Go forth and multiply, my tunes!

October 20, 2010 9:52 AM

For digital music distribution, are there any drawbacks to using multiple services like Tunecore, Bandcamp or Nimbit together?

I'm an independent recording musician who has in the past used CD Baby for digital distribution.

I'm now looking into distribution options for my new album, and I see there are quite a few alternatives such as Tunecore, Topspin, Bandcamp, Nimbit, Amazon's CreateSpace.

What disadvantages, if any, are there to just working with, well, all of them?

CD Baby rolls out new releases to a bunch of online outlets like iTunes and Napster, among others. Is it possible that working with multiple sites like suggested above will cause "collisions" in this area?

And are there any legal/financial barriers I should know about when going the multiple outlet route? I am based in the Netherlands, if it matters.

Lastly, did I miss any? Are there any other avenues for digital distribution I should consider or that you would recommend?

Thanks in advance, everyone.

posted by goodnewsfortheinsane to Work & Money (3 answers total)

I'm not familiar with all of the digital music distributors but yes, if you give the rights to numerous distributors and they service the same outlets, you (and the distributor) could run into problems. Say, for example, two different distributors are servicing your songs to iTunes. How will iTunes know which distributor to pay when someone buys one of your song?

Perhaps the major music retailers have systems in place to prevent this i.e. they won't accept the same music from two different distributors but I don't think it will be to your benefit to give various distributors the same rights.
posted by gfrobe at 4:18 PM on October 20, 2010

I haven't read through them, but I'd imagine there's something in the contract with each distributor stating they have the exclusive right to distribute your works during the contract term.
posted by fishmasta at 10:33 PM on October 20, 2010

A professional musician friend of mine talked to us about this recently and said CD Baby isn't what it used to be since Derek Sivers left. She went with Tunecore for her recent album. The implication was that the contracts were exclusive.

(She did not discuss the details of the contracts, just mentioned that she'd chosen Tunecore over CD Baby.)
posted by immlass at 6:51 AM on October 21, 2010