Over the last few months we’ve been helping a number of our artists streamline their digital distribution strategies to help maximise their income from the sale of their MP3 downloads. It’s been an educational experience, and we’re coming out the other end with an interesting overview of the digital distribution landscape.
In the last 5-6 years we’ve seen music aggregation platforms and digital distribution expand in an extremely fast way, and musicians have an incredibly vast array of options to sell their music online.
As we’ve said many times on this blog, in the current music marketplace YOU are the record company, which means treating your music as a business, and choosing the right business partners to suit your style of working.
Back in the early days of digital distribution, there weren’t many choices if you wanted to sell music online via the large download stores. CDBaby were one of the first operators to deliver your tracks to iTunes and Amazon and increased their reach to many other stores over time. Tunecore also led the way in the early days with a quick and easy way to get your music into a similar playlist of online shops.
Now every music site and their proverbial dog are delivering to iTunes, Amazon and many more stores besides. Social media platform Watunes even delivers your tracks to the iTunes store for free, so how do you decide where to place your valuable catalogue of music?
One of the key questions you need to ask yourself before jumping into the first digital distribution partner agreement you come across is:
Who is the right partner to sell my music on behalf of my music business?
For new artists that are just starting out, you’ll have the luxury of surveying and testing out all the distribution services out there, both old and new.
For artists that started delivering their music to digital stores a few years ago you may be looking to streamline your distribution instead of having a large array of services delivering small amounts to you each month and taking their separate fees from this.
In our recent project streamlining the music inventory of one of our artists, we found out an awful lot about the current state of digital music aggregators, and the biggest issues we experienced with many of the companies involved was simply down to the way they deal with their customers.
During the project we encountered some surprising experiences with the various digital delivery services customer service departments, yours may be different of course, but for the benefit of those musicians that are looking to streamline their catalogue delivery we though we’d share our experiences with you.
We were given a brief by our client that they wanted to deliver all of their music to iTunes, Amazon and the other download stores through one cost effective source, as they were fed up receiving reports from several different companies each month, and also having to spend several separate fees to put up their album with each company when they released a new single or album.
The client had been making music for just over 5 years and over that time had delivered their music to download stores through CDBaby, TuneCore, and European distributors FEIYR.Com
We looked at the amount of money the client was spending to deliver their music to all of these services. CDBaby was still charging $35 per album, although this does get your CD on their store if you have a physical release, (albeit at a manufacturing and shipping cost to yourself), Tunecore were charging $19.95 per album per year for digital delivery, and FEIYR although a specialist dance distributor was costing around $20 per release if you chose all their stores.
We’ve been finding out a lot about the new digital delivery model at Watunes.Com who deliver tracks to the iTunes store for free. Their VIP service charges just $29.95 per year and covers all releases in that year, plus we received answers to our questions the same day when we contacted them.
So we chose Watunes as the sole provider for our client’s music, as we also had some advance information given to us about the imminent release of their social music platform with some groundbreaking new services for independent artists that will enable them to make some real cash from their music.
When we looked at the client’s portfolio on iTunes, it was evident that there were 3 to 4 different versions of each of their releases all at different prices in the iTunes store because of the different delivery platforms they were using. It’s confusing to the customer and makes the store look unprofessional so we set about putting that straight.
The first port of call was to get takedowns carried out at the client’s current distribution channels in order for us to then channel all their releases through Watunes.
Takedowns are basically requests to an aggregator asking them to stop selling your music at a particular store, and doing this really showed the poor level of customer care given by some of the more established digital distributors.
We first contacted CDBaby and asked for our clients releases to be pulled from all the digital stores. We got a response that asked us to confirm this, which we did, and… nothing. So we contacted them again…. Nothing... We are still waiting for communication from them, and by the looks of their forums and twitter pages so are many others.
It appears that CDBaby have now finally taken down after many weeks the requested tracks, but since that first email they haven’t responded to either our client or us, and our client continues to get no response from their helpline or email on this and other accounting issues. Not a recipe for success after their recent takeover by Discmakers.
Next stop Tunecore, once again contacting them proved very difficult. Once we did get a response, they did eventually remove the tracks, but it took a while for them to engage in communication with us. Why is it so difficult to look after your customers and afford them a timely response…
Lastly we contacted FEIYR.Com the German based dance distributor, who responded quickly, but stated that to remove tracks from their stores would cost 29.99 Euros per release. With 10 releases our client would have to pay nearly 300 Euros to have their tracks removed.
