In the midst of all the music distributors in the world, I wanted to find one that supports me as an artist and also has direct communication if I need some help or advice around the distribution of music that I release.
It was very important to me that the distributor I would choose would meet my needs and handle my music with care. After all, I have put a lot of work into making a track, then to plan and release.
So with all that in mind, I decided to go with Symphonic Distribution for the following reasons.
Supporting Independent Artists
This was one of my key areas because if I needed some help or assistance with anything to do with my releases, I would have peace of mind that this would be handled well. Symphonic Distribution has done well for me so far, with getting my white listings sorted for all my social media profiles and ensuring I can post all my audio works on these social platforms without any issues. With the most recent, I had a duplicate profile on SoundCloud. Though support can be very busy at times, which I understand with them having a lot of artists and labels to work with every day, they are in the office. Symphonic Distribution did a wonderful job sorting this out for me and was able to have my music releases placed onto the correct profile. Yes, I did have to remove the releases I posted myself to give room for the merge, so no duplicates happen. Once they had corrected this, it was updated in a short time after I had a response back from Symphonic Distribution. Not only that, but they also dealt with the monetisation for me, which is a massive plus; this saves me time from having to work through Soundcloud and manage the monetisation myself.
I know this doesn't sound very critical to most, but for me, the staff at Symphonic Distribution are always polite and very helpful with any support or questions I have for them. Which is exactly what I was looking for in a music distributor. This gives me peace of mind that if anything were to happen that needed attention symphonic seems to be on hand when you need their assistance to rectify or fix something with your music releases.
Global Distribution (Platforms & Stores)
I wanted to reach as many platforms as I can, and with symphonic they distribute to over 200 digital services providers, including the mainstream ones such as Spotify, TikTok, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Soundcloud and many others. They monetise and collect royalties for you. This allows me to focus more time on my music and content like this on my website. I am also able to dedicate more time to helping others in the industry, whether it's a collab or advice on my knowledge.
Symphonic Distribution Pricing
If you are on the starter plan with Symphonic Distribution, you can have 1 artist profile with them and retain 100% of your royalties. The subscription/fee is $19.99 USD per year, which I find decently priced for what they have to offer, which we will go into more detail about shortly.
The only downside is if your payment fails for any reason or you cancel the subscription you music will get removed from all platforms, so bear this in mind if you choose Symphonic Distribution as your distributor. Most distributors do the same when a subscription lapses or is cancelled.
They do have a partner plan, too. From the information I have seen, it can be a custom deal between you and Symphonic or 15% (85/15 split), so you will retain 85% of your earned royalties. The benefits I can see, unless the terms have changed means your music stays live on all platforms and additional services that may not be available to the starter plan or cost extra for a starter plan subscription.
The partner plan is a contractual 3-year deal, and you can have unlimited artists, sub-labels and an unlimited number of releases, whereas the starter plan, as mentioned, has one artist profile and unlimited releases.
Starter Plan Additional Costs
I am currently on the starter plan and eventually looking to upgrade to the partner plan as my journey continues.
Bandcamp Delivery: $9.99 USD per month, once your Bandcamp profile is approved.
FastLane Approvals: $15 USD per release, which you can choose when you submit. Just be careful not to purchase more than once, as one purchase will be sufficient. The purchase is also non-refundable and does not guarantee approval of a release. This is a strictly quicker timeframe to get your release reviewed for the submission process.
FastLane Approvals is currently in beta at the time of writing this. See more at the Symphonic FastLane Approvals helpdesk page.
Music Rights / Agreement
Both plans you retain ownership of all your music rights, I have seen news around this was kind of not the case, Though I have seen myself that in there terms and conditions you are allowing them to ensure that your music is perfectly suited to all platforms they will be publishing your music to, this includes making samples of your music works for demos/previews on certain stores and digital streaming platforms to making sure it meets the needs of all the platforms too.
Symphonic Distribution does need a royalty-free, non-exclusive license to act on your behalf. If they did not have this or you have not agreed to this, then Symphonic may not be able to distribute your music without your permission. So the terms are perfectly fine when using the platform and sending music and artwork to them; you are allowing them to distribute on your behalf, which is a good thing.
Under Symphonics Terms of Use, I have provided a snippet of point 3.3 User content, i.e., your music, artwork and data.
3.3 User Content
You retain ownership of all rights in materials, information, files, data, and other content you upload or submit through the Services (“User Content”) (unless otherwise provided by a Commercial Agreement). By submitting User Content, you grant Symphonic a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to host, reproduce, distribute, display, and adapt such content solely as necessary to operate and improve the Services. Any other distribution, royalty, or exploitation rights for sound recordings, audiovisual works, compositions, and related materials (“Client Content”) are governed by your Commercial Agreement, if any.
Marketing & Partnerships
Symphonic Distribution has many partnerships with other platforms, which opens you up to certain discounts and offers for additional services to help promote and grow your music career. I find this a great resource on their client offerings page in your account, through mastering tools, promotional, analytics and music licensing. The list does keep growing as they are actively partnering with more services to help independent and established artists and labels grow further.
Dashboard And Reporting
Symphonic Distribution has simple yet easy-to-find areas when you log in from the reporting dashboard to find out how your music is doing, down to the royalty reports. Not only that, but they also give you access to StreamSafe, which shows you if you have had bot streams with tips on how to reduce this. The reports are detailed enough and easy to find, so you can see how well your music is doing in the world.
Who Symphonic Distribution Might Not Be For
With so many good points about symphonic there is sometimes a distributor that may not be suitable, and for that, Symphonic Distribution may not be for you if you want music releases out in a very short time, for example, in a few days or the next day / same day to go live. Unless you opt into the FastLane Approvals, to get the release reviewed more quickly. Symphonic Distribution is working hard to make releases go out live more quickly, so this may improve over time or during less busy times.
Symphonic Distribution prefers human-made music and allows AI-assisted music, and if you are making music with fully AI-generated/Spam these releases will get rejected.
The starter plan only allows you to have one artist profile, which will restrict you if you need to manage multiple artists under this plan, so I would suggest applying to the partner plan, which allows multiple artist profiles.
Conclusion
For me, I chose symphonic because all factors are all in favour of what I need at this moment in time, they have a wonderful team of people who are polite and very supportive when you need help. This very reason alone is a big plus for me, that you can get direct contact with a human who will help you. The price for a starter is not high compared to other platforms and gives new and existing artists a starting point without a lot of headaches.
I can understand that releases may not go out as quickly as other platforms like DistroKid. This is due to a few manual processes, which I find is not that bad to be fair, because when releasing music is not all about automated hiccups that may happen because an automated system said so. Though from personal experience I have seen with one of my releases, they were quick to get it actioned, which all depends on how busy their current workflow is. I don't mind this due to the fact that I make music and plan for my releases, so the process works like a dream for me to prepare everything else while I wait.
So far, there have been no major issues, including data from me posting a submission to release on stores and streaming services. There have been no issues with data mismatch or typo errors. Once releases have gone live, they have all been on point, which I love.
Overall, Symphonic Distribution has done well by me and my music. I can honestly say from my experience alone, it has been a very pleasant and great experience so far.
