I just posted this on another blog and then something struck me. Hey, I have a blog, duh! So, I am going to repost a quick comparison between the two distribution services I have used (or will use) to get my music sold in online stores like iTunes, eMusic, Amazon Mp3, Rhapsody, and more.
Big-time labels are no longer a necessity to break into music sales. I suppose they haven't been for quite a while, but until recently, I had never ever dreamed it could be this easy to sell my music online. You can't deny the marketing muscle and influence a brand-name label offers an artist. If you're like me, however, you haven't gotten noticed by the 'players', yet you still want to share your music with the world. Well the good news is that there is no shortage of options for the indie musician to get his/her music to the marketplace. I want to talk, specifically, about two of these options: Tunecore and ReverbNation.
These companies are digital music distribution services. They will submit your music for distribution to online stores on your behalf. The big online stores like iTunes and Amazon don't deal with us little guys directly, but they do deal with aggregators like Tunecore and ReverbNation. Other popular options include CD Baby, and Ditto Music, among many, many, others that are just a Google Search away.
CD Baby is arguably the largest, but they take a 9% commission from your royalties while Tunecore and ReverbNation promise you 100% of your royalties. When I first started looking at distribution options, this 9% fee immediately turned me off and I did not explore CD Baby's services further. However, CD Baby may still be a good option for those of you who don't plan to sell very many albums, as they don't charge an annual fee for listing your album/singles like the former do.
I started with Tunecore. I released my first three singles through their service with no real complaints. They charged me a flat fee of $9.99 to distribute each single to all of their online stores, which inlude all of the big players. To my surprise, my songs were up on iTunes within hours, and not weeks, like I had originally expected. Their customer service is top-notch. I really can't adequately articulate my admiration and respect for the way they treat their customers, even problem customers like me, with all of my rookie mistakes. Their customer service was helpful, courteous, and FAST! Marta, my agent, was even kind enough to send me a reminder to provide some critical information for an issue she was helping me with, after I had forgotten to respond for a few days.
My only real complaint about Tunecore is that their user community is almost non-existant. Their forums see very little activity, even though the founders of the company routinely post follow-ups to user questions and comments. The unfortunate part is that there really is no vehicle for interaction with fellow artists besides their barren forums. Compared to the other service I have used, with Tunecore, you really feel like you're on an island and aside from releasing music and perhaps reading their free guides, there isn't much to do on their website. That may be fine for some, especially those no-nonsense, socially awkward types. I don't know many artists who aren't interested in community interaction, however.
As completion of my first album became more of a reality, I decided to explore some options for distribution. I landed atReverbNation next. This experience was like going to sleep in Wasilla, AK and waking up in New York City. While Tunecore resembles the quaint bedroom community in which I live and work, ReverbNation is big, noisy, and bustling with activity. My artist page was packed with so many features and tools that I spent the better part of a day playing with all of my new toys.
ReverbNation, in addition to offering distribution service just like Tunecore, also offers a host of tools for promotion and marketing, and well as tools to help you analyze your page traffic, fans, and your band's progress up the charts. They also offer you the ability to sell your music in your own online store, complete with on-demand custom merchandise, in addition to music.
ReverbNation really is the Facebook of digital music distributors. Their community is extremely active and they provide so many ways for you to interact with fellow artists and fans. Within minutes of setting up my page and uploading some songs, I started getting visits to my pages. People were listening to my music, commenting on it, and becoming fans. The option to look at local charts is also amazing. It made for some great networking opportunities.
Reverb also offers FREE trending reports from iTunes. Tunecore charges $2.98 for each weekly trending report, or a little less if you subscribe to the report service. I'll take free, thank you. Lastly, my favorite thing about RN happened today when I logged into my artist page. I received notification that I had a deposit! I was a tad disappointed that it wasn't an .mp3 or merchandise sale, but a deposit is a deposit, right? I made a modest amount of money by signing up for their "Fair Share" program, which, from what I can tell, pays ME for the traffic my page brings to RN. Neat-o!
So, to sum it all up:
Tunecore has low start-up cost options, excellent customer service, great owners, but their community is lacking
ReverbNation offers tools to help market your band, has an amazing vibrant community, and pays you for driving traffic to your page. Oh, and FREE trending reports!
I don't mean to gush, and I really have nothing against Tunecore as their service has been exemplary, but I am finding it hard to ignore ReverbNation's community and interactivity, and I will most likely use their service to distribute my album. I'll post an update when that happens so I can talk about their actual distribution service. Who knows, maybe they lack in this regard and I'll have to come crawling back to Tunecore.
