Distributing Your Music

We realize that the music industry is not an easy jungle to maneuver through. We have created individual Frequently Asked Questions for certain aspects that pertain to the music industry as well as your relationship with us. If you still have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us and we will see to it that your question is answered.

You may be asking yourself, what is Symphonic Distribution? In simple terms, our core business is to deliver music from Musicians to stores such as iTunes, Rhapsody, Spotify, eMusic and more. We provide our partners with resources to be able to deliver their music to online retailers. Each client of ours has the potential to choose a deal that suits them best! We do a ton more but delivering music from one place to the other is the core essence of what we do! Since we’ve launched we’ve paid over $1 Million (and counting) To Record Labels and Artists!

Great question! If you make music, we are the ones you can talk to if you want to get it out there! You simply sign up, choose one of our options and deliver your material using our in house systems and we’ll take care of the rest! You may not know this but delivering music to iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody, Spotify and other partners is not an easy 1-2-3 process. Each partner has specific instructions on how they want content delivered and we have conformed to all of the specifications of each and every partner making your life as easy, or as we say as SYMple as possible!

We charge a fee as we incur several costs to distribute content. These costs range from bandwith, hosting, and registration of UPC and ISRC codes for you to use for free per release. The fee is a one time fee and upon renewal is not requested again. Any additional fees charged to a record label is for payment of royalties via Wire Transfer or Xoom. Fees such as Mechanical Transactions, Voided Transactions, Promotional Expenses are placed by retailers and not Symphonic Distribution. Additionally these fees are not shown in the final statement you receive as they aren’t clearly stated on royalty reports provided to us.

YES! Including Beatport.com! This Option gives you all of your money after the retailer has made theirs. Basically, we just do not take a cut for your music and only charge a sign up fee and a per release delivery fee of $50. This is definitely unique simply because there aren’t distributors out there that are willing to give 100% of royalties from retailers such as Beatport, Juno, Trackitdown, etc…

We will never claim that we are the best but we will tell you that we work VERY hard to ensure you are pleased and that your record label and releases get the recognition they deserve. Through our websites, systems, brands, and services we believe that we can help you grow your brand rather than just simply distributing music from your brand. We have also prepared a comparison page and a page of why we think we are a good fit.

We distribute to hundreds of retailers, mobile apps, and technology partners. Partners such as iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody, Beatport, Spotify and more will receive your content. A full list of active partners is found via the Content Portal and you can see and learn more about our distribution network via the “Partners” section above.

Symphonic Distribution distributes to a diverse range of digital services providers, including online stores, mobile stores, mobile apps, technology and streaming services. Some of these cater to all kinds of music, some focus around particular genres such as electronic and dance. Upon sign up, you will see the list of approved partners and for each and every release, you will have the option to send to all or some of the partners.

Unfortunately no. Any distributor that claims they can “guarantee” this is one that should be questioned. The reason isn’t due to our choice and/or a choice of a record label, it is up to a retailer to approve and add a record label on to their brand thus why it’s impossible to guarantee placement. Our guarantee to you is that we will send content in hopes of it getting added and will work towards ensuring your record label receives approval.

We are glad you asked! We have prepared a page that lists out just some of what makes us different. This is an unbiased comparison of the services we offer as well as what our competition offers. We will never claim we are perfect and we respect each and every distribution company that is working hard to excel the hard working labels located around the world. To view the comparison, click here!

The chances of you being accepted by Beatport are much better than ever before with the help of Symphonic Distribution. The truth is though that they and other partners do reserve the right to accept and/or deny your label. We send in approvals for the partners that require approval each and every month and if not accepted we will work hard to help you do what you need to do to get approved. In addition, some partners are genre specific and sell content for specific genres thus if your material is Rock, it may not go on one of our partner platforms that specializes in Dance. Your chances of being approved are very high though so we ask that you be patient and follow the instructions listed on the Distribution agreement you sign.

It is possible that your material may be taken off a partner platform. This does not mean that you will be terminated from Symphonic Distribution only that at this time, the partner does not wish to sell your brand. It does happen but with us as your partner, we will give you the tools and resources you need to ensure your brand remains on partner platforms.

We understand that you may have agreements with other stores and thus don’t force you to give up those agreements when you join. We are a non-exclusive distributor with a network of over 300 online retailers and our network is in constant growth. When you sign up with us, you have the choice to distribute your content to as many retailers as you want. By distributing to a store you choose, we become the only distributor able to send your music. If you have agreements with some of the stores we distribute, you may keep that relationship active and/or transfer over the responsibility to us.

As long as they don’t deliver to the same stores we deal with and you have told us that you have agreements and don’t want us to interfere, then we do not have issues. It’s all about each partner having the ability to distribute an album to a particular store. Unfortunately, two distributors cannot distribute the same content to one store, it must be a unique and non interfering partnership.

Our contract term is 2 years for each option that we offer. Even though 2 years may seem like a long time, it’s actually quite short compared to other distribution companies and we chose 2 year terms to secure a long standing partnership with each prospective client.

Unfortunately, we do not accept cancellations within the term of an agreement. Such cancellations or breaches of contract will be dealt with individually and through our legal department and may result in you paying specific fees to justify the cancellation.

Yes, you still own every piece of music you send to us. All we do is simply distribute music you supply to us via the Content Portal to retailers worldwide. You are responsible for the content you distribute and can only claim ownership of material that you have the rights for.

Re-licensing of material is not something we prevent you from doing. If need be, we can take down the track or release (although it may take a long time to do so). It is your label, not ours, thus you have control of what you want to release, when you want to release it, and where you want to release it.

Our core service is Digital in the form of Distribution, Marketing, etc., however, we do have partnerships with companies such as Eternite Media (who assist artists and record labels with the physical duplication of CDs and DVDs as well as other services), and also with CreateSpace who allows you to have physical products sold via Amazon. As far as Physical Distribution, we are always looking out for beneficial opportunities for our clients but as of right now, we do not have any established physical distribution partnerships.