Symphonic Distribution Review: A Legit Solution for Your Music?

With the rapid development in the music industry, there has also been subsequent development in the music distribution industries. Traditionally, musicians would rely solely on record labels to distribute their music.

This, however, is a very stressful process since most conventional record labels take advantage of musicians, especially upcoming ones. One of the biggest challenges these musicians face is the distribution of their music. The furthest their music can reach at times is radio airplay at local radio stations, and most of the time, this is not enough.

In recent years, there has been the development of online music distribution platforms. The emergence of companies such as Symphonic, CD Baby and Tunecore has provided a great solution to musicians especially in the distribution of their music.

These platforms give musicians an opportunity to sell their music without having to go through record labels.

What is Symphonic?

Symphonic is an online platform which helps in the distribution of music. It has been existence for around ten years and had since partnered with over 200 online music stores, including some of the world’s largest streaming services such as Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Soundcloud, just to mention a few.

With this kind of online distribution, it is safe to say that Symphonic guarantees its users worldwide distribution of there music. This greatly enhances the fanbase of musicians, therefore establishing you as a musician.

My Story with Symphonic

I have been using Symphonic for a while now. The recent update of Symphonic introduced a whole new set of impressive features. For instance, personally, I was charged $25 as a sign-up fee to join the platform. This fee has since been removed and sign-up is now free.

Before I started using Symphonic, the distribution of my music was really poor, with the best my music had ever performed was when one of my songs was played on a radio station with a small audience.

Since I joined Symphonic, my music has since made its way to some of the world’s largest online music platforms such as Spotify and iTunes. My music is now being played in places I never imagined. Symphonic gives me an analysis and report of where and how many times my music is being played. This has really helped me as a musician to establish myself as a musician. In addition, Symphonic provides services which are relatively affordable.

Key Features of Symphonic

• YouTube Monetization

In YouTube, there are several ways in which an artist can generate revenue from his music. One such way is YouTube monetization. With YouTube monetization, an artist is entitled to earn any ad revenue which is generated from any video on YouTube which has your music. If someone uses your video, you are entitled to get the revenue generated from any ad on that video.

When using Symphonic, it is free to sign up for YouTube monetization. Once your music starts generating ad revenue from YouTube, Symphonic takes a 30% commission from your earnings. Once you start using Symphonic, Symphonic will locate videos on YouTube which are using your music and will ensure that you get the ad revenue generated from the videos. The payment for ad revenue is paid out every four months by Symphonic.

• Soundcloud Monetization

Similar to YouTube, there are ways through which artists can generate additional income from their music on Soundcloud. One such way is Soundcloud monetization. With Soundcloud monetization, you get to generate income from audio ads which come with the songs which you have posted on Soundcloud.

Symphonic is one of the few online music distribution platforms which help musicians to generate revenue from ads on Soundcloud. Soundcloud monetization is also free on Soundcloud. Once your music starts generating ad revenue from Soundcloud, Symphonic takes 30% of the revenue generated, leaving you with 70%. The payment for ad revenue from Soundcloud is also done quarterly by Symphonic.

• Publishing Administration

Music publishing is the protecting, promoting and accounting for music compositions. Music publishing enables you to collect more income from your music. Through music publishing, you are able to collect royalties from your music.
For this feature, Symphonic has partnered with its competitor, TuneCore, to enable this service. In order to gain access to Publishing Administration, you are required to pay a one time fee of $75, after which Symphonic will take a 10% commission after the collection of all publishing royalties available. You, therefore, get to keep 90% of all the publishing royalties.

• SoundExchange Administration

Symphonic also offers the SoundExchange Collection service. SoundExchange Collection enables you to collect the royalties paid for the playback of sound recordings in physical venues, internet radio, and other venues.
For this service, Symphonic takes 30% of the revenue generated from SoundExchange Collection service, and you get to keep 70%. This service, however, is not available to the average client, SoundExchange Collection service is only offered to independent labels and other similar clients.

• SoundScan Registration

Another feature offered by Symphonic is SoundScan registration. SoundScan helps you to monitor how your sales are performing across USA and Canada. This service makes Symphonic stand out as it is not available to any of its main competitors. In order to acquire this service, you have to pay a fee of $10 per album and $2.99 per song.

• Marketing and Promotion

Symphonic also has a Marketing and Promotion feature. Through this feature, Symphonic provides its own marketing and promotional services to help you market and promote your music. Through this feature, Symphonic provides branding and design services to help in the promotion and marketing of your brand.

The branding and design services offered include designing of logos, release covers, custom made videos, video marketing, and release campaign. Marketing services offered by Symphonic include devising a marketing plan, social media analysis, and YouTube optimization. Symphonic has also partnered with internet radio platforms such as Radio Airplay and Feature.fm to help promote your music on internet radio.

• Barcodes

Barcodes are very important when it comes to distributing and selling music. You need the appropriate UPC and ISRC codes in order to do this. Symphonic not only provides this service, but it also provides it for free. The barcodes are obtained through a simple online generator the moment you upload your music to release.

