After you've produced your songs and the mixing and mastering process is complete, it's time to publish your music on streaming services and download shops. Read more about the digital possibilities and offers you have!
How to distribute my music on Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music / Itunes for free with no upfront cost?
If you don’t wanna spend money before releasing and sell your own Music on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, Itunes, Shazam or Pandora. There are some free of cost solutions to distribute your Tracks with spread income. As an example, the Distributor gets 15% and you keep 85% of the income. Often it makes more sense for independent Artists!
If you have the question "How to sell/distribute my Music on Spotify or Itunes?" You can read my reviews for free Digital Music Distributors I found on the Web. Some of the best free music aggregators 2017 / 2018 are Soundrop, Routenote, Bandcamp, Amuse, Fresh Tunes, Horus Music. All these Distribution platforms have no yearly fees and no sign-up fees, some of them are completely free digital music aggregators and others take a commission.
Read more about the cheapest digital music distributors you can find online:
In the following Blog post we compare these points:
- Which distributor can supply the most download and streaming services?
- How high is the margin the distributors charge you per stream or download?
- How much do you have to earn till the music distributor is paying you out?
To find out which are the most important and best Music streaming service providers 2018. Look at the following chart to see who has the most monthly listeners at streaming platforms like Apple Music, Pandora Radio, Spotify, IHeatRadio, Soundcloud, Amazon Music, Shazam, TuneIn Radio, Google Play, Music Slacker Radio.
Good luck finding the best monetization options for your music!
How much Music Streaming services pay?
Streaming services do not pay very much, but as a musician you should still be represented on Youtube, Spotify or Apple Music for reasons of advertising! Or you are one of the producers who release vinyl only and thus create a underground status? Many musicians earn most of their income through their concerts and gigs. But first you have to build your fanbase on streaming services.
Let's say you generated exactly 1 million plays on each of the following streaming providers. That would be your approximate revenue:
- Napster - 19.000$
- Tidal - 12.500$
- Apple Music - 7350$
- Google Play - 6760$
- Deezer - 6400$
- Spotify - 4370$
- Amazon - 4020$
- Pandora - 1330$
- Youtube Music - 690$
Is it enough money for you? Can you afford your new synthesizer and still have enough money for food?
How can i upload my music directly to Spotify?
- Currently the Swedish company Spotify is in a beta test phase with which musicians and producers can release their own songs. This would give you the opportunity to publish your own music for free and without any additional costs via the most successful streaming provider. Spotify confirmed that it’s paying 50% of the net revenue to the artist if you sign a direct deal. You can upload your music via the Spotify For Artists section of the platform. The artist must have a verified account first before joining Spotify For Artists.
- At the moment Spotify offers this option with invitation only, but soon more artists and labels will be able to join. You can learn more about this topic through this link.
- Spotify and Distrokid agree on a cooperation! Artists who upload their music directly through Spotify for Artists (still in beta) will soon be able to distribute directly to other streaming and download shops. This will be done in cooperation with the aggregator distrokid, founded in 2013, which serves 250,000 artists
Best free music aggregators 2018
The comparison of Soundrop vs. Routenote vs. Bandcamp vs. Amuse vs. Fresh tunes vs. Horus Music. Who has the best service ? Who has the the most Shops included? Who pays the most to Artists? How to get my music on spotify, itunes and apple music for free? Here you'll find the answers!
Soundrop Review:
*Soundrop Distribution is the replacement for Loudr.fm, whose service has closed in 2016
Soundrop distributes your music to following stores:
-Youtube Music
-Apple Music
-Itunes
-Spotify
-Amazon Music
-Google Play
-Deezer
-Pandora
Spread Income with Soundrop:
Soundrop keeps 15% of your download and streaming revenue.
When do you receive payment by Soundrop?
Once the balance on your Earnings page has reached the USD$20 minimum threshold amount
Extras:
-Use Show.co marketing tools for free
-Set up payee splits to distribute revenue automatically among multiple rights holders.
-Sell Cover Songs - Pay a one-time fee of $9.99 per composition they will take care of calculating and paying all the appropriate publishing royalties on your behalf.
Routenote Review
Routenote distributes your music to following stores:
-Apple Music, Itunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Play, Deezer, Youtube, Shazam, Pandora, Melon, Soundcloud, Juke mymusic, Groove Music, Claro Musica, Tidal / WiMp, eMusic, Napster, Omnifone, Anghami, Gracenote, Kanjian
Spread Income with Routenote:
Routenote keeps 15% of your download and streaming revenue.
When do you receive payment by Routenote?
Once the balance on your Earnings page has reached the USD$50 minimum threshold amount
Extras:
-RouteNote Premium - For a small upfront cost you keep 100% of the royalties. You pay $9.99 annually ongoing and one time per release (Singles $10, EP $20, Album $30, Extended Album $45)
-Youtube Content ID
Bandcamp Review
Which Shops for Download and Streaming are Included?
-Bandcamp Store
Spread Income:
-Bandcamp keeps 15% of your download revenue.
When do you receive payment?
