DistroKid vs. TuneCore Recording royalties encompass those generated from reproduction rights, synchronization rights, and performance rights. Songtrust is not a distributor but an administrative publisher so you cant just use Songtrust. If you want to share your profits with your collaborators, DistroKid offers an easy way to automatically divide your earning by percentages. They work in a similar way to CD Baby Pro Publishing but their administration is done by a UK based publishing administration called Sentric. CD Baby, if you go with the pro option, has an admin publishing company built in. DistroKid only collects reproduction royalties, which are a subset of the recording royalties generated by masters. However, if you sign up for Distrokid you are still missing out on royalty streams, particularly publishing. Global YouTube publishing royalties for any video on YouTube that contains your music. Performance Rights Royalties are paid for the right to perform a song in public places. They do not offer services where they collect publishing royalties. Theyre also organized under US law and the US Copyright Act, so you can trust they wont run away with your money. When setting up your profile, you can categorize yourself on all of DistroKid's social features by genre and artists who have influenced you. The MLC is funded by the Digital Service Providers they service, and they remit 100% of the royalties they collect to copyright owners. Voting for playlists with the Playlist Spotlight feature can help artists get on DistroKid's Spotify playlists, and other artists can vote for your songs too. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, it just means youre on your own in pursing sync opportunities. Songtrust also allow you to keep 100% music copyright ownership of your work. Any of the paid services or tools listed here are most likely affiliate links, so if you do decide to use any of them, Ill earn a small commission. Does Distrokid Collect Your Performance Royalties? As soon as a vinyl record is produced, a mechanical royalty is born. If your song is pulling in some serious streams or downloads that 9% commission can really cost you. The bad news is that other exclusive sync agencies might care you work with CD Baby and make you opt out of that service. Check out BMI's FAQ page and ASCAP's FAQ page for more information about registering with one of these PROs as an international artist. How Much of My Earnings Does DistroKid Keep? Now, when someone buys your song from a major store, your distributor doesnt get all of the revenue. This means that streaming services pay performance royalties through performance rights organizations who then distribute them to songwriters and publishers. Thanks for the support. The term mechanical royalties can be slightly confusing in todays world, but it comes from a time whenthe industry had to take a composition and mechanically reproduce it onto piano rollsor vinyl records. The deal breaker between CDBaby and Distrokid is that CDBaby takes 9% of digital sales and streams and Distrokid doesnt take a commission. So, when you only take advantage of one piece of the pie, you're essentially leaving other revenue sources on the table. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. $485 of the $1592 total are US performance royalties that I would've collected through ASCAP anyway. Anadministrativepublishing company is not a full-fledge publishing company in the traditional sense where they give you an advance and then own a % of your composition copyright. You can create a group and give it a name and description, and anyone will be able to join. As of May 2021, you will be able to select whether or not you want your Leave a Legacy releases to remain online when you cancel your account. If youre simply looking for the short answer, what I ended up going with was this: Distrokids Musician Plus Plan+SongTrustas an admin publisher to collect the extra royalties Distrokid misses. Pay as you upload is a bad thing if you plan to release a lot of music. You never pay another fee. Wheel of Playlist is a tool where artists can select which of their songs they want to see featured on DistroKids Spotify playlist. PROs collect performance royalties. Youll also receive their email address and other information about them, like what region theyre in and what other artists they listen to on Spotify. That means if anyone uses any of your songs as background music in their video you will get a portion of the ad revenue on that video. To submit your track to Playlist Spotlight, just click +Your Track on the Playlist Spotlight menu bar. You earned the money, not them. The CDbaby Pro option is very enticing and I almost went with CDBaby. to show your friends and have no real plans of a music career. DistroKid is a music distribution service that performs some of the functions of a record label, like releasing music and collecting royalties, designed for artists who either arent yet signed to a label or who want to remain independent. Since not everyone reports usage properly, especially smaller companies, royalties are paid based on an estimation, instead of by the nitty-gritty numbers that distributors calculate. