Marcus writes about distributors, royalties, and the business plumbing of streaming. Former rights administration analyst at a major publisher.
Boost Collective is a real Toronto company with a 4.1 Trustpilot score, but it places your song on playlists it runs itself, from $150 at list price. Here is how that model sits with Spotify's rules, what it costs, and how to cancel.
We uploaded the same catalog through eight distributors in January 2025 and tracked royalty payouts every month for 18 months. Here's who actually keeps the most of your money.
DistroKid's base plan is going from $22.99 to $24.99 a year. Small bump on the headline, but the add-on changes are where the real story is.
Everything you need to know before you upload your first track, picking a distributor, preparing your files, setting metadata, claiming your artist profile, and avoiding the mistakes that cost you streams.
Three distributors, the same catalog, 18 months of royalty data. Here's who actually came out ahead, and the case for each one.
Apple Music Classical's catalog rules are loosening. Neoclassical, ambient, and contemporary composer releases can now distribute into the dedicated app.
Bandcamp changed hands again. Here's what's actually different for indie artists selling on the platform, and what we'd watch for.
TuneCore quietly cut its payout cycle from quarterly to monthly for most platforms. We confirmed it across two test catalogs.