I have released a total number of 6 albums and 4 maxi singles as an independent artist and on my official web site. For over a year I was trying to figure out which digital “aggregator” to use in order to reach digital retail stores (like iTunes, AmazonMP3) and the streaming service Spotify.
I looked at aggregators such as TuneCore, CD Baby, Record Union, and Ubetoo. The first thing that struck me was how terrible the terms and conditions are, something all of the mentioned aggregators have in common. Basically you sign up giving them exclusive distribution rights (their intention is for selected digital stores that they have partnered with, but their terms and conditions they take a shotgun approach and just say “all” digital stores and streaming rights.) In the fine print there are also some awful clauses where; sure you can terminate the contract at any time, BUT, we want a whole bunch of clauses to remain in effect even after termination.
After contacting the aggregators by email, as I did, one quickly understands that you have zero negotiation power as a small independent artist. It’s a “take it or leave it” deal. From spending time in various forums I also gather that many independent artists just look at the price tags then scroll down to the bottom and check the “I agree” box so it’s unlikely that the terms will ever change to the benefit of the artist. Finally, I also get the sense that the aggregator never follows up on terms and conditions it’s just one of them things that have to be in place – but it would be sad if it came to a situation where a little artist is squashed as a result of these terms.
For me Ubetoo won in the end. I have e-mails from them saying that “I can continue to have my music on my own web site” (although their terms contradicts this), and “I can still stream my audio on Soundclick.com” (although their terms says otherwise). Still, that’s more than I got from the other aggregators. Ubetoo also had better contract termination terms which was another big bonus.
The terms and conditions probably come after price for many artists – but for me is a priority.
Pricing
When it comes to pricing I found that Ubetoo was by far the most favorable aggregator for me. For €49 a year I can release an unlimited number albums and singles to all digital stores. Compare this to TuneCore, for example, that charge $49.99 per year for a single album. In contrast, and if we use $ as a common currency, my 6 albums and 4 singles cost me $69.64 through Ubetoo and $339.90 through TuneCore. I can’t remember the details of the other aggregators but it was a similar store so when it comes to pricing, Ubetoo was a no brainer.
Royalties and Payout
I didn’t expect a lot of royalties and a fat payout coming my way as I assume I would be hidden in the masses of music in the digital stores. For me, the presence in the stores as an option for those that cannot access the music through my site was enough not to consider the royalties too much. Since the aggregators charge subscription fees they are quite generous when it comes to the royalties as in many cases the subscription fees are higher than many independent artists would ever make in royalties making it more profitable for the aggregator to be able to raise the flag with “100%” royalties to lure the independent artists their way. And then, of course, 100% royalties is what is left after the digital store takes their commision so it’s not 100% of what the music is sold for anyway. I’m not favoring one over the other here but Ubetoo, the aggregator I decided to go with, takes no commission on the first €500 per month that are made by the artist and after that they take 25% of anything above €500. That’s fine with me as I’m no way near the €500 mark, and in the future I’d be open minded to change aggregator if necessary.
Uploading your music
I tried TuneCore’s interface as I released my single Mind Machine there, for $9.99, as a trial run. Unforunately this is a few years ago so I can’t recall any details and their interface has probably changed by now so I have nothing to compare with. Living in Sweden, where Ubetoo is based, I’ve had a good experience with upload speeds and managing my releases through the Ubetoo interface.
It took about a month for my albums to reach most digital stores with the exception of Spotify where I fear we, the independent artists, are the dregs as it took them over 2 months to make my last two release available. According to Ubetoo my releases were sent to them at the same time as the other digital stores, something I am unable to confirm, but it sounds reasonable to me. I’ll write a separate blog post about Spotify, they deserve one and it’s not because they are good, it’s because they are evil =)
It’s been 5 months, what do I think now?
Well, I think my own web site with Full Access option to all music along with my digital albums is by far the best =) But as far as the digital stores I haven’t had a clue of how it’s been going as Ubetoo doesn’t offer any sort of insight to how the digital stores are performing, until now. I just had a look at my Ubetoo account and I see payouts from Merlin, iTunes, Amazon, Aspiro, and Juno. It’s a very basic log of transactions, no flashy statistics or anything. I have no idea of the other aggregators deliver the information as I don’t use them – but feel free to comment this post if you know.
The payout (royalties) for the 99 single tracks and 3 albums sold over the past 5 months was €30.11 =) It won’t cover my Ubetoo subscription, maybe by the time the subscription is up for renewal it’ll be just enough to cover it. Spotify was not included in the payout but from what I understand I think every play is worth something like $0.0018 so I’m not holding my breath for any miracles there =)
Very interesting. I really need some advise on this.
What about CD Baby and Rebeat? Did you try them?
What are your major concerns Xenomars? Pricing, management interface, or your rights?
