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You don't have to be famous to have your musical talents shared with the whole world. There are companies that allow vocalists and other musicians to get their work published for streaming on platforms like iTunes, Spotify, Napster, and other big-name services. This allows individuals to skip the need for a music producer and put themselves out there independently.
Finding a music publishing service is a great way to start out in the music industry. Even though today you might just be writing and producing music in your basement, publishing companies allow artists to share their vocal talents with millions and potentially get discovered by a big name label.
Sunday, March 26th
SongCast has been connecting artists with streaming platforms since 2006. The artists who use their services keep 100% of their royalties in exchange for a low monthly fee. SongCast is well-liked by musicians because they are reliable, honest and consistent with their payouts, and they offer excellent customer service. They are a terrific option for music publishing and have earned our highest rating.
TuneCore works with over 100 music streaming platforms to help musicians publish their music. They have been around since 2006 and have gained favor with many artists looking to make a name for themselves. TuneCore is more expensive than most publishing sites, but they are still widely used and have landed many of their artists with big companies. They have a lot to offer for music publishing.
Sentric Music is an independent, British music publishing service. They are free for artists to use, but they will keep 20% of all royalties from a musician's work. Sentric has a straightforward platform that makes it easy for artists to upload and manage their songs and gigs. Broadcast opportunities for artists using Sentric include HBO, Dave, Topman, Eurosport, ITV, and other big brands. We recommend that artists give Sentric a try since their services are free to use for music publishing.
Songtrust is a popular music publishing site that focuses heavily on streamlining processes for artists to collect royalties they are owed. Using their platform costs $100 and requires you to sign up for a one-year membership. There are more free resources offered by Songtrust than many of their competitors, which is a great thing to take advantage of. Overall, they represent themselves professionally and seem like a good option for anyone willing to commit to their services for a full year and pay the $100 fee.
Taxi exists to take song submissions from artists, bands, composers, and songwriters and match them with companies looking for music. Taxi narrows down the submissions they receive to best fit the criteria for businesses reaching out to them, which means your songs may never even be pitched to a client. About 40% of members are pitched each year and about 6% land real connections. If you're starting out in the music industry, Taxi is an expensive route for music publishing and will likely yield little to no results.
CD Baby works with hundreds of music streaming platforms and helps artists get exposure for a reasonable price. They have worked with over 650,000 artists including well-known musicians like Ingrid Michaelson and Paul Cardall. They have a professional website and offer different tools to help artists market their music. However, we found plenty of negative feedback from clients and a less-than-ideal Better Business Bureau rating of B- for CD Baby, so we are apprehensive about recommending their services.
Music Diffusion is a service that helps promote, publish, and license music for artists. They seem to primarily cater to European markets, so pricing and other financial information found here is in euros, rather than dollars. They don't have much client feedback because they seem to be a newer service. Their website is not straightforward enough to help new musicians find their way through the publishing process easily. We were not overly impressed with their presentation, so we recommend using a higher-rated music publishing service.
There are quite a few music publishing services to choose from when exploring your options. A more reputable company will know the ins and outs of getting their musicians the maximum amount of exposure possible. If perhaps your music does get discovered and have millions of streaming listeners, you'll want to use a service that allows you to keep larger portions of sales.
Before choosing the company you want to publish your music, we suggest you keep the following things in mind:
TopConsumerReviews.com has reviewed and ranked the best music publishing services available today. We hope this information helps you achieve your musical aspirations!
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