DISCLAIMER: This blog documents my own experiences and needs. I am aiming for a digital release, and will be talking mostly about digitally releasing.
If you decide to self-release your music, to get it on quite a few digital websites for buying and downloading music, you need to have a distributor. Obviously, you can put it on iTunes and similar websites without a distributor, but online radio sites like Spotify and the like require you to have a distributor. Pandora doesn't, but you need an iTunes link. Finding a digital distributor is easy, but finding an affordable, simple, well-working distributor is hard. There are quite a few out there. They all do mostly the same thing, but for different prices with small differences.
Thankfully, I found this site in my internet research, which helped me decide. The page has a really helpful graph which I simply printed and then counted up the pros and cons for me, then decided. Things that really mattered most to me were cost (on a variety of things, including the actual album itself, the label name, UPC codes, etc.), the amount of commission the site would take, and the customer support. In the end, I went with CDbaby, as it makes the most sense for my budget and things. Obviously, your primary needs and budget may be different than mine, and everyone should use the distributor that will help them the most. CDbaby (and some others) can provide and distribute CDs on their website and in stores all around, and can distribute vinyl and sell it on their website.
If you saw the term "UPC codes" up above and your immediate reaction was "What the f@%& is that???" don't worry, I'll go over those (and some other complicated stuff) in the next post.
So, go do some research on distributors and distribution deals. Everyone's needs and budget is different, and you have to pick the one that is right for you. I chose CDbaby. Let me know in the comments below what your choice is, or your opinion on the distribution deals! This is meant to be sort of a discussion/info/diary place for independent artists like myself, so I encourage discussion and the sharing of information.
Until next time,
Lumina
