Whether you are a musician, singer, rapper, music producer, sound engineer, DJ a band or trying to start a label, you will probably know the struggle that is coming up in the music industry. Not only do you have to challenge yourself as an artist and keep on producing quality content, getting noticed, standing out from everyone else and staying afloat is not easy.
Some, no matter how talented, might find that it’s hard to find a platform that really helps to distribute music to a large audience, without the need to sell out and change their vision, while still reaching the level of distribution that helps to become relevant, while not breaking the bank. For some, especially the most ambitious, this can be a true challenge as not every good musician is also a good businessperson.
Happily, more and more opportunities are becoming available for ones like that. One of the platforms, that offer this kind of services is iMusician. If you want to find out whether iMusician is the right choice for you, if its worth your time, effort and money, you have came to the right place.
Read on, to find out what iMusician actually is, what are some of the platform’s features, costs, and what to expect from it, as well as it’s pros and cons.
What is iMusician?
In short, iMusician is a music distribution service. It even claims to be “Europe’s leading DIY digital music distributor.” iMusician caters for the needs of solo artists, bands and labels.
Any individual that registers with iMusician can be assured, that all music they upload to the service will be distributed to over 250 most popular music outlets, providing a time-effective solution. These outlet even include leading brands, such as iTunes, Amazon Music and Spotify.
Still, it’s way that iMusician charges for its services is what attracts many. In order to provide the most cost-effective service and not break the bank, iMusician ditches monthly or yearly fees (except on the Pro Unlimited plan) as well as joining costs, making the join-up process completely free. Instead, iMusician charges users for every song they upload to the platform.
The price varies depending on the distribution plan of the user’s choice. The distribution plans available are as follows: Starter, Regular, Rockstar and Pro Unlimited.
The Starter distribution plan can allow you access to just one store for selling your music. If you would like to have more stores available, it is necessary to upgrade to a higher level distribution plan.
However, if new outlets are added to a plan, thanks to new partnerships, iMusician will not charge you extra, making such additions available, essentially, for free. Unlike many other distributors, taking your music down can also be done at no extra charge.
Key features of iMusician
iMusician offers many attractive features, that can appeal to all kinds of music artists and draw them to it’s services. What are some of the biggest advantages of distributing your music with the help of iMusician?
Quick distribution
The time between uploading music to iMusician and it actually hitting the stores, is impressive, especially comparing to the services of other music distributors. Usually you’ll see your uploads in the actual shops after just two weeks.
However, if in a rush, things can always be sped up with the purchase of either an express delivery or even a 48-hour deliver option. Express delivery comes at an extra cost of $15 in both Starter and Regular plans, but is included free in the Rockstar and Pro Unlimited packages.
48-hour delivery costs $30 dollars on both Starter and Regular plans, and a more affordable fee of $10 on both Rockstar and Pro Unlimited plans. However, these extra costs can be avoided altogether with just a bit of careful planning!
Mixing and Mastering services
It is possible to mix and master your tracks via iMusician with the use of JP Masters. The cost of such a service is usually around $40 dollars for mastering per track. However, when it comes to mixing, the service can be quite considerably dearer, ranging form $100-$200 per track, depending on the number of tracks to be mixed and mastered.
Still, many musicians will view this as a good investment. A good mix and master can really do wanders and sky-rocket the chances of your tracks being well received, thanks to their professional-grade quality sound. If that is not your thing, don’t worry.
Along with these services, iMusician also offers mixing and mastering lessons with professionals, with a choice of 30-minute as well as 1-hour long sessions, costing $50 and $80 respectively. Depending on what your budget is, and what you are looking for, these may be a good investment of time and money.
Sync with Music Gateway
The use of Music Gateway services can greatly help an artist, by helping to get their music into films, TV shows, ads, commercials and more. This offers a great opportunity to get your music out there, make it more recognizable, as well as allowing you to make some money on royalties!
This is a great opportunity and should it arise, it certainly should not be missed.
Uploading Covers
iMusician allows the uploading and the distribution of cover songs. Although it is not possible to get licensing services through iMusician, it’s undeniable that a good cover can help to kick-start or add a massive boost to an artist’s career.
Also, if you’re looking to distribute your cover in Europe, instead of a full license, all you will need will be just a few details regarding the original song!
Choose your own release date
Just like most other music distribution services, iMusician allows artists to chose their own release dates for their music. With no extra cost associated with choosing your perfect release date, it’s a great tool for effective music distribution and marketing.
Making money through YouTube Content ID
Looking at the lifestyles of some popular YouTubers, the conclusion is clear. YouTube monetization can get you some good bucks. Getting money from ads displayed before videos, is possible, as long as the rights to the music uploaded are yours and not dependent on who actually uploads the content.
iMusician makes monetization of ad revenue possible with the use of YouTube Content ID. The feature requires an additional fee of $1 per song on Starter and Regular plans, but is free with Rockstar and Pro Unlimited.
