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There are numerous videos about how poorly distributors have been handling the removal of artists' music from Spotify. Even worse, you may have seen how there's no customer service at these services. Artists are getting other artists putting up songs on their profiles constantly, or even worse, some AI slop is being served to their audience as them. Frankly, when I watch these videos, it's stuff that's been on my radar for years, but it has gotten way, way worse very fast. But what all of these videos are doing is telling you about the problem—they are not telling you how to make sure you don't get screwed over by these problems, and particularly which distributor is right for you in 2025, since that has changed a lot. So by the end of this newsletter, you will know which distributor you should use in 2025.

Transparency and Credibility

So the first thing I need to do is get this out of the way. Some people will be in the comments saying, "Jesse, how can I trust you? All these distributors have paid you before." What I am going to do in this video is largely say bad things about people who have paid me. Frankly, whether as a consultant, a producer/musician, or as a…influencer, they have all paid me in some way. In my 16 years, many of them I have dinner with—hell, some even own restaurants with sandwiches named after me—and I am still going to say bad things about them.

If you think the couple of hundred or thousand bucks I make from them is worth my integrity, or frankly, what I make by being honest, you clearly don't get my business model.

But here's the thing: they know I have an audience because I am one of the few who isn't full of shit, and that's why they pay me. This will not be any different.

Understanding the Distribution Landscape

So let's do a brief overview of the distribution ecosystem since frankly, most people in the music business I know don't even understand this, and too many music marketers make really stupid charts that get this wrong since they have baby brains.

Before we even get started, let's establish that 95% of the distributors deliver to all the major music listening platforms and 100% of them deliver to the ones that will make up 99.9% of your streams. In fact, there are very, very small differences overall between each platform if you look at their features.

There is one major difference, though: access to customer support that actually helps, and secondly, access to gates that can be opened. So that's a lot of what we'll be discussing.

DISTRIBUTION IN THE MUSIC WORLD IN 2025

Understanding Distribution Tiers

Self Serve

So, first off, we have what I like to call Self-serve distributors. These are the low-level distributors that will accept anyone to sign up and put your music on all the major music platforms. You know them: Distrokid, TuneCore, CD Baby, Too Lost, Landr, RouteNote, Ditto, Horus, and I could go on forever—there are so many of them. But essentially, if you don't need to get accepted through an application and just need to check a box and pay a fee, you're on a self-serve distribution.

Indie DIstros

Then we have Indie Distributors. These are the distributors for the big artists and indie labels outside the major label distribution system that largely strike individual deals with artists and indie labels. Some of these names you may know are The Orchard, FUGA, Believe, STEM, OneRPM, AWAL, Secretly, Spartan, Red Eye—frankly, I could go on and on again.

But basically, you apply to be a part of these distribution companies and get access to a backend that has more gates to open than the self-serve. Most of the time, instead of paying some yearly fee, they take a percentage of your music revenue to give you access to better support and a few gates to open.

Hybrid Distros

Now you may have thought, "Jesse, what about Symphonic, Venice, and United Masters?" Well, those are more complicated since they blur this line in that they have a tier where anyone can sign up, and another tier where you get more special treatment. They approve you upon submission, which, from what I see, happens for most of them at a minimum of half a million streams. But essentially, their model is that they are giving good customer support, and even better support to the artists they strike deals with that perform best on the platform.

Major Labels

Now, above all of those, there are the major labels. The majors may also strike licensing deals with labels and artists and distribute them, but frankly, we all know they have crazy contracts, take percentages, and have many gates they can open. And let's be real—if you are concerned with going with these, stop reading this and get yourself a good lawyer.

THE HELL OF MUSIC DISTRIBUTION TODAY

Pricing

Now some of you are thinking, "Jesse, what about all their pricing tiers and all the different stores they deliver to? That's a big difference." Chief, I gotta be real with you here. The prices I know can be a big deal for some of you, and everyone deals with money differently. But if you want to make a good decision here, you need to hear me out so you understand what the price you are paying is for. Frankly, whether they deliver music to obscure stores like the Blackberry Music Store or whatever barely matters compared to what we're about to discuss, so hear me out and relax for a second.