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. Ah, I see - SoundExchange doesn't handle royalty payments from Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming services. If youre getting big streaming numbers and listener engagement then you should definitely sign up for a PRO and a music publishing administrator. I also write helpful articles on how to make sweet music and grow those sweet, sweet Spotify streams. They do not offer additional music publishing services but instead recommend Songtrust for music publishing. One difference between these two PROs is the cost of membership. So In total, if Im releasing an album I am going to pay: Thats not exactly cheap, but again, if youre trying to have music pay for your house, its a drop in the bucket. A distributor works hard to sell or stream your music, but their main focus is collecting royalties from your master recording. We don't yet offer admin publishing services. This means that, while they are great for independent artists, if youre new and have low streaming and listener numbers its worth waiting before you invest in global royalty collection. To collect mechanical royalties outside of DistroKid you need to be part of a music publishing company. Required fields are marked *. Pick the one that fits you best. So if someone plays a Paul McCartney song at a live venue the PRO pays Paul McCartney and whatever publishing company he is/was signed too. But today, ASCAP and BMI do the exact same thing: collect all your public performance royalties, and send that royalty payment to your bank. This can cause big issues in marketing your release because some digital stores and streaming services will not receive and publish the release at the same time as others. Copyright 2023 Best Friends Club Ltd., all rights reserved. It helps us keep the lights on here and keeps what we do free :). Mechanical royalties are collected by a music publishing company. Distrokid just doesnt have a sync service. You could be missing out on a lot of royalties which will go uncollected if youre only using a distributor. In the UK the main collection society for mechanical royalty collection is the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) which is essentially the mechanical twin of PRS. Unfortunately, if you have the basic Musician subscription of DistroKid, you will not be able to set a release date for the future, and all releases will go live immediately. Related to sound recordings AND underlying compositions. Sync royalties are what you are paid if your song is used (synced) in a commercial, show, movie, video game etc. To learn more about licensing and how music royalties work, check out this comprehensive guide right here:Music Royalties Explained: The Ultimate Guide. I almost went with them, but in the end I went with Distrokid and Songtrust. We dont think so. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'bestfriendsclub_ca-medrectangle-3','ezslot_7',108,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-bestfriendsclub_ca-medrectangle-3-0');To better understand the difference between the kind of money that each of these services collect, it is important to understand music publishing and what money is owed to you once your music is streamed. In this Flocksy review Ill let you know what I liked, Read More Flocksy Review My ExperienceContinue, Im confident you can learn to sing. For example if your music is streamed on Spotify a small amount of money will be generated in the form of royalties. Do what you decide is best for you and I hope this article was helpful. Using Songtrust you get 15% more than CD baby, 5% more than distrokid and skip the yearly fees of distrokid. Performance royalties are paid to songwriters and their music publisher in exchange for the right to broadcast or perform a copyrighted musical composition in a public environment. Many independent musicians write and perform their own music on a recording, in which case they will want to collect both recording royalties generated by masters, and publishing royalties generated by compositions. But in the meanwhile, check out https://songtrust.com. These companies/agents pitch your music to music supervisors and other sync opportunities on your behalf. *This post may contain affiliate links. Mechanical royalties are frequently the main source of royalty income for a successful songwriter. Performance rights organizations (PRO) collect performance rights royalties on behalf of publishers and songwriters. Winner: Moot Point. We Tested it Thoroughly To Find Out! Continue with Recommended Cookies. The differences my be that your label worries about all this for you or you may not be entitled to certain royalties if you only play cover songs etc. In that same example, because your music was technically performed in public (ie: on the listeners phone) and because the audio file was mechanically reproduced on the listeners phone to play the music back, you are also owed both performance and mechanical royalties. If they offer a publishing add-on, you should make sure you know what other royalty types they'll collect for your compositions. There were clear lines between songwriters and artists, you basically had to be signed, and no one dreamed you could ever record a piece of music in your bedroom. Youre just trying to make some fun songs every once in a while and throw them up on iTunes/Spotify etc. DistroKid and other similar services are only for distribution and collect mechanical royalties for digital streams and sales. If you don't have a PRO available in your country, or you'd rather work with BMI or ASCAP, you can still register your music with them if you live outside the United States. PRS (Performing Right Society) is the biggest collection society for performance rights in the UK and in the USA its Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). BMI charges a one-time fee of $150 to apply as a publisher. You can pitch your own music to music supervisors and negotiate what they will pay you to put your song in a show. Not everyone can afford to hire a manager to parse through the legal jargon, and plenty of independent musicians track and manage their own royalty collection. But they don't anymore! Hey! Leave a Legacy costs a one-time fee of $49 USD for albums (or any release composed of two or more songs) and $29 USD for singles. Ditto offer publishing at $39/year and with a 10% commission on all royalties collected. Unfortunately, they dont (yet). revenue from streams on streaming services like Spotify. So registering for sound exchange is important if you are a session musician as well. Spotify then pays those publishing royalty portions to a performance rights