If you’ve been considering using Symphonic for your music distribution needs, I’ve reviewed their solution(s) and compared them to the most popular music distributor to help you decide.
Symphonic Distribution is a good distributor because they offer fast unlimited uploads for a fair price without taking a percentage of your earnings. Symphonic is on Spotify’s preferred partner list and they include many features that other distributors charge you extra for.
With that said, navigating all of the different services and plans that Symphonic offers can be a bit overwhelming, so I’ve created a 5-step checklist you can follow to easily jumpstart your Spotify & music career with Symphonic.
P.S. You’ll also find a discount code to get 25% off your first year with Symphonic bundled with your free checklist as well. 🙂
To learn more about the pros and cons of using Symphonic, how their pricing works, and how they compare to the most popular distributor, simply keep on reading, my friend.
Symphonic Distribution Pricing & Plans Explained
Symphonic offers quite a large number of different services for artists, however, the main thing most artists will want to look at is their ‘Starter’ Distribution plan:
Symphonic Distribution costs $19.99 per year for their ‘Starter’ plan. This plan allows you to release unlimited songs and keep 100% of the royalties.
Pro Tip: you can also save 25% off your first year when you grab this free 5-Step Checklist To Jumpstart Your Spotify w/ Symphonic. 🙂
Simply put, Symphonic’s Starter distribution plan gives you everything that an artist needs to release music to streaming services and stores (just like what you’d get with Tunecore or DistroKid).
Symphonic does also offer a ‘Partner’ distribution plan where you pay a percentage of your earnings in lieu of paying an annual fee but you need to put in an application to be considered for this plan.
In addition to music distribution, Symphonic also offers various other services like mastering, video distribution, and full-blown marketing plans that can range anywhere from $50 to $3000+.
Personally, I’d stick to the Starter plan and DIY everything else myself but I can see some artists liking the option for all these optional value-add services.
Is Symphonic Distribution Free?
Symphonic Distribution is not free. You need to either pay a yearly fee or pay a percentage of your earnings depending on the distribution plan that you sign up for.
With that said, you can save 25% off your first year with Symphonic when you grab this free 5-Step Checklist To Jumpstart Your Spotify w/ Symphonic.
Pros & Cons Of Symphonic Distribution
To get a better idea of if Symphonic Distribution is right for you, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of choosing Symphonic to handle your music distribution needs.
Here’s a quick overview of the pros & cons of Symphonic Distribution:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Unlimited releases for a low annual fee | An overwhelming number of options, solutions, and services are available to artists (some self-serve and some are through a deeper partnership) |
| Artists get to keep 100% of their royalties & rights | Some features/services appear to be simple links to other services without any deeper integration (or at least discount) |
| Get your music on Spotify in 1 – 2 days | Symphonic is a new player in the “self-service music distribution” space |
| Free royalty splits with other artists or collaborators | |
| Release dates are built into the price (not an upsell) | |
| Proper distribution to Beatport (no upsell & choose your own label name) | |
| Has worked with lots of reputable artists | |
| Lots of other non-distribution services are available for when your music career grows to need it |
Let’s take a look at these pros and cons in a little bit more detail…
Pros of Using Symphonic Distribution
Symphonic completely nails the basics of what you should look for in a solid music distributor: fast unlimited music uploads for a low annual fee without taking a percentage of your earnings away.
They can distribute to over 200+ streaming services and stores, which normally isn’t something I’d care to speak on but…
They’re a preferred partner for both Spotify & Apple Music and they can actually distribute music to Beatport (without having to pay extra and being able to choose your label name). Sweet. 👍
They also have a way for you to easily do royalty splits that seems quite comparable to how DistroKid handles this with the added bonus that your collaborators do NOT need to pay for a Symphonic account.
Ultimately, these are things that appealed most to me when reviewing Symphonic, but another (potential) pro is that they have a very large list of features, services, and solutions available as well.
