What musicians should know about digital distribution

Music distribution is the connection and process of getting your finished music or album into your fan base and future fans ears and hands. Distribution is a big part of promoting your music. It used to be that brick and mortar stores were the only way for record labels and independent artists to reach their listeners and fans with their records and albums. But in 2015 for the first time digital distribution sales had surpassed the physical medium sales and continue to still to this day. As a band, musician, or artist digital distribution is an absolute must in order to reach your supporters, fans, and potential fans. There’s a great quote “work smarter not harder” because smart distribution can increase your visibility, get your music into more listeners' hands, and get you paid for your music. Let’s first start by defining what music distribution is. Music distribution is how your music gets delivered to your listeners. It used to be where distributors and record labels would enter agreements to sell artists music in brick and mortar stores. This would make the distributor a middleman which gave them a cut of the album or record sales. This type of distribution, we can call it physical distribution was also and still is a very difficult way to sell your music. It’s often only major or signed artists who get the shelf space in major retail stores. A lot of the time you also may have to sign an exclusivity deal which can prevent you from selling your music in other stores. Physical distribution can often take weeks or months due to the printing and manufacturing process to get the inventory of CD’s or records into the stores. With the advancement of technology and online retailers and shops music has become one of those commodities to transition into the digital realm.