This indeed was stated in the terms and conditions small print of FEIYR.Com when our client signed up so there was little we could do to avoid the charges, but this really does drive home the message that you need to read the terms and conditions of your contracts with your digital distributor carefully. Don’t just click I AGREE, read the terms and conditions fully. It will save you money in the long term
We asked Watunes what would happen if in the future we decided to pull our tracks from the online stores. Their CEO Kevin Rivers replied within hours to our email saying that they don’t charge for takedowns, and if artists wished to move from Watunes in the future, they can only wish them good luck and make sure they attend to their request as soon as possible.
They also advised us that Apple take their artist down within 3 days if they receive a takedown request. All the other distributors told us it would take us at least a month for takedowns.
Watunes delivered our clients tracks very quickly and smoothly to the iTunes, Amazon and other download stores, and when we asked them to update a tricky publishing credit directly with iTunes, they responded to us within hours and had the change implemented within a few days. Our client was very happy with their customer service, and it seems we have connected them to a business partner that is committed to serving customers well.
All in all the experience left us wondering why companies such as CDBaby and Tunecore, that have built up a reputation as the leaders in their field pay such little respect to their customers, and in many cases just ignore them completely. Reading through various forums and twitter feeds (including the companies official forums and blogs) showed an enormous amount of other musicians experiencing the same frustrations.
In the current economic climate the only successful way to build your business is to engage with customers and look after them. Maybe its arrogance, maybe it’s just ever tightening margins. We think it’s just the personality of the company as a whole.
So what did we learn from our experiences that would offer good advice to artists looking for the best deal for distributing there music in the new digital music market?
Before joining a digital aggregator, make sure you do your homework and research the company well. Read as many experiences from other users as you can, ask other musicians their experiences, and check out what others are saying about the company on Twitter and other social networks.
Above all read the terms and conditions very carefully, and before you place your valuable music assets with a distributor, build up a relationship with them, get to know the company values and ethos.
Drop the CEO a line to see if they respond, speak to the staff via email or phone and see how they treat you. You should expect a full response to any questions you have within 24 hours, that’s not just courteous, its good business practice.
Really take some time to grill your business partner thoroughly about possible charges and get to know the company before you decide to go into partnership with them.
Choose your digital distribution business partner well, and you’ll enjoy a long and fruitful relationship with them for many years to come…
In the last 5-6 years we’ve seen music aggregation platforms and digital distribution expand in an extremely fast way, and musicians have an incredibly vast array of options to sell their music online.
As we’ve said many times on this blog, in the current music marketplace YOU are the record company, which means treating your music as a business, and choosing the right business partners to suit your style of working.
Back in the early days of digital distribution, there weren’t many choices if you wanted to sell music online via the large download stores. CDBaby were one of the first operators to deliver your tracks to iTunes and Amazon and increased their reach to many other stores over time. Tunecore also led the way in the early days with a quick and easy way to get your music into a similar playlist of online shops.
Now every music site and their proverbial dog are delivering to iTunes, Amazon and many more stores besides. Social media platform Watunes even delivers your tracks to the iTunes store for free, so how do you decide where to place your valuable catalogue of music?
One of the key questions you need to ask yourself before jumping into the first digital distribution partner agreement you come across is:
Who is the right partner to sell my music on behalf of my music business?
For new artists that are just starting out, you’ll have the luxury of surveying and testing out all the distribution services out there, both old and new.
For artists that started delivering their music to digital stores a few years ago you may be looking to streamline your distribution instead of having a large array of services delivering small amounts to you each month and taking their separate fees from this.
In our recent project streamlining the music inventory of one of our artists, we found out an awful lot about the current state of digital music aggregators, and the biggest issues we experienced with many of the companies involved was simply down to the way they deal with their customers.
During the project we encountered some surprising experiences with the various digital delivery services customer service departments, yours may be different of course, but for the benefit of those musicians that are looking to streamline their catalogue delivery we though we’d share our experiences with you.
We were given a brief by our client that they wanted to deliver all of their music to iTunes, Amazon and the other download stores through one cost effective source, as they were fed up receiving reports from several different companies each month, and also having to spend several separate fees to put up their album with each company when they released a new single or album.
The client had been making music for just over 5 years and over that time had delivered their music to download stores through CDBaby, TuneCore, and European distributors FEIYR.Com
We looked at the amount of money the client was spending to deliver their music to all of these services. CDBaby was still charging $35 per album, although this does get your CD on their store if you have a physical release, (albeit at a manufacturing and shipping cost to yourself), Tunecore were charging $19.95 per album per year for digital delivery, and FEIYR although a specialist dance distributor was costing around $20 per release if you chose all their stores.
