Digital Distribution Services. Opinions?

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Shooshie
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Digital Distribution Services. Opinions?

Post by Shooshie »

This is totally out of my wheelhouse. A singer I'm working with wants digital distribution. She's looking at Tune Core and CD Baby. There are pros and cons to each. I've asked to see the contracts, but she has not sent me a link yet. Anyone here have experience with such operations as these?

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terrybritton
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Re: Digital Distribution Services. Opinions?

Post by terrybritton »

Shooshie wrote:This is totally out of my wheelhouse. A singer I'm working with wants digital distribution. She's looking at Tune Core and CD Baby. There are pros and cons to each. I've asked to see the contracts, but she has not sent me a link yet. Anyone here have experience with such operations as these?

Shooshie
The only one I'm familiar with at all is BandCamp, because several folks I'm related to are using that service and really like it, and because I actually buy stuff from there pretty often. They have a reputation of being extremely fair.

http://bandcamp.com

https://bandcamp.com/artists

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Shooshie
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Re: Digital Distribution Services. Opinions?

Post by Shooshie »

She's used Bandcamp in the past. I should ask why she doesn't want to use it for this launch.
It's really her business, but I just don't want to see her get ripped off. I know she's down to the two I mentioned, but she would listen if someone had stories to tell.
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Re: Digital Distribution Services. Opinions?

Post by BobK »

Shooshie wrote:She's used Bandcamp in the past. I should ask why she doesn't want to use it for this launch.
It's really her business, but I just don't want to see her get ripped off. I know she's down to the two I mentioned, but she would listen if someone had stories to tell.
I haven't comparison-shopped for at least a year or two, but assuming the basic terms haven't changed:

If she wants to sell music directly from her own website, Bandcamp is the only one of those three which includes web site integration (i.e., you can have a Bandcamp page on your own domain, IIRC).

Several years ago, I choose Tunecore over Cdbaby, but I don't recall exactly why. Maybe it was because they just charged a flat fee vs a percentage, and because we only wanted digital distribution. If she wants to sell physical CDs, Tunecore doesn't do that, AFAIK; it's Cdbaby or Bandcamp.

If she doesn't already know this, don't expect anything from any of the services in the area of "visibility"; she has to take full responsibility for publicity and audience-building.
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Sean Kenny
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Re: Digital Distribution Services. Opinions?

Post by Sean Kenny »

BobK wrote:
Shooshie wrote:She's used Bandcamp in the past. I should ask why she doesn't want to use it for this launch.
It's really her business, but I just don't want to see her get ripped off. I know she's down to the two I mentioned, but she would listen if someone had stories to tell.
I haven't comparison-shopped for at least a year or two, but assuming the basic terms haven't changed:

If she wants to sell music directly from her own website, Bandcamp is the only one of those three which includes web site integration (i.e., you can have a Bandcamp page on your own domain, IIRC).

Several years ago, I choose Tunecore over Cdbaby, but I don't recall exactly why. Maybe it was because they just charged a flat fee vs a percentage, and because we only wanted digital distribution. If she wants to sell physical CDs, Tunecore doesn't do that, AFAIK; it's Cdbaby or Bandcamp.

If she doesn't already know this, don't expect anything from any of the services in the area of "visibility"; she has to take full responsibility for publicity and audience-building.
Surely the answer then is Tunecore for digital and her website for physical orders and then mail out direct. 20 years ago I had a my own label and distribution in the shops through BMG .... big deal! ...... for every 1 cd I sold mail order ... I had to sell 9 in the shops to make the same money. People don't don't realise what a good deal digital distribution is.

For starters it's available to anyone
There's no physical production cost
No advance payment of MCPS (UK publishing royalty for physical production) so for example on 2000 pressing of a mid priced album £10 album just the MCPS would be £1300 plus VAT upfront.

Sure we still pay MCPS on digital downloads but that's deducted and paid by aggregator on your behalf who will have a blanket agreement with the MCPS (ASCAP?) and more importantly paid on sales.

