How Do I Switch From Distrokid to EmuBands?

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How Do I Switch From Distrokid to EmuBands?

If you’re thinking about switching from DistroKid to EmuBands, you’re not alone. While both services help artists get their music onto the world’s biggest streaming platforms, many artists are looking for a distributor that offers more personal support and a more hands-on approach.

Since 2005, EmuBands has remained fully independent and owner-operated. We’re built by music people, for music people, with a focus on helping artists, labels and managers release their music successfully. When you need help, you’ll speak to a real person who understands music distribution, not just a support queue.

Whether you’re releasing your first single or managing an established catalogue, switching to EmuBands from Distrokid is straightforward, and you can keep your existing streams, playlists and followers by using the same ISRCs.

When you switch to Emubands from Distrokid, you can expect replies to your queries within a maximum of days, not weeks.

There’s no simple switch in the back-end of streaming services to transfer catalogues, the process of switching your releases from Distrokid (or any distributor) to EmuBands involves you adding identical versions of those releases to the EmuBands system, before asking Distrokid to take their versions down.

Why EmuBands?

We’re a Spotify Preferred Provider
Get Instant Access to Spotify for Artists
Set Your Own Release Date: As far in advance as you want, at no extra cost
Keep 100% of your Royalties – We do not take commission from what you earn
A range of tiers to suit your needs, with simple, one-time set-up fees per release
Pre-save Link Set-up – We can help you set up a pre-save campaign
Playlist Pitching – Get your music heard by editors
Royalty Payment Splitting – Set up automatic splits for collaborators
Stay In Control – Request a royalty payment at any time, with no minimum threshold
No Hidden Costs
Expert Support – Our expert customer service team have been providing specialist guidance and support to thousands of artists and labels since 2005

EmuBands has been independently owned since launching in 2005. That independence allows us to focus on one thing: helping artists release music successfully. We don’t answer to outside investors or prioritise growth over service. Instead, we’ve built our reputation by providing straightforward distribution, transparent pricing and responsive human support for more than twenty years.

Here are some things you should bear in mind when you’re ready to switch from Distrokid to EmuBands:

Choose Your Tier

What level of support and services do you require?
We have four packages – Basic, Plus, Pro and Premium.

Basic – Our no frills, low-cost distribution service with no annual fees. Simply pay the set-up cost for your release, and that’s it.

Plus – This has lots of Supercharged Release Features, like custom pricing, label name, custom track title casing/capitalisation, and much more.

Pro – Professional Tools & Expert Support. Get playlist pitching, royalty payment splitting, and a personal account manager available via phone & live chat.

Premium – Everything you enjoy in Pro, as well as unlimited releases (no per-release fees).

Here’s the full list of features for each package: Pricing and Plans.

Add Your Releases

Once you’ve picked your support package, it’s time to add your releases.
This is a really simple process; our uploader tool can be accessed at any time within your EmuBands account – just hit the green ‘Add a New Release’ button on the homepage of the Dashboard.

Make Sure Your Play Counts Transfer

A question we’re asked a lot; “How do I keep my streams & followers on Spotify?”.

We have a lot of experience in making sure artists & labels give themselves the best chance of their play counts on Spotify transferring over when they move releases from another distributor to EmuBands.

It is important to bear in mind, that whilst track linking is never 100% guaranteed, to give yourself the best chance of linking two versions of a recording, you should ensure that the metadata is as identical as possible. This means that when you are adding your releases to the EmuBands system, you should make sure that the following factors are the exact same as the version released by your previous distributor;

• Track Title
• Version Information (Like ‘Acoustic Version’, ‘Live Version’, etc.)
• Artist Name
• ISRC (What is an ISRC?)
• Audio File – really important

The chances of the track play-counts linking are decreased each time you use a different piece of data listed above between the two recordings. So, whilst it isn’t a guarantee that the play-counts will transfer, if you make sure that everything listed above matches, then you’re giving yourself the best chance.

Whilst we can get releases live on Spotify within 72 hours, if you’re hoping to transfer play-counts over, we recommend that you add the release to our system at least 1 week before your other distributor takes down their version. Don’t worry about two versions of your release showing up on Spotify during this period – only one of them will show on the Spotify app, but it’ll help with the track-linking process.

Getting Distrokid to Issue Takedowns

After you’ve added new versions of your release(s) to our system, you should ask Distrokid to begin the process of removing any of your releases that you’re choosing to re-distribute through us. This shouldn’t take any more than a few days to sort out, but every distributor is slightly different, so it is worth checking with them when they expect the releases to come down.

At EmuBands, we can get your music on most digital services within 24-72 hours of it being processed by our team.

For more information on our prices, and to get started, click here.

Get Started

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