organization (which specific organization depends on where in the world your song was streamed. There are more benefits of using Songtrust that make the fee worth it. However, you should know that PROs only collect performance royalties so you would still be missing out on some mechanical royalties that are owed to you. Both companies get you paid, but for different aspects of music consumption, while only DistroKid can upload music. __CONFIG_colors_palette__{"active_palette":0,"config":{"colors":{"f3080":{"name":"Main Accent","parent":-1},"f2bba":{"name":"Main Light 10","parent":"f3080"},"trewq":{"name":"Main Light 30","parent":"f3080"},"poiuy":{"name":"Main Light 80","parent":"f3080"},"f83d7":{"name":"Main Light 80","parent":"f3080"},"frty6":{"name":"Main Light 45","parent":"f3080"},"flktr":{"name":"Main Light 80","parent":"f3080"}},"gradients":[]},"palettes":[{"name":"Default","value":{"colors":{"f3080":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.7)"},"f2bba":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.5)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"l":0.09,"s":0.02}},"trewq":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.7)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"l":0.09,"s":0.02}},"poiuy":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.35)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"l":0.09,"s":0.02}},"f83d7":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.4)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"l":0.09,"s":0.02}},"frty6":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.2)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"l":0.09,"s":0.02}},"flktr":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.8)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"l":0.09,"s":0.02}}},"gradients":[]},"original":{"colors":{"f3080":{"val":"rgb(23, 23, 22)","hsl":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09}},"f2bba":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.5)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09,"a":0.5}},"trewq":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.7)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09,"a":0.7}},"poiuy":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.35)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09,"a":0.35}},"f83d7":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.4)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09,"a":0.4}},"frty6":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.2)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09,"a":0.2}},"flktr":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.8)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09,"a":0.8}}},"gradients":[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__, "Copy/Paste" Your Music Promotion with The, Songtrust vs DistroKid: Music Distribution, Royalties & Publishing, Spotify then pays those publishing royalty, music publisher that offers publishing services, they are a music distributor, click here to learn more about getting up and running with Songtrust, music distributor can help you distribute, Click here to see a list of my favorite and most recommended tools and resources. Youre just trying to release one song as a hobbiest and have it available on streaming platforms for fun to show your friends. Also, here is 7% off your first year of Distrokid. Much like DistroKid, CD Baby offers tools like generating Spotify pre-save links, and it also offers unique tools like cheap audio mastering. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. Click here to see a list of my favorite and most recommended tools and resources thatIve personally used to get my music streamed over 5,000,000 timeson Spotify as an artist (called Best Friends Club). CDBaby vs Distrokid Best for Mechanical Royalties CD Baby (Kinda). Lets go over its benefits and its downfalls, so you can decide if its the best distribution service for your music career. These added benefits come into play when we start looking at how money is collected for music used in YouTube videos. So theres no real need to compare there. This means that you will still be paid a share of your performance royalties by your PRO but Songtrust also collects the music publisher share (for live perfomances and sync opportunities) from PROs and they collect mechanical royalties from streaming, online sources, radio, and physical reproductions. If you just want most of your basis covered, don plan to release music at regular intervals, and dont care much about commissions go with CD Baby Pro. However, for now, it's best to sign up for a service that collects royalties for you such as BMI, ASCAP or PRS. This is awesome. If youre a songwriter you should definitely sign up for a PRO. So, youre not truly locked in you just have to go through the hassle and cost of switching. You can submit one track per artist at a time, so if you have a Musician Plus subscription and manage two artists, you can submit one track for each. For the most part, performance royalties are due to you if you, or anyone, plays your song live in a venue, over a stadium loudspeaker, on a radio station, or even in a Starbucks. You'll still get the same payments from Distrokid and he same performance royalties from your PRO. CD Baby have a publishing service called CD Baby Pro Publishing, TuneCore have a publishing arm called TuneCore Publishing, and Ditto also offer Ditto Music Publishing. Perhaps many of us are scarred early on when we were singled, Read More 10 Ways You Can Learn To Sing BetterContinue, Will AI replace graphic designers? Mechanical royalties are paid out any time a physical or digital copy of one of your songs is made. You are now a master. Thats a nice add on by CDBaby, but it really doesnt matter as its just a matter of going to the PROs website and filling out some forms. Mechanical royalties are 'paid for the right to reproduce a composition through the process of recording, manufacturing, and distributing the work'. Record labels and music managers can sign up for Upstream once theyve gone through a vetting process that proves they have a history of being successful and issuing agreements that benefit artists. Here are the different types of music royalties and which services and agencies are in charge of collecting them. Songtrust collects performance and mechanical royalties from about 98% of the global music publishing market. Once your music is live and getting played on online stores and streaming services, Songtrust is able to help you collect all of your music publishing royalties. Same as CDBabys percentage, but with a 1 time fee. They each offer perks to music creators, and the decision on which perks are better is up to you as an artist. