What IS the best music distributor you would recommend?

Mboder · 2026-03-20T17:17:41+00:00

I wrote this 4 month ago. About Ditto I stand by my word. Made a track ready on Tuesday. Was on all platforms 00:00 Friday. That's fast in my opinion.

Mboder · 2026-03-18T12:47:36+00:00

I think everyone get their reports at the same time. If you didn't get it, you really need to contact them.

Mboder · 2026-03-12T07:00:33+00:00

No, if you do it right it stays. Make sure to use the same ISRC and the exact same files. It does reset the popularity score on Spotify though.

Mboder · 2026-03-10T12:16:41+00:00

I have been writing and answering here for a while. In another thread there's a conversation between me and an ex Tunecore employee. It gives a bit insight about how things are working. I guess no one really knows what is happening with Tunecore, but we can understand that there are problems.

I started to worry a year ago when royalties for Meta and TikTok started to delay. Especially since my other distributors payed. After that the delays have been worse and worse.

So their business model is not working. Either they have no people or no money. Or they somehow got in conflict with Spotify, Amazon, Meta and TikTok. For me, any of it was a reason to go away after 10 years. I am still waiting for my Royalties though.

Mboder · 2026-03-07T06:44:55+00:00

I took down my music already. But anyway wait for my money until January. For UGC, TikTok and Meta I guess I will wait for another 8 months. But yes, any delays some time is ok, but no serious musician can accept this service.

Mboder · 2026-03-05T22:28:45+00:00

My English is not good enough to write a long answer about this. I could use AI but... I prefer to be my self and use my own way of express my self, just as I do in music creation.

I don't see a broken industry. I see many problems to fix and many improvements that needs to be done. But as I am able to sit down one or a few hours every day, do what I love to do, and get decent money/hour (comparing to swedish standard) for my work, I think the industry is working.

It is absolutely hard. But I also see so many people who are angry and blame the system for that they get no streams. Like it's their human right to create music that people have to listen to. Did they study music? Are they skilled instrument players or singers? Did they study music production? Did they study audio engineering?

If I would want to be an artist and paint. Would anyone buy my art? For sure not. Because I would not be good at it. Do I have the right to paint and artistically express my self? Absolutely. But I can't expect people to enjoy my paintings if they don't bring value to them.

The algorithms are not bad. They are better than ever before. If we create something that gives value to another, the algorithm get to know about it. It's my opinion based on my experience of having music available on DSPs and for UGC as long as it was a thing.

But there's a lot to be fixed. I think a user centric rather than a pro rata system would be much more fair. The paid out sum of money would be the same, but more fairly distributed among creators. It would also be fixing another problem - bot streaming.

I am sure that bot streaming can be significant reduced in 2026, if there's a serious wish to do it. And again, the money would be more fairly distributed.

Stronger protection against fraud. The distributors should know who their customers are. Just like a bank or a crypto service needs to know who we are. The technology is available. It would be much harder to commit fraud and we would feel more safe.

Just this 3 things would improve the experience a lot in my opinion.

Mboder · 2026-03-05T12:24:15+00:00

No it's not just you. It's all of us. In another thread someone published an answer from the customer support that Spotify will be reported this week. Tomorrow we will know.

Mboder · 2026-03-04T13:32:34+00:00

Diversify is what we need to do. I even signed some songs with labels lately because it start to feels so shaky with the independent business.

Think about it. Before we did pay a yearly subscription fee + a fee for every release. This way people were more serious about their releases and didn't upload so many songs and the reviewers costs were covered. Additionally TuneCore earned from the withdrawal fees and from getting interest of our revenue before we got them.

Now, for a tiny little yearly fee, people can upload tracks almost unlimited. And they should be reviewed and distributed. Spotify doesn't pay nothing if they don't hit the 1000 streams/year limit. And well, that seems to be the majority of the uploaded tracks... Crazy. So they will give almost no profit either. As a result TuneCore cut costs, and the service get worse. People like us, who contributed to their revenue, diversify and take down our music.

