Hi, Hola, how are you? I am Bebo Best and I am here to give you a hand selflessly.

Hello dear friends, how to get 100 million streams? If I can do it, you can too. I did it, as you can see from what is happening behind me. So why not get advice from someone who has made it, instead of many amateurs who, in the end, give advice and have 1,000 or 10,000 listens? Do it with someone who has achieved something. Hats off to all those who strive to give us information, but do it with someone serious who has had results.

Today we talk a bit about distributors because in recent months I have been looking for some alternatives, but the alternatives are not so promising. I have tried many, especially for smaller projects, because I am obviously already distributed and partnered with major distributors. We will also see which ones later, but I have done some research and taken some notes that I would like to share with you. Mainly because I have seen that there are many unserious people who work and take your money for nothing.

So let’s start with the distributors. I emphasize that I do not take sponsors, nothing. In fact, you will see that I speak badly and also well of more than one. Beware of those who speak well of only one because it means they have been paid.

Okay, let’s start with ********* DistroKid. DistroKid has an easy approach and a good app, but it has a fundamental problem for which I tell you to avoid it. They easily remove your albums, anything under a thousand listens. They are making a policy because DistroKid is associated with Spotify. Spotify is aiming to destroy the small market because it is sponsored by the majors. Therefore, even if Spotify is easy to approach and quite economical, in reality, it does not distribute on many other portals, and it is a scam. For covers, they want a lot of money, and the distribution is quite ridiculous. But above all, they remove your content. It happened to me too. I certainly don’t need to buy listens because I have about 200,000-300,000 monthly listeners, and they accused me of buying fraudulent listens. I wrote in all languages, they removed the album. I don’t care much, but I understand that for someone who is just starting, this is important. So avoid DistroKid.

I then became a partner of Symphonic, ***********which is a good distributor with many good things, and they also allow covers but still require a mechanical license, which means you have to pay money. The second terrible thing is that in 3 months, I couldn’t get even one release approved. I even tested by putting the same release on multiple distributors to see who accepted it without problems. A release accepted by five other distributors was always rejected by Symphonic. So if in 3 months I can’t publish even one, I can’t waste all this time. So avoid Symphonic too, unfortunately. It’s a pity because the price was good.

(update: FINALLY THEY RELEASED A SINGLE, MAYBE DUE TO THIS VIDEO. IF IT WORKS, THIS IS N 1 FOR ME...)

Then there’s AWAL********, a good distributor, very selective. To be in, you must have already done something and be a bit known. I am obviously in, and I passed the first step easily. It has some bad reviews, but I have an album out with them, and they have always paid regularly. They also published albums and a single where I had purposely put some risky names to test. Overall, it worked, and they don’t have cover problems now, if I remember correctly.

To summarize, avoid DistroKid************

AWAL.

AWAL takes 15%, but no other costs so far. Among those I have seen, it is one to mark with a plus sign. If you remember, mark this video with a plus sign somewhere. Like, subscribe, I don’t know, I’m not a YouTuber, but if you do, I’ll make more.

********Collab House is the most promising. Collab House says it gives 100% of the royalties but has a series of problems. They accept covers, but you never understand if a track is accepted or not. I had a thousand difficulties. One track was accepted immediately, but three others have been pending for months. They say to correct, I correct, and they find another error. I have been doing this job for 40 years, published about 500 records. These are not errors; it means the app is poorly made. Their bots work poorly. A person writes to you kindly if you insist, but you waste a lot of time. I couldn’t publish anything except one piece. They have automatic royalty division.

For now, this is one to mark with a plus sign. I don’t remember well about covers, but I think a license is needed here too. Another one with good reviews is Sepulcral Silence. It seems super, has a selection process, asks for documents, but seems very good. I am verifying it now and will let you know.

********Horus Music was very good, but 10 months ago, they reduced royalties by 70%. They are declining, so not a good company. Music Gateway wants €15 for a cover, and I found nothing interesting. I would avoid it too.

********Lender also does catalog transfers, for example, for those who want it, but it costs. A cover costs €12, so it’s not great. Sound Campag, if you happen to come across this distributor, is an absolute disaster. Just avoid it; it’s a mess. They fake listens and steal your money. Sound Campaign is a total scam.

********Amuse was good, but then they also started issuing fines for fraudulent listens on Spotify. Besides withdrawing everything, there’s no way to get it back, and they also give you a $10 fine, which makes no sense. It’s easy to do the math: if they’ve removed a million things so far and fined $10 for each, that’s $20 million they’ve taken just like that.

Off Step is from One RPM. One RPM requires a cover license, but the worst part is that you should stay away from One RPM at all costs because they’ve scammed a lot of people. Anything related to One RPM should be avoided because they’ve burned their reputation and are trying again. I wouldn’t trust them at all.

********Root note is not bad. It also allows you to publish some things, like covers, but they are excluded in the USA, Canada, Mexico, India, and Pakistan, or some distributors are excluded. So, you can publish covers for free only in a limited way. Otherwise, it’s a good site, well-made, etc.

Digital presents itself fantastically but doesn’t have a single review. I found one, so it seems like they make miraculous claims but don’t have any reviews. If there’s one, it might be from their cousin, who knows.

Going back to ********TuneCore, I noticed another point: you need a mechanical license. Exactly, and it’s always a hassle. Then there’s DistroSync, which also requires a license for covers and doesn’t have great reviews. SoundDrop has ultra-negative reviews. They charge $0.99 to publish a track, including covers, which would be a great price, but the reviews are super negative.

So, the ones I mentioned are worth following and saving. You should have noted them down. Overall, I’m okay with TuneCore. I’ll tell you about ********Sepulchral Silence later.

For now, I’d avoid the others. I didn’t mention many because they’re either too expensive, like ********CD Baby, which makes no sense, or they have terrible reviews, so I skipped them directly.

Some charge for the release, or you have to pay annually for renewal. This shouldn’t be the case. You should pay once and know how much you’re paying, and it shouldn’t be too much because these guys need to profit from your work.

I’m telling you this as someone who is a partner of many distribution services. So, if I’m looking for something alternative for smaller projects or for the kids I know, it has to be something that works and doesn’t cost much.

For now, if anyone has interesting suggestions, write them down. If someone points out that I made a mistake in my analysis, let me know. I’m happy to be corrected if there’s something positive. So, share your real experiences. Don’t fill the sites with nonsense because it doesn’t help anyone.

Write if there are positive things, write if there are negative things, even about me. This is all I can give you for now. If you want, subscribe. If not, don’t. If I get enough listeners, I’ll make more. If not, I won’t. Life is beautiful anyway, right? Peace and love, hasta luego, hasta la próxima