We’ve been finding out a lot about the new digital delivery model at Watunes.Com who deliver tracks to the iTunes store for free. Their VIP service charges just $29.95 per year and covers all releases in that year, plus we received answers to our questions the same day when we contacted them.
So we chose Watunes as the sole provider for our client’s music, as we also had some advance information given to us about the imminent release of their social music platform with some groundbreaking new services for independent artists that will enable them to make some real cash from their music.
When we looked at the client’s portfolio on iTunes, it was evident that there were 3 to 4 different versions of each of their releases all at different prices in the iTunes store because of the different delivery platforms they were using. It’s confusing to the customer and makes the store look unprofessional so we set about putting that straight.
The first port of call was to get takedowns carried out at the client’s current distribution channels in order for us to then channel all their releases through Watunes.
Takedowns are basically requests to an aggregator asking them to stop selling your music at a particular store, and doing this really showed the poor level of customer care given by some of the more established digital distributors.
We first contacted CDBaby and asked for our clients releases to be pulled from all the digital stores. We got a response that asked us to confirm this, which we did, and… nothing. So we contacted them again…. Nothing... We are still waiting for communication from them, and by the looks of their forums and twitter pages so are many others.
It appears that CDBaby have now finally taken down after many weeks the requested tracks, but since that first email they haven’t responded to either our client or us, and our client continues to get no response from their helpline or email on this and other accounting issues. Not a recipe for success after their recent takeover by Discmakers.
Next stop Tunecore, once again contacting them proved very difficult. Once we did get a response, they did eventually remove the tracks, but it took a while for them to engage in communication with us. Why is it so difficult to look after your customers and afford them a timely response…
Lastly we contacted FEIYR.Com the German based dance distributor, who responded quickly, but stated that to remove tracks from their stores would cost 29.99 Euros per release. With 10 releases our client would have to pay nearly 300 Euros to have their tracks removed.
This indeed was stated in the terms and conditions small print of FEIYR.Com when our client signed up so there was little we could do to avoid the charges, but this really does drive home the message that you need to read the terms and conditions of your contracts with your digital distributor carefully. Don’t just click I AGREE, read the terms and conditions fully. It will save you money in the long term
We asked Watunes what would happen if in the future we decided to pull our tracks from the online stores. Their CEO Kevin Rivers replied within hours to our email saying that they don’t charge for takedowns, and if artists wished to move from Watunes in the future, they can only wish them good luck and make sure they attend to their request as soon as possible.
They also advised us that Apple take their artist down within 3 days if they receive a takedown request. All the other distributors told us it would take us at least a month for takedowns.
Watunes delivered our clients tracks very quickly and smoothly to the iTunes, Amazon and other download stores, and when we asked them to update a tricky publishing credit directly with iTunes, they responded to us within hours and had the change implemented within a few days. Our client was very happy with their customer service, and it seems we have connected them to a business partner that is committed to serving customers well.
All in all the experience left us wondering why companies such as CDBaby and Tunecore, that have built up a reputation as the leaders in their field pay such little respect to their customers, and in many cases just ignore them completely. Reading through various forums and twitter feeds (including the companies official forums and blogs) showed an enormous amount of other musicians experiencing the same frustrations.
In the current economic climate the only successful way to build your business is to engage with customers and look after them. Maybe its arrogance, maybe it’s just ever tightening margins. We think it’s just the personality of the company as a whole.
So what did we learn from our experiences that would offer good advice to artists looking for the best deal for distributing there music in the new digital music market?
Before joining a digital aggregator, make sure you do your homework and research the company well. Read as many experiences from other users as you can, ask other musicians their experiences, and check out what others are saying about the company on Twitter and other social networks.
Above all read the terms and conditions very carefully, and before you place your valuable music assets with a distributor, build up a relationship with them, get to know the company values and ethos.
Drop the CEO a line to see if they respond, speak to the staff via email or phone and see how they treat you. You should expect a full response to any questions you have within 24 hours, that’s not just courteous, its good business practice.
Really take some time to grill your business partner thoroughly about possible charges and get to know the company before you decide to go into partnership with them.
Choose your digital distribution business partner well, and you’ll enjoy a long and fruitful relationship with them for many years to come…
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