You're in a band. You're good. You're beginning to build a following. You want as many people to be able to listen to you as widely as possible. So you want to get your music on Spotify.
But there's a problem. You're not signed. So what can you do to get your music on the biggest, most exciting, music service out there? Spotify won't return your calls because you're not a massive record label with loads of cash, but there's still hope. The trick is using something called an "aggregator", which is a company that makes deals with loads of tiny bands, charging them all small amounts for servicing their tracks to a range of digital stores, including iTunes, Amazon MP3, 7Digital, Napster, eMusic, and -- most importantly -- Spotify.CDBaby - www.cdbaby.comBut there's a wide range of aggregators that have deals with Spotify. The most recent is Tunecore, but there's also CDBaby, Record Union, Ditto, AWAL, Emubands, and Zimbalam. Which do you entrust with your crucial, crucial songs? Here's a full comparison of what each one offers.
CDBaby has been around for a long time, originally basing its business -- as the name suggests -- on unsigned bands selling CDs. It's the largest online distributor of independent music. On the one hand, that means you're guaranteed a level of professionalism. On the other, it means that you're less likely to get that "personal" touch.
CDBaby will charge you a one-off $35 (~£23.25) fee per album you want to sell, and then keeps a nine percent cut of any earnings you make. Anything on top of that is yours, and you can set your own pay-point, which is the point at which any accumulated dosh will be sent to your bank account.
Also, while it's slightly out of the scope of this article, remember that some of your fans will want CDs that they can treasure and pass on to their grandchildren. CDBaby makes it relatively easy to do that if you're already set up for distribution.
Record Union - www.recordunion.com
Record Union has also been around for a few years, and allows artists to upload to various online retailers. It's based in Stockholm, Sweden, and delivers music to about 95 percent of the global digital music market.
The service makes its cash by demanding that every release published through it has a UPC (a "barcode"). The vast majority of unsigned bands don't have one, so it makes a tidy profit selling them for $10 (~£6.64). After that, the company takes the first $5 made in royalties annually from every record in its catalogue, and 15 percent of the total revenues generated.
Interestingly, if you've got some friends in bands then Record Union also lets you sign up as an "A&R". You have to apply, but if accepted then applicants are given two free barcodes to hand out to bands they like, and earn 7.5 percent of the revenues that artists they recruit bring in. That share comes out of Record Union's cash, not the band's.
Ditto Music - www.dittomusic.com
Ditto was started in 2006 by Lee and Matt Parsons, and has a string of successes under its belt, including seven top 40 singles from unsigned bands and one artist going on to sign a deal with Warner Music. It offers up free barcodes, and will also offer a fixed "release date" for your music, if you want to plan marketing around a particular date.
Ditto takes a modular approach, charging 30p per track per store, but allowing artists to keep 100 percent of their royalties. For example, if you want a ten-track album spread across ten download sites, it'll cost £30.
If you want blanket coverage of all the download stores for a whole album, this works out rather more expensive than some of its rivals, but in reality most of your listeners will be clustered on relatively few streaming and download services, so if you just push your music to iTunes, Amazon MP3, and Spotify, you'll be most of the way there already.
Ditto also offers a service called Your Music:Your Career where it'll act as your publisher too -- allowing you to earn cash from playing gigs and placements in films and on TV.
AWAL - www.awal.com
AWAL might seem less friendly on the surface than some of its rivals, but it's no less effective. It has a plethora of options to choose from, but it's the distribution deal that unsigned bands who just want to be on Spotify should opt for.
In terms of cash, AWAL takes 15 percent of your earnings from the tracks you upload, but there are no up-front fees to pay. AWAL won't pay you anything until you earn at least £20, however, though the balance remains on your account and is carried forward.
Interestingly AWAL demands that music is provided in CD or DVD format, saying that other formats may apply an additional charge. We weren't able to get in touch with the company to find out if this applies to digital formats such as WAV and MP3, but we'd be surprised if this would incur a fee. Your mileage may vary.
Emubands - www.emubands.com
Emubands takes a rather more simplistic approach. There are three packages -- Single, EP and Album, which are then distributed across more than 150 stores around the world. Like Ditto, you can choose a release date, and barcodes are free.
If you've got one or two tracks to distribute, you'll need to opt for the "Single" package which costs £25. The EP package allows you to distribute three to five tracks and costs £35, and an album will cost £50 for six or more tracks. Compared to its rivals, that's rather expensive, but you'll retain 100 percent of the royalties.
It's also worth noting that Emubands applies a takedown charge of £10 if for whatever reason you want to remove your music from a download store within six months of its distribution.
Zimbalam - www.zimbalam.eu
Zimbalam is even simpler. There are just two categories -- a single is one or two tracks, and an album is anything more than two. Again, there's an option to set a release date, and there's also the ability to choose exactly which stores to sell in around the world.
To get a single onto Spotify costs €20 (~£16) and an album will cost you €30 (~£24). Again, there's no percentage taken from your royalty, or requirement to buy a barcode, but there's also a termination fee of €30 if you want to remove your content from stores at any time.
Interestingly, Zimbalam offers a warning for those thinking of uploading their music to Spotify. It explains a bit about how Spotify's royalties work, and then lists royalty rates at around 1-2p per paid stream and 0.1 pence for free streams, saying: "Please take note of this when considering if you want your content available on the service as these revenues are considerably less than are generated from traditional sales."
Tunecore - www.tunecore.com
Finally, Tunecore's the new kid on the block. It has a mish-mash of the pricing options above, with an option to serve out a single song to all stores, an album with unlimited songs to all stores, or an "a la carte" service that lets you choose the number of songs and number of stores you want to distribute to.
A single track to 19 stores costs $10 (~£6.64), an unlimited number of songs on one album to all 19 stores costs $47 (~£31), and if you opt for the a la carte service then it'll cost you $1.98 (~£1.30) per song and $1.98 per store, totalling $4 (~£2.63) for one song on Spotify, or $22 (~14.50) for a 10-track album just on Spotify. You get to keep all the royalties.
Conclusions
Which of the above services is best for you will depend very much on your needs. If you're a punk band who records albums with loads of very short tracks then you won't want to go for one that charges you per song. On the other hand, if you're a post-rock act with only 3 tracks on an hour-long album, it could be a very good deal.
You should also work out how successful you think you'll be. If you're expecting to get a lot of attention and make some real money, then a flat-fee based service might be most appropriate, because once you've made your cash back then anything else is yours. If you're not expecting to make any money, and you just want it there for posterity, then it might be better to opt for a store that just takes a percentage of your royalties, meaning it'll cost you next to nothing.
Oh, and if you've used any of the above services, or any others, for getting on Spotify, then we'd love to hear about it. Fill up the comments box below with your experiences, good or bad, or anything else you'd like to say.
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