TL;DR: Symphonic ticks off all the boxes needed to be a great music distributor with a handful of nice-to-have free features & non-distribution services for when you need them.
Cons of Using Symphonic Distribution
The potential cons of using Symphonic for your music distribution essentially boil down to 2 things:
1. Their newness to “self-service” distribution open to the public (they’ve been in the distro business for 15 years and actually offered something similar behind the scenes called ‘Symphonic Lite’).
2. Becoming overwhelmed by the sheer volume of things on offer.
New(ish) To Self-Service Music Distribution
On the one hand, Symphonic has been in the music distribution business for 15 years and have worked with a pretty impressive list of artists including Imogen Heap, Chet Faker, Waka Flocka Flame, and Daddy Yankee (so you know they can be trusted to do high-quality work).
On the other hand, they’ve moved from application-only distribution to self-service distribution that’s free but takes a percentage to the business model they now have today.
This isn’t something to be too alarmed by but there is always the potential of some growing pains as they settle into this format.
So Many Different Things
Lastly, this can also be seen as a pro, but Symphonic has a wide breadth of services available for music distribution, video distribution, digital marketing, content creation, playlist pitching, TikTok campaigns, and more.
As a new artist looking to get set up, it can be hard to decide where you should start, what path you should take, and what services you should add on.
Sorting through their mega menus that feature dropdown after dropdown of services can definitely get overwhelming.
On top of this, some of the features & services that they list appear to be simple links to other company services without any deeper integration (or at least a discount) available.
TL;DR: There may be growing pains with Symphonic being new to self-service distribution and they have a (potentially) overwhelming number of services and features to decide on.
P.S. I’ve created a 5-step checklist you can follow to help you easily jumpstart your Spotify & music career with Symphonic (it also includes a fancy 25% off code for Symphonic as well). 🤗
Symphonic Distribution vs Distrokid
Although it can’t be overstated enough that DistroKid revolutionized the music distribution space by offering (and popularizing) unlimited song uploads for a low annual price…
Symphonic Distribution is a better music distributor than DistroKid because they are cheaper, faster, have more features & services for when you grow, and have fewer upsells for distribution basics.
Both Symphonic and DistroKid cost $19.99 per year, however, you need to be upsold to DistroKid’s $35.99 per year “Musician Plus” plan in order to be able to set a custom release date or choose a label name.
Both distributors can get your music into Beatport, but it costs an additional $9.99 per month with DistroKid and your label name on Beatport will show up as “DistroKid”.
…Should You Switch To Symphonic From DistroKid?
Would any of this be your sign to switch over from DistroKid to Symphonic? Probably not.
DistroKid’s hidden fees (aka “Album Extras”) are pretty easy (and recommended) to ignore so you’d be doing quite a bit of work switching over to save 15 bucks per year.
However…
If having your music in Beatport is important to you, you may need some of the extra services Symphonic offers, or if you have any reason to simply dislike DistroKid…
Symphonic does look pretty darn good.
Plus – if you did want to switch over (from any distributor really), they have a neat feature that lets you transfer your music over just by pasting in your song’s Spotify URL or UPC and uploading the audio file:
It’s awesome to see so many music distributors rising up to create something even more competitive than what DistroKid originally pioneered in the music distribution space years ago.
…and it’s a pretty good time to be an artist releasing music and it’s likely only going to get better for us as competition continues to heat up. 😎
How To Get Started With Symphonic Distribution
If you’re ready to get started using Symphonic to get your music out to the world, I’d recommend simply starting out with their “Starter Distribution” plan.
It has everything you need to start releasing music to streaming services and stores for an affordable price.
And to make things easier, I’ve also created a free 5-step checklist for you to follow that will help you quickly jumpstart your Spotify & music career with Symphonic.
You won’t want to miss it because…
You’ll also find a sweet discount code to get 25% off your first year with Symphonic bundled with your free checklist as well. 🙂
