Feet First: Learning the New Music Industry (Thoughts on DistroKid)

Photo by Hannah Troupe on Unsplash

As I dive feet first into the 2021 music landscape, I have learned that many of my preconceived notions about today’s music industry are false. Streaming is king, but the content is queen, and she runs the household.

While I am personally very familiar with the content creation process, I did not initially grasp its importance when it comes to getting your music “Out there.” So, I did what every sensible person would do in the 21st Century: I turned to YouTube (AKA Google) for the answers.

I stumbled upon a series of videos, notably the Indie Music Academy YouTube channel, where Ryan Waczek effortlessly walks new Indie musicians thru the process in his 30-days of action series.

It was an excellent find for a quick crash course in the right direction.
So, I mapped out a game plan for how I wanted to get my music to market (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, etc.).

I had to choose a distributor. Mind you. I am not a full-time musician, so I needed a user-friendly distribution platform that would not break the bank with user fees for each release. I was surprised at the number of options for independent artists.

My critical factors include how much the service would charge me to push my music to the various streaming services, the platform’s organic features and uniqueness, and the payment that the service provides to the artist.

That’s when I learned about DistroKid (DK). The ground leader of the masses, DistroKid offers unlimited releases for a single flat rate cost, and they let you keep 100% of your royalties.

DK has three tiers, a Musician Plan, the Musician Plus Plan, and the Label Plan. They also have some add-ons that one can opt-in. These features include YouTube Content ID monetization, store maximization, song identification (Shazam and Siri ), file optimization, and more.

The musician plan is pretty basic. It offers an unlimited upload of songs and lyrics. Unlike the Musician Plus Plan, it does not provide synced lyrics for Instagram, daily sales stats, a customizable label name, release date, preorder date, and iTunes pricing.

They also have a fantastic “Teams Feature” that enables musicians to account for their splits directly through the distributor, which saves you the hassle of managing collaborator digital streams and sales mechanical royalties payouts yourself. You’re welcome.

The Label Plan pretty much offers the same as the Musician Plus Plan, but with the added ability to manage other artists. Since I have no desire to do that at this point in my journey, I went with the Musician Plus Plan to meet my needs. I also saved 7% by using an affiliate link from one of my favorite YouTube music producers (I have mine linked below the article so you can take advantage of a nice discount).

One of the downsides to DK’s consumer pricing is that one has to piecemeal the rest of the things you need to manage your musical career. Distribution is but one hurdle. There is also publishing administration which, for the time being, I have to manage myself. I will explain that in a future article and tackle what one needs to know to collect all their royalties.

In the meantime, DK is a straightforward distributor to get your creative pieces out to the world - a great choice. Just be prepared for customer service suitable for the masses (not likely to talk to a human if you’re stumped). However, if you are a YouTube guru like myself, you can find more than enough resources to get you started on the right foot. I will leave a few links to some other resources that I found helpful below. Just start!

***I do have a referral link if you would like 7% off your first year’s membership and join the same service.

Get a 7% Discount with DistroKid ➡️ https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/2964297.

Great YouTube References
Indie Music Academy
Tania Coats
Charles Clean