Distribution Details

Emotiv distribution through Symphonic offers many noteworthy features not commonly available with other distribution companies helping artists further their music careers outside of simple distribution. These include preorders for a variety of stores, SoundCloud monetization, and music video distribution.

These are the standard distribution features available for every signed Emotiv artist.

Commission and Distribution Fees
The simple and straightforward approach to pricing makes the Symphonic plan competitive compared to other distribution companies on the market. The pricing structure is a 15% commission on your music revenue from Symphonic distribution sales. For clarity, Emotiv contract royalty splits will also apply to the remainder.

Additional Stores and Takedown Costs
You never know when the next Apple Music or Spotify will pop up. Consequently, it makes sense to keep up to date with new platforms and make your music available there. For this reason, Symphonic offers to automatically add the new stores for you free of charge. And if you decide you no longer want your music available online, Symphonic will do this for us free of charge – there are no takedown costs.

Outlets and Release Options
One of Symphonic’s strongest qualities is the wide reach of distribution to over 200 platforms! This includes typical platforms like  Spotify and Apple Music, but also other more-specialized platforms. Symphonic also allows us select whichever stores work for you. We can send your music to all stores or manually select each store you want one-by-one.

Speed To Stores
Symphonic can generally send your music to platforms within 3 business days once reviewed and approved by their intake team. To account for unforseen delays however, we recommend a minimum 2-week lead time. Here’s how they explain it: “We generally approve all releases within 24-48 business hours, not including holidays or weekends, and then it can take up to 24 hours to batch and deliver. Once delivered it can take up to 10 days for the individual DSP [platform] to process the content, which is out of our control.”

Release Dates
Setting a release date for your music is a massively important step that can’t be skipped over. Without picking out a release date in the future – a date with plenty of time to promote your release – you won’t be able to build up any anticipation at all. For this reason, Symphonic offers the ability for you to set the release date for your music free of charge! This stands in contrast to competitor DistroKid, where you have to upgrade to a more expensive plan for this feature. We recommend allowing at least a 2-week lead time for your release date. But we encourage most artists to schedule 3-4 weeks in advance to allow Emotiv to properly promote your release through social media and pitch to radio, press, and playlists.

Exclusive Pre-Releases
An added option is to make your release available on just one platform only before it then becomes available on all platforms. Symphonic also offers an Exclusive Release feature will help hype your music in a unique and effective way.

Preorders
Another way you can build excitement for your release is through a preorder. Fans can pay for the release in advance and then be the first ones to receive it when it goes live. Symphonic includes the preorder feature for free. It is available for several different stores including Apple Music, Amazon, and Google Play.

Barcodes and ISRCs
An important part of distributing music to sell is obtaining the appropriate UPC and ISRC codes. Symphonic includes UPC and ISRC codes for free! You can get the codes you need and can generate physical barcodes through a simple generator online after weu upload your music to release.

Analytics and Reporting
Keeping track of the success of your music online is essential as you build your music career. The data you gather from sales and streaming statistics can be invaluable in learning about who is listening to your music. To that end, RetroSynth / Symphonic offers sales reports and analytics.

SoundExchange Reporting
SoundExchange tracks royalties for your mechanical rights. For many artists, keeping up with SoundExchange submissions with every new release is hassle. Symphonic will take care of those updates for you for each new release you submit for distribution.

These features are available at an additional cost or fee to Symphonic.

YouTube Monetization
YouTube offers extensive opportunities for artists to make extra money on their music. YouTube monetization is free to sign-up for at Symphonic, with just 30% commission off the revenue that is earned. Once you sign up, Symphonic will work to locate any videos using your music and make sure you get the ad revenue from them. This ad revenue is paid out quarterly. They also help to protect your music by ensuring that no one else can monetize it but you.

Soundcloud Monetization
In a similar way to YouTube, there are now opportunities for artists to make money from SoundCloud. SoundCloud monetization works from audio ads associated with your songs posted on SoundCloud. There are no sign-up fees and you earn 70% of the royalties which are paid out quarterly. This feature not available from many other distribution companies.

Publishing Admin
So what about collecting extra royalties? You can earn royalties when your music is performed or when your music is played on radio or TV. Symphonic has actually partnered with their competitor TuneCore with a sign-up cost is a one-time fee of $75. After that they take a 10% commission of the publisher’s share. The rest of the publisher’s share and the full writer’s share gets paid to you.

SoundExchange Collection
Symphonic also offers SoundExchange Collection. This service works to help collect royalties paid for the playback of your songs (sound recordings) on Internet radio, in physical venues, and other places. A 30% commission is taken by Symphonic and the rest is paid to you. This service is not marketed to the average client, ratherSymphonic typically only offers SoundExchange Collection to exclusive artists.

SoundScan Registration
Do you think you have the next big radio hit and want to make sure those plays are counted on Billboard’s music charts? If so, SoundScan registration is a necessity. SoundScan is a special system that helps keep track of sales and charts across the USA and Canada. It is available from Symphonic for a fee of $10 per album or $2.99 per song. Unique to Symphonic, this service is not offered by any of its main competitors such as CD Baby, Tunecore, and DistroKid.

Marketing and Promo (paid option)
In addition to RetroSynths own promotional efforts with radio, press, and social media, Symphonic also can provide their own marketing and promo to help you further market your releases and increase engagement around you and your brand.

Symphonic provides Branding and Design Services

Symphonic also offers a list of Marketing services

Symphonic provide promotional services to radio

Cover Song Licensing
Do you want to record a cover song but need help with getting the correct licenses and paying out the appropriate royalties? Licensing is a simple process with Symphonic due to their partnership with Easy Song Licensing. Licensing a cover song will cost you around $15, plus the royalties that will be deducted as your song is downloaded and streamed. The process for this licensing takes 1-2 business days.

Piracy Protection
There’s nothing worse than working hard and putting countless hours into your music only to discover that it’s been uploaded to a piracy website. Symphonic works to stop piracy with an anti-piracy service they call Topple Track. It costs $7.99 per release per month and you can sign up as soon as you’ve submitted your release. Symphonic will work to locate any instances of your music being uploaded illegally and make sure it is removed. According to their website they have a 99% removal rate, with 90% of those removals happening within 24 hours.

Music Video Distribution
This service from Symphonic helps your music video get far beyond YouTube, including such platforms as Vevo and Apple Music. It even gives you your own artist channel on Vevo. This distribution costs a flat, one-time fee of $95.