How to Make Money with Music Streaming - 2017

Epsilon-144

Epsilon-144

Musician and Producer
Here's a new article I've written for everyone. It's free and includes all new relevant information.

Basically, it talks about music streaming, and how it pays us as artists. Although it doesn't look like a lot (and wont be a lot of money when you're starting out), it will add up and provide nice (possibly) passive income into the future. The amount of money earned per stream is estimated by Careers in Music in an article they've written (everything is referenced).

Here's what I've written: Epsilon-144 | Music Streaming Article

Feel free to discuss this topic. It's an important new aspect of our industry. Music streaming has over 50% of the industry revenue, overtaking music sales (physical and digital download) this year.
 
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Valuable info there dude.. I checked out Distrokid, looks like a great deal, but I'm too afraid there's a catch somewhere...

Probably when you want to move your catalog to another aggregator or, god forbid get your own deals. This is something you definitely have to check on before you sign your music up anywhere.
-Distrokid says that if you leave they'll take down your music from the stores... but it's not a hard promise. What if they leave it on and simply stop paying you? That has happened.
-Then there's ISRC codes. They mention that you get Distrokid ISRC's.. and I assume that means that you lose these if you leave them. So if you want to continue to sell/stream those tunes, you'll have
to get new ISRC's. If you offer those same tunes again, with the different codes, you can run into a lot of problems.
-How does the reporting work? Do you get to see your actual numbers from the DSPs?
-Can you pick which your music goes to? Like if you don't want to be on Spotify, is that possible?

That stuff is not exclusive to Distrokid though... it's cheap aggregation. You get what you pay for. But you have to be mindful of it, read the fineprint and don't expect too much for little.
So if you put out stuff via a cheap aggregator, keep in mind that it's best to just keep it out via that aggregator, pay for the upkeep, collect the royalties and don't mess with it.

This is a similar service but you pay a yearly fee per song.
Songflow - Simple Digital Music Distribution

Streaming 50% revenue? I think in the areas most FP visitors work in, it's likely more than that. Streaming is your bread and butter.. better embrace it!
A lot of the established industry absolute HATES streaming, because it pays much less.. and because they're dinosaurs :P If you as a new artist/label/promoter can embrace
it from the start and build your business around it, you'll have (at least) one advantage over the major industry. Downloads are on the way down/out. For my own label, as soon
as the revenue picks up I'm going to complete ignore the big download stores as soon as I can. That way I can either offer download exclusives to Beatport or the other niche download stores competing with them,
or sell files directly through my own so I can offer lossless quality, or even HD audio if there's demand for that. For a boutique dance/electronica label like mine that seems like the way to go. Not at first, because I
need every single bit of money that can potentially come in. Based on considerations like that I decided against using a cheap aggregator to put out stuff right now. Because eventually I would move my catalog
and want to manage intricacies like that. Because I eventually want to sign people('s records) I need good reporting and possibly automate it so everybody gets their shares automatically and I can use my sexy interns for other things..

PS.. quick Distrokid tip: if you sign up, don't pick a plan but wait a few days they'll start offering first-year discounts ;)
 
yo thanks localspace, ya everything you mentioned is right. You can select which stores your tunes go into. You can not choose Spotify, and it wont appear on Spotify.

The one you mention, songflow, does look cool too! I'll look into that more, thanks.

There are some really selective stores out there. I forget them but you have to send a few tunes and ...like, pray. lol They only take big names like Flying Lotus, etc. so their consumers know they have only good music, sort of like pandora. It's reliable for having better tunes, ...not just any random tune.
but idk, its kinda nice have your tunes around because sales will pop up on iTunes, Amazon, and the Spotify per stream pennies, etc.

And about the automation, Distrokid automates payments and splits the payments up. If you collab on a tune, Distrokid will automatically split the revenue the way it's set up. If you have a compilation album, you can divide the payments up to go where it needs to go, automatically, ya..
 
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