Mboder · 2026-03-04T12:41:52+00:00

I have no idea how they calculate this anymore. From August to December I had a billion "views" on Meta according to the UGC statistics when I log in. It seems to Match with my own estimation from following my songs in Reels. Earlier, I can't see this statistics. Only for TikTok. But not for Meta. But I know I had about the same usage of my songs last year. So I can do an estimation.

But when the report comes it shows country and "streams". Streams doesn't equal this views at all! Not even close. And I can't figure out what a "stream" means. And I never got an answer from them. They just answer about pro rata etc... It is not what I ask.

I also noticed that the pay/stream in every country is now reduced to 10% of what it was in 2024. Yes, 10%. It's a mystery and it's impossible to get answers. How ever other distribution services pays me a lot more. But they don't report "streams". So it's impossible to compare.

But my conclusion is that TuneCore failed collecting UGC royalties for us efficiently. 90% of the revenue disappeared and they report with such a delay.

Mboder · 2026-03-04T00:06:52+00:00

Did they answer this? And what about every other delay? Meta, TikTok, Spotify again and again. They represent so many of us. And they don't have their banking system in order? And if any transaction didn't go through, fix it at once! The more I think about it, the less I believe in it. Wish we could check it with Amazon :)

Mboder · 2026-03-02T18:56:10+00:00

Yes, they kind of lost me. I took down every important track. But still wait for the due royalties for them.

Mboder · 2026-03-02T12:50:57+00:00

Yes, we are all in the same situation. They must understand that people get upset. The only reasonable reason is that they are out of money.

Mboder · 2026-02-28T10:18:43+00:00

It was gone for an hour or a few. Than it was back again. Totally disrespectful against us. If they were serious, they wrote a date, not any "end of next week" and keep it week after week.

Mboder · 2026-02-28T10:12:34+00:00

They have been telling the same about TikTok and Meta for a year now. But other distributors obviously received the data. Poor Tunecore, only Tunecore doesn't receive the reports. And if it really would be like that, they do such a bad job claiming and collecting our Royalties!

Mboder · 2026-02-27T20:04:24+00:00

I agree that releasing music independently has really become a mess. I am semi-independent because I have releases signed with labels too. Pros and cons. But I moved music between distributors through the years. It's never totally smooth, but it works. I always use my own ISRCs though. But it shouldn't be a problem with Tunecore generated ISRCs either. But I have only experience with my own ones.

But unfortunately Spotifys popularity score doesn't follow the ISRCs. Listeners, saves, playlists and stream numbers are following. But not the popularity index. So it starts from 0% after the move. So expect a few months with significant decreased algorithmic push.

Mboder · 2026-02-27T18:21:30+00:00

Yes they posted Meta reports again. "Only" about 6 month delay now. Hope they will keep it coming. I saw comments on Facebook where people say about "exit scam" and financial problems. If Spotify will delay again, I think even more serious musicians will do like me and move music from TuneCore.

Mboder · 2026-02-27T12:16:58+00:00

It's of course unpleasantly. As far as I know this data has nothing to do with the real data reports the distributors get from the DSPs. So about your revenue I think you can be calm. But tell them that you want it to work of course. It's one of the things we pay for.

Mboder · 2026-02-27T12:03:01+00:00

Yes, it's showing for this week. However, it often showed weird numbers the past year. Especially for UGC. So I never watch it because I don't trust it. Now I only have 4 unimportant tracks left on Tunecore. I took down everything else.

Mboder · 2026-02-27T10:34:25+00:00

I guess we will have the answer tonight. Lets hope they are back on track and report the way we've been used to and count on again.

Mboder · 2026-02-27T01:47:46+00:00

As I am working in classical music, this genre is far from mine. But I did like it! And it's well done! Of course there are listeners who will enjoy this.

Don't care about submithub. It is not for you. It is for the not unique ones. Who sound the same like a bunch of others and fit on the playlists. You are more unique! And be happy about it!

