Symphonic Distribution Review
Symphonic Music Distribution Assessment
Symphonic distribution offers a lot. You'll find music video distribution, publishing administration, marketing support, graphic design, advances, and more. The problem is that none of the extras come with the service you pay for because they're all separate services. Would you be disappointed in how you're handled if you chose Symphonic? Likely not. They'll get your music in the stores they list, if you earn money they'll pay you, and that's all you need. What separates music distributors is their intricacies. You can check out our head-to-head music distribution comparisons here to see how Symphonic measures up against its competitors.
Top Reason to Choose Symphonic Music Distribution
Symphonic specializes in EDM and related genres. It's the best choice if you make that style of music.
Things of note
Take Downs
Symphonic charges a $20 fee per song it has to remove due to accusations of streaming fraud, copyright infringement, or any other violation. Their Distribution Terms state:
In the event that Symphonic takes down any Client Content for any reason, the following will apply: in the event Symphonic receives a takedown request from a DSP or other third party due to a copyright or trademark infringement notice, Symphonic will charge a US $20 processing fee per release.
Exclusive Agreement
Releases you distribute using Symphonic are subject to an exclusive agreement that restricts you from any direct licensing with other platforms without their consent. For example, technically, you'd have to get their consent to upload your music to SoundCloud or Bandcamp or you'd be in breach of their terms. If you want your music on a platform Symphonic doesn't distribute to, you have to wait until it's added to their inventory of stores because you can't distribute the same release anywhere else. Their Terms state:
Client shall not, during the Term, license or attempt to license Client Content to DSP’s without prior written approval from Symphonic. All pre-existing relationships with outside DSP’s related to Client Content, if any, are to be disclosed to Symphonic at the time of entering into this Agreement. During the Term, Client shall not itself make Client Content available via any electronic, digital or mobile platform or channel.
Lack of Transparency
Symphonic's Distribution Terms aren't available to artists unless they subscribe to the service. In effect, you have to pay to find out what you're paying for.
symphonic
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
$19.99
None
Keep 100%
Unlimited
Yes
Doesn't specify
Yes
No
Yes - $24.99/per Track
Undisclosed
1
Yes - Keep 70%
No - Removed from all stores
Yes - Free
Yes
No
Email- General
No dedicated customer support rep
ACH (US only) USD $1.00
Check USD $3.00
eCheck (international) USD $5.00
eCheck (Local UK bank account only) USD $1.50
PayPal USD $1.00 +2% per $9,500 transaction
$2 max for US accounts
$21 max for non-US accounts
Wire Transfer (Non-US resident paid in non-USD) USD $20.00
Wire Transfer (Non-US resident paid in USD) USD $26.00
Wire Transfer (US resident) USD $15.00
Foreign Exchange Rate (Under $5k) 2.50%
Foreign Exchange Rate (Over $5k) 1.90%
2% uncapped
$50
Yes - Subject to 30% Tax
No
Yes - $10 per track
Releases you distribute through Symphonic are exclusive to Symphonic. You cannot enter into any partnships with DSPs without the express consent of Symphonic.
Yes
Undisclosed
