The Role of Music Distributors
This day in age, in the 21st century the music business can be a very confusing, especially with how much it is constantly changing and evolving everyday. The old industry standards have gone to the way side as new indie startups, crowd funding campaigns, digital distribution, and YouTube musician continue to challenge the status quo. That being said, it is important to understand the role in which music distributors have today in the extremely volatile landscape of the music business.
Traditionally, the distributor was the most important factor for the artist to get their recording in the hands of their fans. They were the medium in which a connection can be made between the band and the fans and therefore increase the popularity and visibility of the band to ultimately earn a profit. However, in the last decade, the business has shifted radically to most sales being made at concerts and festivals due to piracy and the ease of access to digital copies. Still, the overall goal of the distributor remains the same. Essentially the distributor buys the physical copies from the record label at a wholesale price and then sells those copies to the retailers around the world who they have partnerships with. When it comes to moving massive releases of physical copies like CDs and Vinyl’s, major distributors are still essential to the industry. However, when it comes to digital distribution, indie acts or even completely unsigned acts have the capability to achieve world wide distribution with aggregators like CD Baby, Tunecore and DistroKid to name a few. These services each have their own rates but essentially only charge you a small fee and usually let you keep 100% of your royalties.
So, if you’re a major act signed to a mid to major level record label, the record label will already have a deal with a distributor to reach the mass markets and place physical copies in all the major retailers. If you’re just starting out and can’t afford to distribute to the mass market via physical copies, it’s still possible to get your digital music distributed and placed in every major digital retail platform.
References
Ari. (2013, November 24). Who is the best digital distributor? Retrieved May 22, 2016, from: http://aristake.com/?post=92
Dannenfeldt, D. (n.d.). How Music Distributors Work. Retrieved May 22, 2016, from: http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/music-distributor2.htm
Music's Top 40 Money Makers 2012. (2012, March 09). Retrieved May 22, 2016, from:
