Comprehensive Amuse Distribution Review 2024: Pricing, Features & Everything You Need to Know
Assessment
Amuse is a music distribution service that entered the market offering unlimited distribution for free. There were no fees attached: no upfront fee, no annual fee, no percentage of revenue, nothing. It claimed that it had a successful music label that provided the revenue to run its distribution service which it used to identify talent it could sign and develop. Effectively, it was aimed at trying to capture artists before their true market value was realized preventing the label from having to compete with other labels in bidding wars for talent. The goal of Amuse was never to be the best distribution service. The whole setup looked great but was functionally basic. The royalty reports were basic and they got you into a basic package of stores. You didn’t pick Amuse because it was the best, you picked Amuse because it was free. Now, Amuse is a more traditional music distribution service and aims to compete with companies like Tunecore, Distrokid, and CD Baby on the merit of its service. I’m not sure if it compares.
Scale. Scaling a business means growing a company in a way that allows it to handle more business without increasing costs. Amuse invited disaster offering distribution for free. The offer attracted artists with no plans for success but with lots of releases that strained resources and ultimately forced it to adjust. The model was unscalable and unsustainable. Amuse no longer has a free tier, artists on the free tier can no longer distribute releases without upgrading. This isn’t the only change we’ve seen with Amuse as it first tried to get users to pay when it added Amuse Pro naming the free tier "Start", then it added Boost, and then it ditched Start to leave only Boost and Pro. When it added new features, it came with a new tier and higher pricing. The new features were things that came included with other distribution services like Content ID and distribution to Social media platforms. Artists can’t be secure in knowing that they’re going to get what they signed up for when joining Amuse.
Top Reason to Choose Amuse
Team Management. Amuse allows account holders to add Team Members with Roles. You can allow your Manager to edit and create releases but not withdraw funds which is valuable if that’s something you need to do.
Top Features
Advances. You can get your money ahead of time through Amuse’s various advance payment programs but there isn’t a lot of transparency around qualifications and they all come with fees.
Things to note
Stores. Amuse has a limited inventory of stores so if maximum reach is your focus, you may be dissatisfied with Amuse. Though they’ve done better over the years, they still pale in comparison to the number of stores offered by distributors like Tunecore, CD Baby, etc.
Transaction fees. Amuse doesn’t explicitly state that it caps transaction fees. Instead, it states the usual range of fees artists pay which is subject to the average amount withdrawn and not a cap. For example, their $1 - $8 average rate could be a matter of users withdrawing funds when they’ve earned from $34 - $275 which would put the rate at 2.9% of each transaction. Without it being capped, it means you pay more if you earn more and Amuse doesn’t clarify whether that is or isn’t the case.
Details
Amuse
Price - Annual fee
Price per release
Price - Revenue split
Stores
Beatport is a very important store for EDM aritsts and not all distributors send music to it because of the level of set up. Some distributors charge a monthly fee to send music to the store while others roll it into their standard service. The difference between the two options is that a monthly fee will get you a dedicated Label account on Beatport exclusive to your releases. Distributors that send your music to Beatport as part of their service have their distribution companies registered as Labels with the platform and will list your music under their Label.
Beatport
New Stores
Pre-orders
Digital booklets allow you to add something extra to incentivise sales. You can provide buyers with a PDF document containing images, lyrics, thoughts about each track, etc. The PDF would come attached with downloads on iTunes.
Digital Booklets
Dolby Atmos
Custom Label Name
Some distributors restrict you from distributing music for more than one Primary artist. This is a rule to prevent users from building a distribution service on top of the one they're using. When collaborating with other artists you may want to list them as Primary artists while not functioning like a label where you don't plan to dsitribute music for them, you just effectively want to feature them on the release. You shouldn't have to pay for that, but some distributors will charge you. Make sure you view our blog for detailed reviews
Primary Artist
Content-id is a process where an audio fingerprint is created of your song file and a system is ran that scans YouTube and other platforms for matches. If matches are discovered on YouTube, ads are placed on the content and the revenue from the ads are paid out to the distributor, which pays the artist. It's primarily for third party content that's unauthorized but artists commonly use it to monetize channels that don't qualify for the YouTube Partner Program. Check our guide for the best way to monetize YouTube Distributors normally charge a fee between 20 - 30% of revenue and the feature can discourage the free promotion that you'd get from users sharing your music on the platform so it's arguable as to whether it should be activated.
Content ID
Will the distributor remove your music if you cancel your subscription or no longer can afford to pay?
Music Stays Live
Split Pay
Classical
Music Video
Customer Support
A transaction fee is charged every time an artist withdraws their funds. It's a percentage of the amount withdrawn that's charged by the payment gateway that processes the transaction. Different payment gateways charge different fees. The most common gateway is PayPal which charges 2.9% of each transaction.
ACH direct bank transfers usually have reduced fees or no fees at all. These fees can work out to be an additional subscription fee. For example:
Artist withdraws $1,000/Month
Artist pays 2.9%
That amounts to a $29 subscription fee on top of the subscription fee paid to the distributor.
In this scenario, the artist would end up paying $348 in additional fees.
Capped fees means the distribute imposes a maximum where you'll never pay more than that amount. If the distributor says 2.9% up to $0.25 like Tunecore does, it means you'll never pay more than 25¢ in transaction fees.
Transaction Fees
Payment Threshold
Minimum amount required to receive a payment
Countries without a US Tax-treaty are subject to a 30% tax withholding. View your country's tax status here
Tax-Treaty
Requires taking a photo of your ID + a Selfie (less likely). This positions your distributor to doxx you to DSPs and could result in bans being tied to your personal identity if you're ever accused of streaming fraud or any other violation.
KYC
What you're charged per accusation of streaming fraud
Artificial Streaming Fee
Some distributors have Exclusive agreements in their Artist Agreements. These terms allow the distributor to dictate where you can place your music online and strip away your independence. It's advised you seek to avoid distributors with Exclusive terms.
Exclusivity
Does the distributor have to pay a third party for facilitating distribution? If yes, this means you don't keep 100% of your royalties. Instead, your royalties are split between you, the third party, and your distributor.
Direct Deals
We rate distributors on a scale of 1-5 based on transaparency, customer support, how they handle payment, stores, features, and longetivity.Visit our Blog for all music distributor reviews
Payusnomind Rating
Details
Boost:$19.99
Pro: $59.99
None
Keep 100%
Limited
No
Doesn't specify
No
No
No
Boost: No
Pro: Yes
Unclear
Boost: 15% of Royalties
Pro: Keep 100%
Yes - Keep 85%
Varies by plan
No - Removed from all stores
Boost: No
Pro: Yes - Free
No
No
Email- General
No dedicated customer support rep
The standard transaction fee is 2.9%. It isn't clear if Amuse's fee range is based on averae payouts or a cap. A cap restricts the max amount you pay. If Amuse isn't imposing a cap, you can pay an unlimited amount in transaction fees.
$1 - $8+
No
No - Not Subject to 30% Tax
No
Yes - $10 per track
No
Undisclosed
