Leaving Tunecore for Distrokid - Part 2

Migrating from Tunecore to Distrokid was much easier than we anticipated. After Tunecore made corporate moves that caused the artist we represent to loose 100K monthly listeners and Tunecore’s announcement that they would begin taking 20% of titles included in their Accelerator Program which includes Spotify’s Discovery Mode (where Spotify already takes 30% ), we knew it was time to make the move. Read earlier post - Leaving Tunecore for Distrokid - Part 1

Admittedly, I had anxiety over moving an artist with 350K monthly listeners from Tunecore to Distrokid as it could jeopardize the streaming accomplishments and income stream we built over the last ten years. But the flip side of staying with Tunecore was certain income loss with their new 20% fee on titles included in Spotify’s Discovery Mode. We had to make a move.

One thing to note is Distrokid’s pricing is higher than advertised once you include “add ons.” There are a couple of “add ons” you will probably want to include like distribution to future new stores and setting up your title with Gracenote, Soundscan etc. I would caution you to only pick the “add ons” you deem necessary or your yearly fees could get pricey.

After consulting with Spotify, Apple, Pandora and Amazon we set the transition into motion. Below are 8 key things to help in transitioning from Tunecore to Distrokid.

1) Take screen shots of streaming history for all titles and screenshots of key playlist placements at major DSPs. This will help you track the success of the migration and will give you backup to provide DSPs should things fall out during the migration.

2) Create a test playlist in Spotify and add all your catalog. This will help you monitor and track any issues with titles disappearing from playlists during migration. This will give you first hand view of what is happening with your titles in other people’s playlists.

3) SUPER IMPORTANT - Use the same ISRC codes when uploading to Distrokid. This will give you the best chance of not losing streaming history and hopefully keep your titles from falling out of playlists.

4) Pick one album to begin with and preferably not one of your top streaming albums. As you begin uploading, pay close attention as the upload process is different with Distrokid. Unfortunately, once you begin an upload, you have to finish as you can’t save progress and return later to finish like you can with Tunecore. You also will not get a notification to check everything one last time before hitting the upload button. It happens quick and you may find yourself uploading before you are ready. I had to cancel the delivery on a couple of releases as I didn’t realize I had delivered them until it was too late. If this happens, act quickly and cancel the delivery. Distrokid delivers to DSPs the same day you upload. If you catch it before they send to DSPs you should be fine but canceling after delivery could create a train wreck for your desired release date.

5) Once you have successfully delivered a song or album, you will get emails from Distrokid notifying you if artwork was a success or not and then emails for each song upload to notify you if the music upload was successful or not. You will have an opportunity to correct any issues.. Distrokid will send another email stating your music is being processed and once they deliver to DSPs, you will get another email stating the music is live and some promotional cards to post. You will be inundated with emails but the upside is you will know that everything was ingested successfully.

6) When you receive the email that your title is live at Spotify, proceed to Tunecore and issue a takedown for the title. You will notice double titles showing up in Spotify for a few days until the takedown takes affect. You may also notice lower stream counts by title when looking at stats in Spotify for Artists. Don’t panic! The all time stream counts will reflect correct history in a few days after the full merge processes.

7) If you have contacts at the DSPs, I recommend alerting them that you are migrating from Tunecore to Distrokid so they can double check on their end that everything transitioned smoothly. If you see your titles drop out of editorial playlists, send them screen shots you took prior to migration and ask for their help putting the titles back in the playlists. The main place we noticed titles falling out of playlist was Amazon but our contact was super helpful in getting the titles added back in.

8) You will most likely see a temporary drop in monthly listeners and streams on Spotify as your titles will drop out of Discovery Mode for the transition month. While a temporary drop is unfortunate, it is a small price to pay for a better future. You will see titles eligible for Discovery mode show up under Campaigns in your Spotify for Artists and you will be able to submit for the following month. Spotify refreshes eligible titles during the first 11 days of each month.

If you choose to make the transition, we wish you the best of luck. The transition brings an exhilarating feeling of freedom as you exit the new greedy environment at Tunecore. You will now be in charge of selecting the titles you choose for Spotify’s Discovery Mode through your Spotify for Artists account and you won’t encounter a 20% fee on top of Spotify’s 30% fee.