
In short: Everybody.
You don’t need to be a registered business, except if you want to distribute directly to big platforms like iTunes and Beatport, who also requires you to have huge back catalogs which is hardly a requirement the typical musician meets. “So then what?” you might ask, because your goals is to see your music on Spotify, iTunes, Beatport etcetera.
The answer is aggregators. You might have heard of TuneCore, CD-Baby and the likes. Basically, they’re distribution channels which have deals with platforms like Spotify and iTunes. They will charge you a small one-time fee (or a recurring fee, depending on which aggregator you use) and a small cut of your sales in exchange of distributing your music to whatever platform they have a deal with.
I will go through this subject by using a real-world example based on my own experience. While reading this, keep in mind that copyright law and who to register your music with is different from region to region. That means that there’s a difference on how you register your music for copyright and distribution rights both based on regional laws (EU, US) and from country to country. Don’t let this scare you though, because once you’re up and running, it’s really quite simple.
Codes ‘n stuff
In essence, there’s two different codes a release needs. An ISRC code and a EAN code.
All distributed songs are tagged with an ISRC-code. ISRC stands for International Standard Recording Code and is a unique identifer for each track on a record. Such a code might look like this:
DKVD21600204
When we order that code into the different bits it contains, it looks like:
DK-VD2-16-002-04
DK is the country code. In this example, it stands for Denmark and marks what country the owner of the producer code resides in. The producer code is the VD2 part, and is a unique code. 16 is the year of the release. 002 is the release number for that year and is increased regardless of the release being a single, EP or full album. In the end, we have the track number 04. You might have figured that this leaves room for 999 releases a year, with up to 99 tracks on each release.
Acquiring a producer code was very straight forward here in Denmark, and also free of charge. The thing about ISRC codes is that you assign them yourself. That means you have to keep track of your own ISRC codes and build them manually. I just manage this in a spreadsheet to keep track of the chronology. It’s not at all complicated if you just release a few tracks a year or an EP/album, but in practice you can use this new acquisition of yours to become your very own small indie label.
The EAN code is a unique 13-digit identifier which is also used for bar codes in most retail shops. EAN stands for European Article Numbering, which is a bit misleading since the standard is globally used. Just like ISRC, you can acquire EAN codes yourself, except these are not free. Personally, I leave this to the aggregator I use. My aggregator charges me ~$15 per EAN code, but this price varies from aggregator to aggregator.
Album is ready, now what?
So, first of all there’s a few simple, self-explanatory things that needs to be in order. Most digital platforms have very strict rules when it comes to cover art:
- No racism
- No advertising
- No prohibited symbols, ie. a swastika
- No pornography
There’s a few more, but utilizing just a tad bit of common sense and you comply with all of the rules. Furthermore, make sure your cover art comes in an acceptable resolution. If you go with 2400×2400 pixels, you’re good to go.
Secondly, there’s the actual contents of your release. Obviously the rules here are very much like the rules for cover art but except for a few selected platforms, your release will be accepted regardless of how good or bad your music is. Spotify and iTunes do sample random releases every once in a while, so if you push an album that doesnt go louder than -9 db throughout, it might be rejected. I’ve yet to experience this though. Who would do that anyway, right?
I know that Beatport is a very popular platform. If you intend to get your material released on Beatport, keep in mind that they only accept material that falls in line with the content they distribute (Electronica, EDM subgenres). They also perform random samples more often. There might be more platforms like this that I’m not aware of.
Anyway, your cover art is ready and the album is mastered and ready to be globally distributed! First thing you should do is register your music with whatever collecting society exists in your country. In Denmark that organisation is KODA. They usually charge a small one-time fee to add you as a member. In return, they track license fees, broadcast and performing royalties for your music.
You should also register your music with an organisation that handles mechanical rights. Mechanical rights is the physical use of your music. That may be everything from CD’s, DVD’s, vinyl, movie, commercials and so on. In Denmark they’re called NCB, Nordic Copyright Bureau, and they cover all of the Nordics and The Baltics. The fee is usually per-release and in Denmark that amounts to about $80. You usually have to fill a form with this, listing all of the tracks and their corresponding ISRC code, all of the performers on the album, and if applicable, their KODA (or whatever organisation handles your copyright) member numbers, names and contact information. They will need a copy of the album you’re securing mechanical rights for but that’s usually handled by sending them a zip-file in an email with the Mp3’s in 128kbit or a physical CD.
It seems awfully cumbersome
In writing, perhaps. It becomes routine pretty quickly though and in the end, your rights are secured both when it comes to mechanical rights and royalties. Besides from sales, organisations like these actually track how much your music is used and if you’re a performing artists, concerts can really be a big source of income just from the royalties alone, which you’ll get from performing in public.