I am unaware of Rebeat and I can’t remember but I think there was something in CD Baby’s Terms and Conditions that I couldn’t agree with. It’s quite a lengthy read as well and it may have changed since last year when I was reviewing it.
CD Baby charges $39 + $20 for UPC Bar Code per album and $9.95 + $5 for UPC Bar Code per single song. This would have amounted to $548,35 for my 6 Albums + 4 Maxi Singles (13 single tracks) which was way more than I wanted to pay. Compare this to the flat rate of €49 at Ubetoo.
The one thing I don’t like about Ubetoo is that you MUST have their logo on the digital artwork – you can choose whether it should be black or white and where it should be positioned (9 options). Have a look in Spotify and search for Imphenzia and you’ll see what it looks like. Since it’s only smaller digital album pictures I can live with it, but I don’t like it. As far as I know, other aggregators don’t force the logo.
Another thing with CD Baby is that they take 9% of what you make from digital sales in digital stores (outside cdbaby.com) and you get the remaining 91%. If you make under $500 per month it would be beneficial to use Ubetoo since you get 100% up until that amount, anything over they take 25%. If you think your income will be higher than $500 then it could be more profitable with CD Baby.
Choosing aggregator is tricky, and I hope you can find the one that suits you best.
I’m with ubetoo and I’ve not tried anyone else, but my gripe is the fact that you are unable to find out how many downloads you have, ie, I can’t look into itunes etc, and find a count for my downloads. I have purchased my own music from amazon/itunes/ubetoo etc, and never recieved any royalties, so it does make me wonder!
Payments from distribution is made every 3 months. They should/will show up under “View Account” at Ubetoo and royalties from digital stores/distribution look like this:
2012-01-30 PRISMA - SEY4Y1123702 - MERLIN BV (3) 0.0072 36.33
2012-01-30 PRISMA - SEY4Y1123702 - AMAZON DIGITAL SERVICES, INC (2) 1.0720 36.32
2012-01-30 PRINCESS AT THE GATE - SEY4Y1123601 - MERLIN BV (6) 0.0270 35.25
2012-01-30 PRINCESS AT THE GATE - SEY4Y1123601 - MERLIN BV (6) 0.0282 35.22
2012-01-30 NOSTALGIA RETREAT EDIT - SEY4Y1124002 - iTUNES SARL (1) 0.3434 33.70
I think one of the “MERLIV BV” payments are from Spotify but it’s not possible to identify. Other ones are more obvious, such as Amazon Digital Services, and iTunes etc.
I have noticed that many digital distributors have partnered with major record labels. I have distributed through several of them and promoted heavily but after being told by my fans that they have bought my music and not receiving the royalties to match the alleged sales…I decided to take them down. I always wonder how the heck I would know if they just pocketed my money and just never reported it to me. I like the idea of my music being on itunes and other digital shops and reaching people all over the world who otherwise would not have heard of me but I also would like to receive my money that was earned.
I distributed through tunecore for one of my albums and a few of my singles. Saw very slow sales. Then I tried Reverbnation and saw some sales that indicated that they may actually be giving me my money…however when the time for renewal came and I did not renew. I noticed that my music was still on itunes and could still be purchased. You have to pay a 40 something dollar fee to remove your music but if there were sales made during that lapse where I forgot to renew will they send me the accumulated royalties or pretend they never got it and just start over? I didn’t realise at the time that I signed up with tunecore that I had to pay this fee to take my music down. I then tried Ubetoo because Ubetoo has some stores that were hard for me to get my music into that specialized in dance tracks. For several months of heavy promotion I only saw very VERY small payouts that made me wonder. Maybe I do not have enough patience…I don’t know. However I did like the format of their site. You pay a monthly fee and you keep 100% of your royalties (is what they say) unless you make over $500 a month. But my inquisitive mind is wondering how I will know if these sites are reporting my full amount of royalties to me. And who’s to say that the retailers that the distributors use are reporting honestly. The distributors could be honest but the retailers could pocket money and report only small amounts to them.
Now as far as CDBaby goes I distributed 2 albums through them. Everything was strangely slow. Someone who I knew personally ordered my Cd from them and they called me and told me when it came it came from an asian country and they also received an email that they had a parade about my music in this country. I only saw small sales in the reports from them as well. CdBaby was recommended to me by a friend who made out good with them but this was before the CD Duplication company took over ownership of CDBaby. I like the way CDBaby is set up and how they plug you in on the internet as far as visibility but I don’t think I saw sufficient sales from them. It led me to believe my music was no good….only for a second I know I have hit songs…lol… Why were the sales so slow on all of these sites? The only thing I could come up with is that I was not getting the money that was made or the internet is so horrible with filesharing that no one had to buy it. They could download it for free from the filesharing sites. I just don’t think it is fair that the major labels are monopolizing off of the indies through this distribution bonanza. I think they should still sign you if they think your music is good enough to make money off of it. They shouldn’t be so greedy as to to rip you off through the distributors.