Distribute Your Music

Along with our Live Music Calendar, Visit St. Augustine has launched the Musician to Musician program — a series of in-person events and online content — in service of our local music scene. 

Want to post your music for free? 

Quite a few platforms invite artists to post their music for free. These include YouTube, SoundCloud, and Bandcamp, to name a few. Such services allow artists to create an account and post audio files directly onto their website. Out of these three, YouTube is arguably the most popular. 

So, in order to help our local musicians promote their music online, Visit St. Augustine teamed up with Tristan Leahy (guitarist for local band Naum) to create a YouTube Quick Start video. 

Click below to follow along with Tristan as he goes over how to create a channel and upload your first video:

Musician to Musician Mini-Article #1 — 

What the heck is a music distributor?

[Download this article as a PDF document.]

With dozens of music streaming platforms and social media sites, sharing your music without a record label is easier than ever in 2024. (If you can get over the analysis paralysis that comes with so many choices.)

Of course, there are some major players whose platforms have the most users. The top three are Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora.

Sometimes (especially for bands that play original music), the number of listeners that you have on streaming platforms can play a part in a venue or record label's decision to collaborate. Whether you're trying to go big or just want to put your music out there for people to find, Visit St Augustine is here to help!

Barrier to entry on major streaming platforms

Unlike other streaming sites like YouTube, it is not free to post your music on Spotify, Apple Music, or Pandora. These streaming services require artists to go through a third party — either a record label or a service called a music distributor/music aggregator. 

What is a DIY music distributor?

For bands that don't yet have a relationship with a record label or simply want to control their music releases themselves, online music distributors are an excellent option for publishing. Some small record labels use them, too. Music distributors usually charge subscription fees or per song/album upload.

Which independent music distributor do I use?

There are a variety of DIY music distributors on the internet — for this Musician to Musician mini article, we'll give you an overview of three of the major music distributors.

CD Baby

Founded in 1998, CD Baby has changed with the times over nearly 30 years. CD Baby is also an educational resource for music marketing and monetization.

Instead of charging a subscription fee for their services, CD Baby charges a flat fee each time you upload a single or an album. In return, the company keeps 9% of your digital distribution revenue.

Cost: $9.99 per upload

Record Union

Record Union was the first DIY music distributor to partner with Spotify, founded in 2008.

Along with distributing your tracks to 20+ global music platforms, Record Union can also help users publish custom Electronic Press Kits.

Cost: $14.00 to $150.00/yr

Distrokid

Launched in 2013, Distrokid is a very popular music distributor that can post your music to 30+ streaming platforms, including social media websites.

Distrokid is a monthly subscription service with payment tiers. However, one catch with this distributor is that you're not able to downgrade your subscription without deleting your account.

Cost: $22.99 to $89.99/yr

Thank you for reading!

Thank you for tuning into this Musician to Musician mini article. If you'd like more in-depth information about these music distributors or are interested in more Musician to Musician content, email [email protected].

Let us know what platforms or practices our local artists might be interested in learning more about.

[Download this article as a PDF document.]