Five of the Leading Online / Digital Music Distribution Companies
DIGITAL MUSIC CREATION & DISTRIBUTION
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Music distribution has evolved in our modern world from the time of physical music distribution to the current era of online music distribution.
Online distribution has helped new and upcoming artists tremendously. It has assisted in career building and boosting artist exposure.
This is because online distribution companies provide artists a wide platform to distribute music directly to a multitude of online stores. Most importantly, artists can keep a major percentage of their royalties earned.
Another benefit is the process is relatively simple. Once an artist chooses a company, they submit their music digitally to it. The company processes the submission and delivers to a variety of online music outlets. From there, revenue earning streams/downloads can be earned by the artist.
There are five leading online music distribution companies as follows:
- CD BABY
- Ditto
- TuneCore
- LANDR
- SoundCloud
In the following paragraphs, I will outline the basics of each company and summarize their related pros and cons.
CD Baby 
CD Baby is the only distribution platform on the list that offers physical and digital distribution worldwide. They are one of the biggest names and originators of music distribution service that allows musicians to release their content on streaming services all from one place.
PROS
- Good analytics of streams and purchases and great reputation.
- Large music distribution niche and reach.
- Supports digital distribution with vast options available.
- Supports physical (CD and vinyl) distribution with vast options available.
- Cover song licensing is also offered.
- Offers free sync licensing Of Your Productions (Music for TV, film, Games) with Standard and Pro releases.
- Professional publishing administration and social video monetization.
- CD Baby allow you to receive your money through direct deposit to your bank account and Paypal.
- Low commissions and huge earnings for the musician.
CONS
- Has a high initial submission fee that could affect budgeting
- For music, only singles get licensed.
- YouTube monetization commissions of 30% are very high.
- Pricing is $9.95/Single and $35/Album .
- No Soundcloud Monetization.
- $4 taken from CD / Vinyl Sales.
- Payment splitting is not permitted.
Ditto 
Ditto focuses on delivering seamless service, offering good support, guidance, and complete transparency. Ditto distributes your music to over 200 stores, including all the major streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and more. Ditto lets you keep 100% of your rights and royalties, has 24/7 artist support, Pricing starts at $19 a year for one artist.
PROS
- Low initial fee, that allows unlimited music uploads.
- Good Music Distribution Stores / Stream Services.
- Zero commission on earned revenue.
- Fast and routine monthly payment schedule.
- Bank Account Payments.
- 100% Royalty Payout.
- Daily and hourly trending reports from Spotify and iTunes.
- YouTube Monetization.
- Video Promotion.
CONS
- YouTube monetization not available for all artists and charged at 10% commission.
- So many hidden charges.
- Poor customer service.
- Sync licensing is not offered.
- No Vinyl or CD Options.
TuneCore 
TuneCore gets you worldwide digital distribution for albums, singles and ringtones. For a flat fee of $9.99 per single or $29.99 per album yearly, TuneCore artists keep 100% of the profits they earn from sales, downloads, and streaming revenue.
PROS
- Good analytics of streams and purchases and great reputation.
- Large music distribution niche and reach.
- Supports digital distribution with vast options available.
- Supports physical (CD) distribution with vast options available.
- Cover song licensing is also offered.
- Offers free sync licensing of your productions (Music for TV, film, Games) with Standard and Pro releases.
- Professional publishing administration and social video monetization.
- Radio Airplay 100 Free Spins.
- You get to keep all your earnings as it doesn’t charge any commissions.
- Has Social Tools {An App}
- Free ISRC and UPC codes.
- Zero commissions
CONS
- Offers many additional services but additions have individual costs included in the yearly fee.
- They also don’t take commissions, but they are slightly more expensive at an initial $30 on your first year and $50 on your succeeding years.
- Poor Reputation
- 20% for sync licensing deals and YouTube content.
LANDR 
LANDR is the only distribution service that provides you professional mastering and global distribution all in one place. Pricing starts at just $1/month and you keep 100% of your royalties. That means no terms or hidden fees, just all your hard earned royalties.
PROS
- No bogus terms or hidden fees.
- Provides an easy-to-follow reporting dashboard to track your success and fan base.
- Cheap pricing and the ability to keep 100% of your royalties.
- Offers music production and mastering via a desktop app with digital distribution services.
CONS
- Technicality in understanding the mastering interface.
SoundCloud 
SoundCloud is one of the trendiest music listening platforms. Ever since its distribution platform came about, it has gave upcoming artists the exposure that they need to release and publicize their art.
PROS
- Has large audience reach.
- Has a built in analytics.
- Instant messaging between artists and fans.
CONS
- Renders unspecific music search results.
- Requires high music quality, songs are 128Kbps and they have the MP3 file format.
Sarah Mitchell Ekwueme, an African-American with a passion of reflecting her own views on topics through texts and oral statements.
Honestly, I only heard about CDBaby so all this info was new to me and I’m glad I found your site and started reading. Found a couple more interesting articles I read and some even bookmarked so thanks a lot, man.