Ok, so we have a mastered album, cover art, all songs registered with ISRC codes and mechanical rights secured. With all the legal “paperwork” out of the way, the only thing needed now is throwing that album and cover art at your aggregator. Personally, I use DiGiDi which requires you to buy a share in their union. The business models from aggregator to aggregator vary a lot. Some just wants a one-time fee for a release, others charge you monthly or annually for their service. I own a share in my aggregator, like all of the other registered musicians do. A share costs about $150 which you can sell back to them whenever you want to.
Their business model is very much like many other aggregators. It goes a little something like this (with my personal expenses as an example):
- Release fee: $6
- Fee per track: $0,7
- EAN-Code: Can range from $10 to $15
- In total: $28 (Album with 10 tracks)
The process is then to upload all the mastered 44.1khz, 16 bit wav-files and the album cover to their dropbox, and fill out a form with the ISRC codes you generated, what platforms you want it released at, and a desired release date. I’ve experienced having music released on all digital platforms (except Beatport) after only 4 days, but it’s usually a good idea to leave a buffer to make sure you hit your desired date. This also makes it easier to advertise your release on social media. Beatport needs at least 5 weeks since they operate with a release plan, so aim for that as a minimum.
Rumor is that Spotify’s rates are !@&%
Now, my aggregator pays out 92 to 94% of the sales I generate. This varies a lot between aggregators and some of them are downright greedy I’ve been told. However, let’s look at some numbers and let’s get one thing straight right away:
Selling music in 2016 does NOT compare to selling music even 10 years ago. Just check the sample below:
| Streams | Per stream (USD) | Total (USD) |
| 3466 | 0.004 | 13.7 |
That’s no where near a fortune. For one album, we are hitting the 150,000 streams per quarter mark though, which amounts to a total of $600. It’s not much, but it has been a steady income for that particular album every quarter for the past 4 years, and this is just for Spotify. DiGiDi distributes to more than 400 digital platforms in 110 countries, including music platforms tied to cell operator’s like Tidal, YouSee Play, WiMP and many more.
Obviously iTunes are a more fruitful business per sale, but in my experience listeners stick to streaming providers. Some aggregators (like DiGiDi) also collects sales from YouTube streams so when you add everything together it can be more than just pocket change. The best part is that all cuts to Apple, Spotify, and the aggregator itself has been dealt with when you receive your sales statement which is very detailed I might add.
Now, we all measure success differently and depending on your goals, your sales will reflect your popularity as an artist which again can be very genre-dependent. Personally, the biggest gain from distributing music to all these platforms is that we come off as serious artists. That has given us a lot of opportunities and landed us quite nice gigs at local venues, allowing us to perform in venues housing 100 attendees to larger venues holding 1100 people chanting our names. It even took us to Afghanistan to perform in Camp Bastion and Camp Price. Besides the royalties you get from performing publicly, gigs of certain sizes will include fees which can be raised the more bookings you get.
In other words: Your presence on popular digital distribution platforms does matter!
Being an indie label
Becoming an indie label was a natural outcome of my place in the music business. I was running a recording studio taking in clients to either record vocals or produce and write full albums. Sometimes I was sent demo’s by aspiring artists that really wanted a professional production and a place to record their vocals without having the budget for it. Having the ISRC producer code allowed me to make deals with these artists to split sales as a way for them to pay for the studio time, if I saw potential in their material. In the end, this has made me a lot of really good friends and acquantices with extremely talented people. People who you want to do music with in the future. People who you can use as studio musicians for other clients or your own projects, or even as band members for projects you might end up being involved in. As a perk, it can also provide you with a good source of income.
Personally, my ISRC producer code has now tagged 28 releases since 2012, being both singles and full albums. A lot of those releases are based on deals between my label (in essence, me) and artists as a way to pay for studio time.
I must stress that I didn’t venture into the indie label side of things to make loads of money. To begin with it was just to have a way to get my own music out there without going through labels, and it later became an alternative to bill clients in the studio by making fair deals that made life easier for all of us. Naturally, some of those deals didn’t cover the fee that studio time would normally be billed at (and they never will) but I’ve come to realize that money has never really been the driver for this. It’s the DIY aspect and the fact that your music becomes available for the world through popular digital platforms that is the real asset.
Oh, and the best part? You are in 100% control of everything. No label suggesting changes to your music. No labels deciding how to advertise. No requirements other than your own. It’s just you, your music, and the opportunity to get heard.
Sources:
http://www.digidi.org/
http://www.tunecore.com/
http://www.cdbaby.com/
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