Vinyl and CD pressings
Those artists interested in producing physical copies of their music, might find that iMusician can help them in achieving their goal. The 100 Vinyl pressing company can offer their CD and Vinyl production services at a discounted price to artists using iMusician as their distributor, thanks to the partnership between the companies.
This can be of great benefit to artists that sell their music at live performances, as well as in physical shops.
iTunes Pro
This feature lets the the users of iMusician reap the benefits of the services of iTunes Pro. These include the option of selling pre-orders, personalized links to music stores, the possibility to create an iTunes booklet and enables artists to set up their own personal, customized profiles on iTunes.
It’s also important to note that iTunes Pro also lets artists set their own prices on their music. Regarding pre-orders, it usually takes iMuisican around 4 weeks to set one up. iTunes Pro services come with a fixed price of £39 on all plans, except Pro Unlimited, where they are included in the plan for free.
Earnings payouts
The paying out of earnings from iMusician is an attractive feature of the service. It is simple and easy, with no thresholds set on payouts. They can be sent to a bank or a PayPal account. The only lacking feature, possibly of most concern to bands, is the lack of a feature to split the pay out of funds between accounts.
Stat analytics
One of the most powerful aids in marketing music is the easy access to statistics. iMusician offers just that with daily trend reports, as well as monthly sales reports. The information can really come useful and help artists and managers to market their music better.
However, it’s worth noting that the stats provided my iMusician are not as extensive and comprehensive in comparison to some other leading distributors. It isn’t a massive drawback thought, as the information you will be getting is sufficient enough.
Easy to use
The services of iMusician are easy to access, with the use of a comprehensive dashboard and with an extremely easy process of uploading music.
Helpful customer support
The key to customer satisfaction can be an approachable, helpful customer support team. iMusician know about this fact well and that’s why they provide a truly amazing support service. Whether with the help of a fairly detailed F.A.Q section, or with the help of their team, most issues are sorted out quickly and without hassle.
The support team usually replies to queries within 24 hours and is available Monday to Friday. Additionally, iMusician operates in multiple languages, which is sure to be of great help to many. Hands-on phone support is also available to users with the Pro Unlimited plan.
What to expect from iMusician?
Since we know what are some of the key features of iMusician, the question is, what is the actual experience of using the service actually like? Most users are sure to find that iMusician does indeed live up to expectations.
From the simple intuitive dashboard, that will have newbies set up and going in no time, to it’s extensive list of partnering stores, it can really help to extend the reach of your music, increasing exposure and sales. As with most things, you do get what you pay for, and the more expensive plans will indeed give artists better results.
Each artist needs to decide for themselves, what option is most viable.
In summary, taking all into account, including the amazing customer service iMusician provides, and the useful features, the real experience of using iMusician can be rated very highly and is sure to help talented ones on their way up through the ranks of the music industry.
How to upload your music using iMusician?
This is probably the best feature of iMusician. Why? Because uploading music with iMusician is extremely simple. Simply find the Upload option on the dashboard, upload your music track in a high quality, uncompressed format like .wav, provide track info such as name, artist and album info, click upload, and that’s it.
Just sit back and watch the magic happen!
Price and Plans
As mentioned the services of iMusician come in four distinct plans.
The Starter plan grants users access to distribution in one shop, while charging 30% commission, with $2 cost per release, with upgrades available at an extra fee.
The Regular plan grants users access to over 250 shops, with the commission charge set at 15% and a $5 cost per release, with upgrades available at an extra fee.
The Rockstar plan grants users access to over 250 music shops, charging no commission costs, with a price of $20 per release, offering a free YouTube Content ID service and express delivery on all tracks, with other upgrades available at an extra fee.
The Pro Unlimited plan grants users access to over 250 shops, has commission charges set at 0%, with a price of $299 per year. This plan however, includes all upgrades at no extra cost, with the exception of a 48-hour release upgrade, at an extra $10 per track.
Pros of iMusician
- An easy to use dashboard
- Potential distribution to over 250 shops
- YouTube Content ID and monetization
- CD and Vinyl pressing discounts
- Music Sync opportunities
- Dedicated Customer Support
Cons of iMusician
- No option to split payouts
- Stats could be more in depth
- Extra charges for many useful services, even with higher price point plans
- Not the most attractive fee and commission model out there
Verdict
Distributing music is not an easy task for artists, especially in the age of the internet, which can be a rather double-edged sword, on one hand increasing distribution opportunities, on the other increasing competition. However the help that can be received from iMusician can really make the difference needed to come up as a full time artist.
iMusician is a really good option for those artists that require a helping hand with distribution in a simple, no-hassle way. Generally quite affordable, iMusician packs many useful features, especially when compared to similarly priced competition.
It’s fair to say that many artists who think seriously on developing their career, but are beginners or semi-beginners to music distribution, might find that iMusician is a right choice for them.
iMusician is to be avoided above all! They missed my release date. They lied to me and told me that everything went as planned (4 days later, when the publication was over). Thuggish attitude when it comes to getting some kind of compensation. All this without mentioning the bugs of the application.