The Customer Service Crisis

So you have probably seen a bunch of these rant videos on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram. Some describe artists posting on your profile. Others describe Spotify saying you botted your profile even when you didn't—and you have no recourse to argue it since there's no customer service from Spotify or your distributor. Others describe 6 months of talking to an AI customer service bot in circles, where the bot gaslights you till you give up.

@musiclawyerkleeb

This is a cautionary tale not just with DistroKid but with all music distributors. I’m not saying you have to hire a lawyer immediately, b... See more

Others involve getting your profile or song stolen by someone who claims to have legal rights to it by putting a copyright claim on it and dating their song earlier than yours.

Then another will put a content ID on your song for a sample they didn't make, that's a sample of your song, claiming they made it first.

@lizthemusicmanager

@Symphonic Distribution is who I would choose! #fyp #musicindustry #musicbusiness #musicindustrytips #musicroyalties

Others can just be the trouble of another artist having the same name as you from another country where legally they can release, but you just need help getting them off your profile, which used to be easy for many distributors, but in customer service hell, it can be a never-ending cycle of talking to a bot.

MANY SELF-SERVE DISTRIBUTORS HAVE GIVEN UP ON CUSTOMER SERVICE

And while none of this is new, the biggest problem we have is that so many of the companies that distribute music have decided that dealing with their customers is annoying for their corporate board to keep making profits quarter over quarter, so they've nuked their customer service departments.

For example, if you asked me 4 years ago which distributor to go with—even just a year or 2 ago—I'd say Distrokid since their interface and accounting features made musicians' lives easy for a good price. Hint: it definitely isn't that anymore.

Why Customer Service Is Now Everything

But today, the main reason you need to choose a distributor is if you happen to be unlucky enough to have one of the horrible things I listed a minute ago happen to you, you need to get help. Therefore, since nearly all of the distributors have nearly exactly the same features—and the bells and whistles they sell are mostly useless, and the prices are negligible—the main decision is whether they have good customer service. And some of them frankly fail that.

Is Getting on an Indie Distributor the Only Answer?

But you're probably getting the hint that a lot of the self-serve distributors aren't the answer, but we need to talk about the indie distributors too, since they have their own flaws outside of taking 10-15% of your profits.

After all, they have these gates to open, bells and whistles, even departments. But what most of you were excited about is that you could potentially have one of their reps pitch you to Spotify playlists, and you'd be more likely to get on a playlist. 

But the fact is, these distributors have all signed up so many artists that unless your dream is to get on the editorial playlist for the Balearic house playlist, it's really unlikely it's gonna do you any good. Let me explain why.

Curator Favoritism

With all these distributors signing up tons of artists, let's say you're a pop, EDM, or even grunge artist looking to get on the big playlist of your genre when you drop your next single. On average, from what I have seen and discussed with peers, most micro-genre playlists are adding 5 songs a week at best. 

So now you have to hope that with the tons of distributors all pitching Spotify, they are gonna give preference to you because of their relationship with them. We should note those relationships—some are better than others. I used to date someone whose job was to wine and dine playlist curators for placements, and they could get a lot more than other people from that.

So with those slots, you have to hope 3 other artists on your distribution, or the others aren't taking up the slots they keep open for favors.

It’s Become Too Crowded

So the point being, this pitching used to be the big-selling point these distributors would make to artists trying to sign deals with them—they'll get you on editorial playlists. And now frankly, the way they seem to sell is they'll help save you when Spotify claims you botched your profile to death when you did not. Which is a sad commentary on where we are at, and I will admit it is also, since artists can easily see that Radio, Discover Weekly, and other playlists often do them more good.

What Mid-Tier Distributors Actually Offer

So the real thing becomes: what are all these mid-tier distributors doing for you? Well, if you're lucky, they have some marketing placements they can help with. If you do sell physical media, many of them help get you into stores. But really, they are taking a percentage for the support and help they can get you, and if you are really lucky, they get you a sick cover placement or some gates opened that they have access to.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Pricing

Now, my boot-licking music marketing colleagues, looking for some spare influencer marketing budget change—who probably are presently in Satan's (sorry, I meant Suno's) inbox begging for a collab deal—will say, "bro, you're only paying $3.99 a month, you SERIOUSLY expect customer service?" I would be sympathetic to this, but in the past, it would have been unacceptable for a company to take your money and give you no customer service. But since this administration hollowed out the FTC—you know, that was the government agency that handles complaints about companies abandoning customer service—many of these companies now know they can do whatever they want since the cops for customer service are playing Candy Crush instead of doing their job, much like the cops in my neighborhood.