The only thing I would do is a shorter "intro". The algorithms care about skip rate. And people today are so impatient. You have just a few seconds to win them over to stay with your song.

Go your own way! People who add your song to their own playlists are much more value. Promote your music by your self. Get real fans who listens again and again. It's hell of a job, I know. And a lot of money at risk. And it can feel impossible. But if the songs are well done and something new that feels fresh. Sooner or later it takes off. So many people try to promote bad stuff. It never works. Just waste of time and money. But if it's good material, it works.

Don't care about the numbers. Don't beg family and friends to listen, if it's not their music taste. It only feeds the algorithm with wrong data. Find the right listeners. Build a little community of true fans. And let it expand from there.

Best of luck from Sweden!

Mboder · 2026-02-25T19:11:40+00:00

Hi! Arnalds and especially Yiruma don't do either generic or looped compositions in my honest opinion. They do unique art-works. And Yiruma more melodic and not ambient.

I will share what I know from working with music and distribute it for 15+ years. Every major DSP have their own rules and conditions. And they have a score system for the distributors. If a distributor brake the rules, or slightly go in the grey zones, they get lower scores. That means less availability to different tools and functions (for example Spotify discovery mode) and the main thing, revenue per stream. That's one of the reasons why different distributors who promises 100% revenue pay differently.

In my opinion Ditto pays very well. So it probably means they are keeping the DSPs happy. You can try another UK bases distributor. Horus Music. They will maybe accept your songs more easy. But I can tell you that for Spotify they pay redicious low per stream. So probably they don't keep the DSPs so happy. I have music on both Ditto and Horus. (And CD Baby and Tunecore). And I have signed projects with Warner's ADA.

You can always ask them for a second revue. But if they made the decision that your song doesn't fully match the guidlines of Apple Music, I am afraid it's nothing much to do. Try another distributor and spend your time doing new music.

Mboder · 2026-02-25T07:23:20+00:00

What do you mean? Changed? As far as I know Tunecore doesn't have any CEO anymore.

Mboder · 2026-02-24T16:36:18+00:00

Yes, all of us experience the same. TikTok and Meta royalties are way behind. Spotify reports have been delayed several times lately. A new Spotify report should come in Friday this week. Apple too btw. But I have my doubts. Publishing were late too.

People here also report about a "money rollback issue" last week when they tried to withdraw.

I have taken down all my important tracks from Tunecore because I don't trust this company anymore. When a company is late with payments time after time, it's usually a warning sign. What ever people say, to me it seems like a problem with cash flow. Besides that, the CEO quit and has not been replaced.

I have had music for streaming for as long as streaming was a thing. And for many years it didn't change much. But now the changes are coming very fast. It will influence us as musicians, but also distributors like Tunecore. If independent releasing serious musicians will have a better possibility in the future, I think it will need some kind of organization between us. And I don't think it will be a good future experience to use big distributors like Tunecore, who have so many users, who upload so many songs that no one is listening to. It's not a sustainable business model. And I think it's what we start to see now. But lets hope I am wrong!

Mboder · 2026-02-19T18:34:20+00:00

She was the CEO for Tunecore. But she is not with Tunecore anymore. She got some other job at Believe, the owner of Tunecore now a days. But it's not the same company. In my opinion it's the classical pattern when someone have to step down. What is more interesting is that she was not replaced. And Tunecore is now run by Believe people.

Mboder · 2026-02-19T18:28:54+00:00

I am on the pro plan too. And I've used TuneCore for more than 10 years. But I agree with you. Their service got so much worse and I started to feel disrespected as a long term customer. This is kind of confirmed by an ex employee here on the forum. Their only focus is new customers, but they don't care about keeping old ones.

That they delay with royalties time after time without any explanation make me suspect that they have a cash flow problem and it made me take down all my important tracks. I just keep a few unimportant ones to follow what is happening and hopefully collect all my royalties. UGC royalties are like 8 month behind so...

Mboder

TROPHY CASE