Glossary / Release

Industry terms

Music distributor

A music distributor delivers your releases to streaming services and stores, and collects the money they earn from plays and sales.

Also called: distributor, digital distributor, aggregator

By Aulto · Last reviewed

What does a distributor actually do?

It takes your audio, artwork and metadata, checks them against each service's rules, and delivers the release. Afterwards it collects the reports and royalties from every service and pays you your share.

How do distributors charge?

Usually one of three ways: a yearly fee, a fee per release, or a percentage of what you earn. Some do a mix.

What should you check before choosing one?

Which services they deliver to (in India, that includes JioSaavn and other regional platforms), how fast they deliver, how they handle regional-language metadata, and how often they pay out.

Example

An independent Tamil artist uploads a single to their distributor, sets the release date and language, and it goes live on Spotify, JioSaavn and Apple Music on the same morning.

Common questions

Can I use more than one distributor?

Yes, for different releases. The same release should only go out through one distributor, or services will see duplicates.

  • DSP

    DSP (digital service provider) is the industry's name for streaming services and digital stores, like Spotify, JioSaavn, Apple Music and YouTube Music.

  • Metadata

    Metadata is the information attached to a release: title, artist names, credits, language, genre, release date and codes like the ISRC and UPC.

  • ISRC

    An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is a 12-character code that identifies one specific recording, so its plays and sales can be tracked and paid.

  • UPC

    A UPC is the barcode number that identifies a whole release (a single, EP or album), while each track on it has its own ISRC.

  • Cover art

    Cover art is the square image that represents a release on every streaming service, store and smart link page.

  • Drop

    A drop is a release that goes out at a set moment, like a new song, a merch line or a product, announced ahead so people show up at once.

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