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. A composition refers to the lyrics and notes of a song. You dont actually need to be a member of DistroKid to vote for songs with Playlist Spotlight, but you do need to be a DistroKid member to submit your own tracks. Its what Spotify, Apple, Amazon and all the other streaming/downloading services pay when someone buys or streams your song. Neither CDBaby nor Distrokid collect performance royalties for you. Manage Settings Thats a bit vague and lines start to blur a little here, but its not too bad. Distros deal with master rights holders. You also have the right to collect mechanical royalties on any cover versions recorded and released by other artists. But, as I mentioned, you only get royalties from songs you released with CD Baby so its very useful if you have done that already but fairly unnecessary if you release music with DistroKid. The MLC is now the only organization in the US (designated by law) to collect and distribute mechanical royalties. Upstream is completely free for DistroKid artists, and record labels pay a finders fee to DistroKid if they sign an artist from Upstream. If you have friends who are thinking about joining Distrokid, you can give them a discount and it will also earn you $10. There is no guarantee, however, that your Leave a Legacy releases will remain published if DistroKid goes out of business. Harry Fox Agency collects mechanical royalties from Spotify (and most others), though MRI collects from Amazon. Also, here is 7% off your first year of Distrokid. If you are interested in checking out my music, here is the first singleBrain Is Made of French Friesoff my new album A Story By Some Aliens, Thanks for reading this 4000+ word article on CD baby vs Distrokid. From a pure value perspective, DistroKid is a better choice if youre releasing music often and dont care about opting in to the Leave a Legacy program or any additional services. They do not offer additional music publishing services but instead recommend Songtrust for music publishing. They do a bit more for their artists than just distribute, but it comes with a higher cut. What Music Distributors Collect Publishing Royalties For Me? OR since you have decided to go with Distrokid and already need to sign up with SongTrust as an Admin publishing company you can use their option. Artists are eligible to collect performance royalties every time one of their songs is played out in public. The royalties are collected by DistroKid and are redistributed to yourself. You get a member number and you use that to register any songs that you write or co-write. .06 for every 100 streams. 3 mountainwampus 6 yr. ago Where music distribution services will collect mechanical royalties, BMI or ASCAP will collect performance royalties. With that said, because you can use any music distributor to get the job done, here are some articles that compare DistroKid to the competition: Thank you for reading this article, my friend, and I hope you found it helpful as you build your own successful career in music. They are an important source of revenue if you think youll get a lot of streams on something like Sirius XM, or the free version of pandora. So if you do a Paul McCartney cover that gets played a lot on Sirius XM, 50% goes to Paul McCartney, 45% goes to you, the featured artist covering that song. Digital copies - also known as digital distributions or interactive streams - refer to music distributed on an on-demand streaming platform. Mechanical royalties are also paid on streaming services. But as youll see there are reasons why I still use distrokid vs CD baby or other music publishers. Slaps rewards people who engage with other musicians by promoting their music. But, while everything in this article can be a real head ache to understand and consider, it is getting much easier for independent musicians to take control of their work and get the money thats owed to them. Its unclear how effective Wheel of Playlist actually is at getting artists music heard, but the chances of your song getting heard are at least marginally higher if its on the playlist, since the playlist has over 15,000 followers. Ditto also offer global publishing administration like TuneCore and CD Baby, and like the other distributors you can only claim publishing royalties for works released through Ditto. Here youll select how many tracks you plan to release, and the distribution partners you want to send your release to. However, you can pair Distrokid with SongTrust to get the same results. Go create. Performance royalties are generated from digital/Internet radio or satellite radio plays. However, if you use the Leave a Legacy program for all of your releases, opt-in for YouTube monetization, or partake in any of the other paid services DistroKid offers, it will cost you more per releaseyoull pay additional fees on top of your annual subscription. We Thoroughly Researched it, Distrokid Wait Times 101: Release Times, Payment & More, The Best Synth Plugins for EDM Production (Free & Paid), The 9 Best Wavetable Synths for Music Producers. Songwriters Just Got A Raise! Here is a link with a Distrokid discount so that you can do the same:Get 7% of Distrokid. Both CD Baby and Distrokid are music distributors, meaning their primary purpose is to get musicians music on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Deezer, Google Play, Tik Tok etc and collect payment from those platforms. It is nice that they have an Admin Publishing company and it is nice to keep everything under one roof, but the actual smarter thing to do is to go with Distrokid and Songtrust. Alternately, being set up with any other music distributor can help you distribute and maintain your music catalog. If your collaborator doesnt renew their membership the following year, their bank will still receive payments from your release as long as it generates royalties, too. Im torn: DistroKid offers arguably the best exposure and promotional tools of any distribution service, but the fact that you have to pay for every add-on service is kind of sketchy, especially since DistroKid does not tell you about these charges from the start. Beyond these basic features, DistroKid has a referral program where you can offer discounts to your friends and receive money when they sign up. Your email address will not be published. Mechanical Royalties are the part of song sales that go to the songwriter and publisher. Promote Your Music Video With YouTube Ads, CDBaby vs Distrokid: Digital Sales & Streams Commission, Types Of Music Royalties (Beyond Music Distribution), Mechanical Royalties CDBaby vs Distrokid, YouTube Monetization CDBaby vs Distrokid, Performance Rights Royalties- CDBaby vs Distrokid, Non-Interactive Streaming Platform Digital Royalties: SoundExchange, CDBaby vs Distrokid Which Should You Use Conclusion. Some distributors offer this service as part of their yearly subscription. This tool can only split earnings with collaborators who are DistroKid members, but DistroKid will offer a 50% membership discount to your collaborators if they have not yet signed up. Performance royalties are split into a publisher's share and a writer's share. $9.90. No matter which music distribution service you use, you need a performing rights organization. It is a shame that DistroKid does not have a publishing service because it makes publishing much more simple. The biggest PROs in the US are BMI and ASCAP. Publishing Companies and Songwriters generally own The Composition. There are a few other add-ons that I dont use. If you want to upload your music today and ensure it remains available for years to come, you must opt into the Leave a Legacy program. As for the offered benefits and usability of each distribution service, theyre similar. The purpose of a PRO is to ensure that any public performance of an artists song is rightfully paid for, and this includes more than just live performances. the industry had to take a composition and mechanically reproduce it onto piano rolls, How To Upload A Lead Single From An Album and Retain Play Count, Timbaland Masterclass Review: Beat Making & Producing, 100% of streams/downloads as compared to 91%. This is an awesome service that I wish Distrokid had. Regardless though, it is good to understand the big picture music industry no matter your situation. This works out a bit cheaper than Songtrust but again relies on the fact that youre already paying TuneCore for distribution. Because digital streaming is now the most popular way to listen to music performance royalties have become more important to artists. PROs often only collect royalties in the territory their based in. Once you start to gain some traction you can upgrade your subscriptions. If you are distributing your music with TuneCore and then using them to collect your publishing royalties it makes the system much simpler and its easier to keep track of all your works and money. Yes, they USED DO issue licenses and collect mechanical royalties from the DSPs. They only collect the master recording royalties. With BMI, you can register as a writer for free, whereas ASCAP charges a one-time $50 setup fee. TuneCore charges$75 per writerto cover setup and administrative costs and they also retain a 15% commission from the royalties that they collect on your behalf. How Do BMI & ASCAP Pay? What I found most frustrating, is that most reviews of Cd Baby vs Distrokid focused on the different yearly fees that each distributor charges. Without a publisher administrator, your performance and mechanical royalties will remain uncollected. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. This is where Offeo comes in. At no extra cost to you, we may be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on one of the links. How To Get Your Money - Ari's Take Author: www.lionbold.com Date Submitted: 10/07/2021 01:16 AM An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Reproduction royalties are generated every time a master is used. The home page promotes artists and there are designated group pages with various artists organized by genre, mood, other musicians that serve as inspiration, and more. After writing music and releasing it through a music distributor DistroKid, you may be wondering if you also need to be signed up with Songtrust to collect all of your music publishing royalties for you. Songtrust handles the collection of those performance and mechanical royalties from all performance rights organizations around the world and gives that money to you. When you distribute your music through CD Baby Pro, you are added to CDBabys non-exclusive sync library. You'll also get free access to some of our best training including our Spotify Playlist Gameplan and the Music Royalty Collection eBook simply for becoming a member. However, I couldnt give up that 9% commission. songwriters, beatmakers etc. 2023 Indie Music Academy | All Rights Reserved, Music Royalties Explained: The Ultimate Guide. DistroKid distributes your music to all the major streaming services and digital stores.
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