But the real fact of the matter is, yes, you probably need to either pay with your annual distribution fee for the right to get customer service, OR give up 10-15% of your distribution. Well, kinda. I'll keep explaining.

The Contract Clause Confusion

Now, some of you say, "Jesse, I watched this one from ALL-STAR MUSIC ATTORNEY, AND THEY SAID THAT THERE'S A HORRIBLE CLAUSE IN THE CONTRACT WITH THIS ONE DISTRIBUTOR."

Here's the thing with distributors: All of their agreements have flaws. In fact, a lot of the time when an artist says to me, "But their contract with artists says they can do this," I ask them, "Great, which one doesn't have this language?" and I get met with a blank stare. The fact is, right now, some lawyers are doing great work explaining the agreements you sign with self-serve distributors, but there's also a plague of TikToks and reels of morons reading user agreements and getting everything wrong for views. So here's what I encourage you to do:

• Acknowledge that most of these contracts are the same and have the same flaws

• Listen to LAWYERS about the contracts you sign, not TikTok and reel makers who are not lawyers

• Realize one of the main things entertainment lawyers actually do is tell you when a contract is doing something predatory or not to the standards of the industry.

I don't want to weigh in on this part here too much since these companies change all the time, and I am trying to teach you how to make a decision. And that's why I am going to give you a framework so as things change you can make this decision for yourself even when things change.

REDDIT IS BOTH USEFUL AND AWFUL AT CHOOSING A DISTRIBUTOR

So let's get back to that decision. One of the main things people do is they go and look on Reddit to see what people recommend, and I gotta say, this is bad. Now I can look at Reddit as a person who deals with them all and see when someone is complaining because, for example, they are mad a distributor won't fix a thing a distributor doesn't fix, or they are mad about a thing no distributor can do. But I will say this: all of Reddit is filled with complaints about the same distributors not filling customer service tickets, and some are very easy to see are much more cursed than others.

For example, and here's where we have to get into language, my lawyer approved for me to say: In my opinion as a professional, when I have compared the response to Landr compared to others, they seem to be drastically worse than the rest. I have long called them a "cursed" company because of their enthusiasm to replace creators with AI, and it seems they have brought that energy into other parts of the company, from my assessment and years of observing the industry.

Enjoying this? Forward it to a music friend you’d like to be closer to and start a discussion!

Here's how I feel at this point:

Distrokid, Landr, and CD Baby, while being two of the biggest names in music distribution, have earned such a bad reputation for unresolved tickets for legitimate complaints. I would be very wary.

If you are serious about music to the point that it would devastate you if it got taken down from Spotify and other streaming services, or you don't want headaches, you need a distributor that can help you when things go wrong. The biggest part of this decision will be how much you are willing to pay and if you'd like to pay that in the form of a subscription or a percentage.

Pay by Subscription

If you want a subscription, in my assessment of what I have seen talking to thousands of musicians and professionals a year:

Services like TuneCore and Amuse make you pay for their top tiers to get good customer service, but that customer service at least seems to be responsive than the rest of the competition.

Services like Venice, United Masters, and Symphonic allow anyone to sign up but get escalated to higher tiers upon submission, and seem to have invested in customer service to get conflicts resolved. But depending on the agreement, they may take a percentage.

Pay by Percentage

All of the indie distributors are going to offer you bells and whistles like extra marketing opportunities, which can help, potential distribution to real stores, and some even have great sync departments that help with that. But they will take around 10-15% of your royalties for this, and the contract will last for a minimum of a year. But I would not expect this percentage to necessarily lead to gates being opened or many useful tools.

Major Labels

The major labels will sell your soul to Satan—just kidding, Satan is Suno, and they technically don't have enough of a valuation to afford it yet.