• Cover Song Licensing

In order to release a cover song for a particular artist, you need to have the proper licenses for you to do so. These are sometimes difficult to obtain. When using Symphonic, you can be able to get all the appropriate licensing for you to release a cover song. This is because Symphonic has partnered with Easy Song Licensing. Symphonic charges $14.99 for the licensing of cover songs, including the royalties that will be deducted when your song is streamed and downloaded. Symphonic gets your license in just 1-2 business days.

• Piracy Protection

Piracy is one of the biggest problems facing musicians today. When your music is uploaded to a piracy website, your music can be stolen by other people who can use it as their own. Piracy usually has a very huge negative impact on the sales of your music. Symphonic makes use of an anti-piracy service known as Topple Track to stop piracy. Symphonic charges $7.99 a month for this service. Once you have signed up for this service, Symphonic will detect any of your music which is uploaded illegally and remove it. Symphonic claims to remove 99% of all pirated music, with 90% of the pirated music being removed within 24 hours.

• Analytics and Reporting

The analytics and reporting feature is very important, especially to upcoming artists, since it helps you to determine your fanbase. This feature provides you with data ranging from the number of sales to streaming statistics. Symphonic offers data on sales reports and analytics daily, monthly and quarterly.

• Mastering Services

Mastering is the final stage of making music, which increases the quality of your music. Mastering is usually done before the music is released. Symphonic also takes care of the mastering of your music. This is very convenient since instead of looking for mastering services elsewhere, Symphonic can master your music for you.

This, however, comes at a cost of course. Symphonic charges are as low as $20 to master your song. The mastering services provided by Symphonic are across all genres, from Hip Hop to Electronic Dance Music.

• Compilation Album

Symphonic also has a Compilation Album feature. In most online music distribution platforms, after putting out several releases, it is difficult to follow up those releases with a compilation album. Normally, you would be forced to reassemble those releases from scratch in order to put together a new album. This, however, is not the case with Symphonic. The Compilation album feature simplifies the process significantly. Symphonic charges only $10 for the compilation album. This is more cost effective than paying for a traditional lease.

• Ringtones and other Formats

With Symphonic, you are also able to distribute your music in the form of ringtones. Symphonic has access to Native Instruments, which is a feature used mostly by electronic musicians and producers, which gives you the ability to use STEM, which is an audio format, to release your music.

• Music Video Distribution

Symphonic not only distribute your music but also distributes your music videos. Symphonic has partnered not only with YouTube but also with other major music video platforms such as Vevo and iTunes. Symphony charges a one-time fee of $95 in order to provide this service.

• Artist Payout

Artists using Symphonic are paid after one month. This is a relatively long time to make payments, considering competitor platforms such as CD Baby pay the artists after one week. In addition, the artist can withdraw the payment only if they have surpassed the $50 threshold. This means that you need to have at least $50 in your account for Symphonic to release your payment.

• Royalty Advances

Symphonic has a Royalty Advances feature, where you can ask for an advance payment for anticipated revenue from Symphonic. Symphonic then considers your anticipated revenue before giving you the advance payment. This service, however, is only available to artists who make more than $5000 in annual earnings.

• Social Media Integration

Symphonic also has social media integration. It has a social app known as Symphonic Social. Having social media integration helps the users of Symphonic to expand their fan base through social media. Symphonic Social is able to connect with social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

• Customer Support

Symphonic has incredible customer support service. Inquiries can be made to Symphonic through telephone and email. When you use email, Symphonic will reply in less than 1 business day.

What to expect from Symphonic

When you use Symphonic, you are guaranteed to earn more money from your music compared to other similar platforms. You should also expect your music to get proper distribution across more than 200 online music platforms, including Spotify and Amazon Music.

When you use Symphonic, you should also expect your fanbase to increase exponentially due to the exposure your music will be getting. All in all, you should expect to find a website that is user-friendly, is easy to use, and delivers results.

How does Symphonic work?

Symphonic is an online music distribution platform which is very easy to use. Initially, Symphonic used to charge $25 dollars as a sign-up fee. With the recent update, however, it is free to sign up. You then upload the details about your audio files. These details include details about the release of the audio tracks, the artwork, among other details. You then upload the audio files and then wait to make money from your music. Simple!

Price and Plans

Initially, Symphonic had a sign-up fee of $25, which has since been removed. There is currently no sign-up fee.

Symphonic has two plans which you can apply for. In one plan, you get to retain 85% of all the royalties. In the other plan, Label Services are included. For both plans, you have to send an application to Symphonic and have to be approved before the plans are accepted.

Pros

• Fans are able to make preorders for your music on various platforms such as Amazon and Google Play
• Has partnered with over 200 online music platforms, ensuring good distribution of your music
• Has YouTube and Soundcloud monetization
• You are able to distribute your music through ringtones
• It charges no annual fee
• Has a piracy protection feature
• Distributes your music in both audio and video form
• Easier and cheaper to compile an album

Cons

• Charges a 15% commission for the distribution of your music, which is relatively high
• Payment is done once a month
• Have a high payment threshold of $50
• Has no payment splitting services
• It is a submission based platform, hence not everyone can distribute their music with Symphonic

Verdict

Though not as famous as some of its competitors, Symphonic provides some of the best services available in the online music distribution industry.

They also have a wide array of features, which are provided at very competitive prices.