Music distributor: what they do and how to choose yours

Streaming platforms do not receive songs from each artist individually: they receive them from distributors and labels they have agreements with. Your music distributor delivers your release to all of them, collects what it earns and pays you.

• Delivers your release (audio, artwork and metadata) to each platform in the format it requires.
• Identifies each song with its ISRC and each release with its UPC, so platforms know what to pay you for.
• Collects what your streams earn and pays you, with a breakdown by platform and country.
• Pitches your releases to the platforms' editors for inclusion in their playlists.
• Resolves issues: mixed-up artist profiles, rights claims and missing songs.

A record label invests in your music (recording, promotion and sometimes an advance) and in return usually takes some or all of the rights to the master recording. A music distributor usually does not invest in your master recording: they deliver it to the platforms and charge a commission or a fee, while the master recording stays yours.

“Aggregator” is the industry's term for digital distributors that bring together the catalogues of many artists and labels to deliver them to the platforms. In practice, digital distributor and aggregator are almost synonymous.

They all get your music onto Spotify. Everything else is where they differ:

• How they charge: a fixed annual fee or a commission on what you earn. With commission, if your music earns nothing, you pay nothing.
• Your rights: make sure the master recording stays 100% yours.
• When you get paid: how often they pay out and how clearly you can see where every euro comes from.
• Whether they deliver directly to the platforms or through third parties.
• Whether they pitch your releases to playlists and whether that costs extra.
• Whether each collaborator can receive their share directly (splits).
• Who helps you when something goes wrong: a person or a form.
• What happens if you want to leave: make sure they give you your metadata and do not take down your catalogue before it is with your new music distributor.
• Advances: these are payments upfront against your royalties. Check carefully how they are recouped and over what period.

We supply the leading platforms directly, including Spotify, Instagram and YouTube, and your music can be heard in more than 240 countries and territories. More than 5,000 labels work with us.

We work on commission. We earn when you do: if your music earns nothing, we charge nothing. You keep 100% of your rights, get paid between the 1st and 5th of every month and, with our royalty splits, each collaborator receives their share straight into their own account. We are a Spotify Preferred Provider and pitch all our releases to the leading playlists at no extra cost. And our team of label managers is here to help: people, not a chatbot.