EmuBands: The Ultimate Review

We’re on a mission to discover the best music distribution platform available to musicians.

Today we’re going to discuss EmuBands – Giving you all the details you need to know when selecting the right distribution service for your music.

What Is EmuBands?

Launched in 2005 Emubands is a powerful, yet simple distributor catered to all genres of music. As you will notice, even with their branding everything is pretty simplistic. They do however offer one of the best options for independent musicians and small labels that want to get their music into all the major online stores such as Spotify, iTunes, Deezer alongside many more. Their main focus is to provide an amazing, easy to use digital distribution platform while giving musicians peace of mind considering their (pay once per release) structure.

Who Can Use EmuBands?

It doesn’t matter whether you’re producing electronic music or in a band – EmuBands will have you covered when distributing your music into stores. Record labels are also able to take advantage of what EmuBands has to offer but costs can start to add up if you’re scaling your business. It’s still a great option no matter what stage you are at musically. 

Do You Have To Pay To Use EmuBands?

Unlike other distribution companies such as Repost Network and RouteNote who take a percentage of royalties instead of charging an up-front fee, EmuBands requires you to pay per song and/or album you distribute through their platform. Lets take a look at their pricing options:

Single (1-2 songs) – £24.95 / EP (3-5 songs) – £34.95 / Album (6-20 songs) – £49.95

As you can see from their pricing options, releasing one song is more expensive than Distrokids and Dittos basic plans that allow you to release unlimited songs, however EmuBands ensures that your music stays in stores forever – Taking away the headache and stress of financial difficulties many independent artists can face during their venture to success.

As stated before, these up-front costs can become expensive, especially if you run a record label. However, you’re actually saving a lot of money if you want your music to stay in stores for the long term. This in-itself is one of EmuBands largest selling points – Making it one of the best options for artists in the grand scheme of things.

On top of this, to help aid in the reduction of costs EmuBands do offer a 20% discount to everyone who purchases more than £100 worth of distribution credits. This is a nice touch, because it will inevitably make small record labels want to rethink their decision.

I can’t express enough just how important it is for you to not have to worry about your songs being removed from stores if you forget to continue a subscription, or can’t afford to cover the costs in the future.

What We Love About EmuBands

• Great, simple interface that allows artists to navigate easily, distribute their music to major stores.
• No hassle with future subscription costs.
• Takes away the worry of your music being taken down from stores.
• They cover 64 stores in total – That’s a decent chunk of the market so you can be rest assured your music is distributed to all the stores that really matter when getting the most from your royalties.

Where Do EmuBands Struggle?

Because their core focus is to allow musicians to distribute music to stores with absolute ease, it can bring limitations in comparison to extended features you can get elsewhere. For example, when looking into EmuBands at the time, they did not offer YouTube Content ID – Which can be vital for established artists and record labels. Many earn a large portion of their royalties from YouTube Content ID alone.

On top of this, they don’t allow you to monetise your music on SoundCloud – Not a huge issue because SoundCloud royalties rates aren’t exactly anything to shout about. 

One of the main functions that record labels will miss out on though, is the option of Split-Pay (having the ability to pay contributors and artists automatically) – So you will have to do this manually. 

Do EmuBands Promote Your Music?

No. EmuBands is a distribution company only and do not offer external features such as music pitching or in-house promotion.

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EmuBands Customer Support

While using EmuBands their support team always got back to us in a timely manner. It’s run by a passionate team who really do care for their customers. It’s not the quickest support we’ve ever encountered but it’s definitely acceptable. 

Final Notes On EmuBands:

The up-front costs of getting your music into stores seems expensive at first glance, until you realise it’s for life and you don’t have to worry about your music being take-down due to subscription payments. Again the added 20% discount on bulk distribution orders is a great touch. 

If you’re looking for a simple, yet powerful distribution company that doesn’t offer a bunch of extended features and you simply just care about getting your music into stores then EmuBands has you covered!

Adding to this, if you only plan on releasing 1-2 songs each year – It’s a service we would highly recommend you consider for your music distribution needs.

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