The real problem with the old model was 2000 cd's even in a small country like the UK wouldn't even make a dent in the shelf space, so the upfront financial commitment was at least £4K to £5K before you'd even started. Then you HAVE TO sell the damn things or they're all coming back (with returns fee's). That's a lot of coffee mats.

FWIW one of my clients went with Tunecore and recently they placed one of his tracks in the movie Tremor 5 which made him a few 'bob' (bucks). He didn't even know about it till they sent him the statement.

I'd be interested to hear anyone else's take on the CD Baby vs Tunecore, cos I get asked this all the time by clients and those are the names that come up the most.
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Re: Digital Distribution Services. Opinions?

Post by terrybritton »

Sean Kenny wrote:...
I'd be interested to hear anyone else's take on the CD Baby vs Tunecore, cos I get asked this all the time by clients and those are the names that come up the most.
Very interesting! Is BandCamp more of a USA thing? I was surprised to see you not even list it, since I only know of people (here in the USA) who have migrated to BandCamp from the others in recent years. Great info on the hidden cost of selling CDs!

I like BandCamp's easy way of allowing people to preview your tracks, or even listen to them wholesale for free to consider whether or not to give out some money for the MP3/FLAC/WAV downloaded versions - a model that apparently works, as my friends and relatives sales have gone up since switching to that model.

Terry
Computer: Sweetwater CS400v7 Intel Core i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz | 64Gigs RAM | Windows 11 Pro x64 |
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Shooshie
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Re: Digital Distribution Services. Opinions?

Post by Shooshie »

Well, she went with CD-Baby. I'll see her in a day or two and ask her what was the salient factor. She says she will still use Bandcamp, because the digital distribution is non-exclusive. (I think that's what she said, but will confirm when I see her.) She's been using Bandcamp all along; I don't know if she's had any sales. Of course I haven't bought anything, because I am her engineer, but I'm glad to know that she's had that up. Anyway, we'll see what happens.

She says thanks for all the interesting information, and she did read it all, in addition to her own research. I also posted this question over at the DP Facebook page, and sent her that info as well. If anything, I've certainly had an education over it. I didn't realize how old school I was! Now Shooshie is joining the 21st Century! I guess I'm going to have to put out an album of my own one of these days and try all this new stuff out.

Shooshie
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Re: Digital Distribution Services. Opinions?

Post by Sean Kenny »

terrybritton wrote:
Sean Kenny wrote:...
I'd be interested to hear anyone else's take on the CD Baby vs Tunecore, cos I get asked this all the time by clients and those are the names that come up the most.
Very interesting! Is BandCamp more of a USA thing? I was surprised to see you not even list it, since I only know of people (here in the USA) who have migrated to BandCamp from the others in recent years. Great info on the hidden cost of selling CDs!

I like BandCamp's easy way of allowing people to preview your tracks, or even listen to them wholesale for free to consider whether or not to give out some money for the MP3/FLAC/WAV downloaded versions - a model that apparently works, as my friends and relatives sales have gone up since switching to that model.

Terry
Hi Terry

I've heard of BandCamp but I have to say I don't hear it mentioned much in the general band chit chat in the studio so I have to confess I haven't really considered it but I'll definitely look into it, it sounds interesting.

As to the hidden costs of distribution that was barely scratching the surface, I didn't mention 'buying in' sales teams, distributors percentage and their trigger happy discounting (which are 100% your loss) then there's advertising, Press / PR / Radio ...... etc ... etc ... that's why direct mail order was so good and why digital distribution is such a better deal these days

Cheers

Sean
Mac Pro 3 GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon E5 - 32 GB Ram 1867 MHz DDR3 ECC - OS X 10.12.4 - DP 9.13 - RME HDSPe Madi card - iz ADA converters 24 i/o - Antelope Orion 32 i/o - Audient desk - Miller & Kreisel Monitors - Wunder Mic Pre's x 8 - very understanding wife!
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