Your share of each digital transaction is transferred into your PayPal account 24 to 48 hours after the sale
Extras:
-Physical Records & Selling Merch(vinyl, posters, tickets, t-shirts)
-Optional High-quality download formats like FLAC, .Wav and Apple Lossles
-Pre-Orders
-Discount Codes
Amuse Review
Amuse distributes your music to following stores for free:
-Spotify
-Apple Music
-Itunes
-Deezer
-Google Play
-Youtube / Youtube Music
-Tidal
-Amazon Music
-Napster
-Shazam
-Pandora
Spread Income:
-Amuse keeps 0% of your download and streaming revenue. Everything is free and 100% of the royalties go to the artist.
When do you receive payment?
If you’ve earned $10 or more you can withdraw your royalties using PayPal
Extras:
-They discover artists they believe in and will offer them a record deal that includes marketing, financing, promotion and playlist pitching. If you are one of them, they split the profits 50/50 with the artists.
-First app-only Music Distributor with no desktop site, you have to upload your music to Icloud, Dropbox or Google Drive to release your music
Amuse Rating:
3,9 out of 5 (Source: Apple App Store / Google Play Store - Dcember 2017)
Visit Amuse or download the free app @ Apple's App Store or Google Play Store
Fresh Tunes Review
Fresh Tunes distributes your music to following stores:
-Spotify
-Apple Music
-Itunes
-Deezer
-Google Play
-Youtube
-Tidal
-Amazon Music
-Napster
-Shazam
-Yandex Music
-Guvera
-Saavn
-Spinlet
-Claro-Musica
-Zvooq
Spread Income with Fresh tunes:
-Fresh Tunes keeps 0% of your download and streaming revenue. Everything is free and 100% of the royalties go to the artist.
When do you receive payment by Fresh tunes?
If you’ve earned $25 or more you can withdraw your royalties to your bank card, Payoneer or WeBmoney account
Extras:
-You can pay Fresh tunes to get Promotion, Album Art Video production, Artwork production or to find a producer
Fresh Tunes Rating:
4.3 out of 5 Points (Source: Facebook - December 2017)
Horus Music Review
Horus Music distributes your Songs to over 200 stores like:
-Spotify
-Apple Music
-Itunes
-Google Play
-Youtube
-Tidal
-Amazon Music
-Shazam
-Saavn
-Beatport
-Vevo
-Soundcloud
Spread Income with Horus Music?:
-[update september 2018] They changed the pricing, now you pay an upfront fee (starts from £10) for 100% of the revenue back to the artists.
When do you receive payment by Horus Music?
The payment threshold depends on where you are based. If you’re not in the UK Horus Music has a £10.00 minimum threshold. For UK based clients Horus Music has no minimum payouts. They will pay your royalties through Western Union each month.
Extras:
- Paid Option to receive 100% of your royalties
- paid options to Create your own VEVO channel, Sell your music video on iTunes, Tidal & FunonGo
- Physical distribution
- Urgent iTunes music delivery
- Mastered for iTunes
- MIDEM Representation
- Music Distribution to Asian markets (including China)
- Playlisting Campaigns
- Telephone Support
- Radio and Social Media Support.
Horus Music Rating:
4.0 out of 5 Points (Source: Trustpilot / Google - September 2018)
Digital Distribution Comparison Chart
Best Music Distributors 2018, a summary in visual Data:
Label Aggregators including Juno and Beatport
Are you an ambitious electronic music producer who is planning to release music or manage a label in the future?
To sell electronic dance music like Techno and House it is an advantage to find an aggregator specializing in this field. These distributors can usually supply shops like Beatport, Juno, DJtunes, Whatpeopleplay, Trackitdown or Traxsource. These download shops are the market leader when it comes to electronic music, most of the clients are DJ's and electronic music lovers of techno, house, tech house, minimal electronica, disco, downtempo, deep house, bass house and many more sub-genres.
In order to find the best electronic music distributor for you, we have prepared a nice overview for you. This is a good starting point to find your Dance Music aggregator.
Start to release your Music on Beatport with these Aggregators:
Other Aggregators worth mentioning
Distrokid (starts from $ 19.99 - annual cost)
Awal (takes a 15% share of revenue - but They don't accept everyone)
CD Baby (starts from $ 9.95 - one-off fee per release)
Tunecore (starts from $9.99 - annual cost)
Emu Bands (starts from $ 42.50 - one-off fee per release)
Record Union (starts from $ 7 - annual cost)
Catapult Distribution (starts from $ 9.99 - one-off fee per release and takes a 9% share of revenue)
Music Revenue statistics from 1977 till 2018
I hope I could answer your question, how to find the best free music aggregator to make money as a music Artist and getting your Songs on Spotify, Itunes, and Amazon!
*If you discovered more free Music Distributors, please add a comment!
Check some other comparisons: aristake, heroic, digitalmusicnews
Please share this Blog post about my Music Distribution comparison 2018, to help other music producers and musicians to release their Music with the best rates!
FAQ: What is a Music Distributor / Music aggregator?
A companie who supplies Music to stores and streaming services like Itunes, Spotify, Beatport or Deezer that sell to consumers. These distributors pay you as an artist for your streams and downloads.