Distribution :: 20/20 Vision

Hey guys, so this is for the do-it-yourself artists, the artists that aren't signed to a record label, and you're either trying to make money with your music independently or you are looking for a record deal. You are basically unsigned, you're independent, but you're really known as a do-it-yourself artist. It means that you are trying to build a fan base and a buzz and get to that next level. Right? You're trying to level up. So, um, remember to, um, once you do all the paperwork and you've got like yourself incorporated, you have filed your trademark, you filed your copyrights, you've prepared your music so that it's mixed and mastered and you're ready to put it out, you need to have some sort of distribution. There has to be a way for you to get your music from your hard drive to the masses, to fans. So obviously you're going to upload it yourself to SoundCloud, YouTube, AudioMac, you know, basically all of the free sites. And with YouTube, with my clients, we upload the music as well. We don't just upload videos, we upload audio to YouTube as well because that's a place where people go to discover music. We want to be on every platform wherever the fans are, wherever the fans go to discover music. So today we're going to talk about distribution, and that is how you get onto those platforms, right? So, um, there are different types of distribution deals that you can do. And again, this is for those of you that are not signed to a record label, because if you sign to a record label, they're already going to have distribution in place. And if they don't, they're not a record label. Additionally, if they do not have a budget to market and promote you, they're not a record label. If they haven't set themselves up to be a real company and have a team of people in place to help you, they are not a real record label. So just get the terminology correct. If you're trying to sign to a record label, just make sure that it's real and not somebody that just has a business card and a website that says that they're a record label. Let's make sure that they really are a record label. So in getting distribution, there's a bunch of different types of distribution. There are the companies like the TuneCores and the DistroKids that charge a flat fee. What you do is you pay either an annual fee in the case of DistroKid, or you pay per upload, either a single or an album in the case of like TuneCore and DistroKid. They have plans like that as well. You pay a flat fee and then they upload your music for you to all of the paying sites and some of the free sites. They upload to Instagram and TikTok and Facebook and they collect the money for you and then they pay you 100% of the income. And I think they're both amazing companies. This video is not about who you use, but the fact that you use somebody, right? So I'm not advocating one company over another. I'm also not trying to list names, um, because I'm not co-signing anybody. You're gonna have to do the research on your own and find out who's best for your needs. So the thing that I don't love about the flat fee companies is that there's no incentive for them to negotiate a spectacular deal with the platforms because they're not being paid by percentage. Most other distributors are paid, by percentage. So like an average distribution deal is an 80/20 split. So you as the artist or the label collect 80% of the money and the distributor retains 20%, and they get paid that solely to collect your money and to store your music on their platform, on their dashboard at the distributor. So they basically feed you the research, they show you who's download— not downloading, but streaming your music. They show you who's downloading it too, but the The bulk of music today obviously is streaming, so they're showing you who's streaming. Are they male or female? What city are they based in? Are they in the US? Are they international? So you're able to, um, figure out basically the demographics of who you're reaching and where they are. It just helps you in terms of setting up tours and setting up your digital marketing and your promotions. It gives you an idea of where the bulk of your fans are located, what their ages are, are they male or female. There's an entire video that I made about that, so I'm not addressing that today. Today is really just about distribution, but that's what the distributor retains their share for. Not every distribution deal is an 80/20 split. Um, some distribution deals are more in the artist's favor. Like, my clients come through Stem, which is a 92/8 split, but you've got to be a real company with budgets of like a quarter million dollars and up in order to come through a company like Stem. For a smaller distributor, for somebody that's just doing a one-off project, you can come through many, many different companies, and some of them, you know, like an Empire or a CD Baby, will help you with the areas where you need help. They offer label services. AWAL does the same thing, so that if you've got a movement already in place and you need help with video promotion or you need help, you know, with radio promotion if you've got a radio hit, or digital marketing or whatever, They will oftentimes look at your music, send it to their A&R department, who will then structure a budget to advance you funds if they feel that they can make that money back or more than that money back. And then the terms will adjust. Instead of an 80/20 split, it might become a 70/30 or a 60/40 or even a 50/50 or somewhere in between. But the, the split is going to change based on how much they bring to the table. And again, that's very rare. It's rare to find a distributor that believes in you enough to advance you funds to, to market and promote your company. Almost in every scenario, you're going to have to bring funding to the table. You're going to have to— and, and there's a video on how to find an investor, but you're going to have to invest in yourself as well and put up some money to get enough attention to attract a great distributor or to attract an investor who's willing to put up the funds. But again, there are many distributors out here. Just do the research, take a look at the— from the TuneCore to the CD Baby to the AWALs to the Empires, Symphonic. There's a lot of distributors out here. I'm just naming the bigger ones that have been around for a long time. There are a lot of smaller ones that act as middlemen. Just make sure that if you're going to go through a middleman, make sure that they're legit. I'm also watching United Masters pretty closely to see what they're doing. They offer, um, um, uh, sponsorships and endorsements for some of their more, um, higher streaming artists, the ones that already have a movement. So I'm kind of looking to see what they do, you know. I'm, I'm watching, um, CD Baby and TuneCore to see what they're doing on the publishing side because I noticed that they're offering co-publishing deals and admin deals to their, um, to their artists that are distributing. But by far, do-it-yourself artists are the biggest share of the marketplace out here. I think I read that Spotify alone has 40,000 artists uploading music every day, every day, every day. So that's what you're competing against. So how are you going to stand out? And again, I've talked about this in videos, you know, How are you different? How does your content show your difference? Not just your music, but your content. I've talked about that in videos too, and as you know, the, the older videos are at youtube.com/thisiswendyday. So we're talking about all aspects of the music business here. Once you piece together these videos, you're going to be able to put together a plan and figure out how to go attack this market and make money with your music, and that's the goal. I also don't want you to go 100% by these videos. I want you to go and do the research. Find other people. What are they talking about? What are their suggestions? What have they done that works? What have they done that hasn't worked? Put us all together and make a plan. Don't just go by one or two people. Go by as many people as you can. And if we're all saying different shit, that's where you're gonna have to figure it out and figure out what's best for you, your budget, your team, and your needs. Thanks for tuning in, guys.