For upcoming artists and DJs, having a reliable music distributor to work with is a dream come through and Ditto Music is one of the many music distribution companies available to you. In this article, we review Ditto Music based on our own first-hand experience of Ditto Music distribution services.
As you would expect of any service provider, each with its own unique problems, I would not say Ditto Music is perfect, in fact; far from it but that is a normal thing.
As we get along in this article which is intended to review Ditto Music distribution services, I shall reveal and discuss the pros and cons of the services, the issues I have personally encountered with Ditto Music and how I was able to overcome every of the issues; Ditto customer service and all. - so, catch your breath and if needed, wear your glasses as you read along.
First, allow me tell you a brief intro why I decided to try out Ditto Music distribution services in the first place.
Why I Choose Ditto Music - the intro
As an entrepreneur working with artists, DJs and content creators, the #1 goal is to maximize the profits and eliminate the risks of loss of profits as much as possible. To achieve this primary goal, there is need to ensure that we work with reputable music distribution companies, comapre their services and based on our final assessment, choose the one that best deliver on the promises.
After working with Distrokid and TuneCore, Ditto Music has proven to be an even better alternative, at least, in some aspects.
Why Ditto Music is A Better Alternative to Distrokid or TuneCore
As earlier stated in my first few paragraphs, each of Distrokid, TuneCore and Ditto Music has its own unique set of problems but here are a few aspects where Ditto Music out performs both TuneCore and Distrokid.
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Services Offered
Ditto Music's own fleet of services are especially curated with artists in mind. Although most of these services are not necessarily free, you have got to pay for the services but, you get the promised results. - and for me, that is a major.
From added revenue generation opportunities to additional promotional services that further deliver your music and videos to a more wider audiences, the options are always there.
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Music Upload Experience
If you have had experiences with Distrokid, CD Baby and TuneCore then, you come to Ditto Music; the first improvements you would notice are;
- The clarity that enables you easily understand what to write and where to write in.
- The speed with which your uploads are done in realtime.
- The ease and comfort of being able to do bulk uploads and naming of individual song without confusion.
- And then, the convenience of being able to know, on the spot, if your uploaded song contains any beats or sounds that is contained in another claimed or copyrighted albums or singles by another artists in the past.
The very aspect in the list from above that makes the most sense to me is the fact that Ditto Music is somehow able to detect that a song or part of the song that is being uploaded has previously been copyrighted by another artists. This makes the most sense because we get to save more time during uploads by making the necessary adjustments thereby getting our songs in the stores faster than it would have been with any other Music distribution company.
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Pricing and Subscription Plans
Another obvious gap Ditto Music fills is the pricing and available plans aspect.
Ditto Music is reasonably cheaper than both Distrokid and TuneCore. I mean, if a service is costly to procure, it ought to deliver astonishing results and otherwise but, with Distrokid especially; that is not the case.
Ditto Music is obviously cheaper to subscribe yet, there is no glaring differences in their services delivery when compared to the more expensive alternatives.
While Ditto Music Starter plan costs $14 per year, their most popular plan which I believe, is most suitable for all artists, DJs and all costs $39 per year. - that is about $10 difference from their closest alternative.
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Royalties Reporting
Except that you do not get to see the exact amount every single streams or downloads earned you, something which Distrokid does in their excruciating reports; Ditto Music reports royalties by music releases, tracks, stores, months and countries and in each case; displaying the exact number of track downloads, video downloads, streams and release downloads with each bearing how much you have earned for the period.
For the inclusiveness and readability, if I were to compare the Ditto Music royalties reporting dashboard, I would score it higher than most of their competitors.
Meanwhile, it should be noted that Ditto Music does have a shortcoming when compared to most of the other alternatives in this aspect. This shortcoming is listed in the Ditto Music cons which are also discussed in this article.
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Transparency and Trust Issues
Since about 8 years that we have been working with Ditto Music, there has never been a month that we have had issues with payments or royalty reports. Except for the several months delay we had before the first royalty payments was paid, all subsequent generated revenues are promptly reported and paid out as at when requested.
Contrary to one of Ditto Music alternatives which either delays royalties reporting or outrightly skips royalties reporting for a few or several months till God knows when and for no reasons whatsoever. I would prefer not mention the name of the company, but if you are familier with the music distribution companies, you already know which one I am referring to and you can also search reddit posts to check the users comments.
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Amount or Volume of Revenue Generated
Another reason for which I would rather ditch other music distribution services for Ditto is because, based on experience, revenue generated from Ditto are usually more reasonable than most of the alternatives.
For example, until late 2024, we were able to distribute the same albums through various music distribution platforms and collect the generated royalties separately. By that time, we were able to objectively compare the volumes of streams and downloads from the same market for a particular album and one thing we always discover is that Ditto Music reports more substantial revenue.
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Ease at Revenue Remittances
Until late 2024, it was possible to withdraw royalties from Ditto using only Tipalti which essentially sends payments via Wire transfer, ACH etc. Ealier this year, it became possible to withdraw generated revenues to payoneer. Although the alternatives also send payments to PayPal in addition to Tipalti services, PayPal is by design, not so friendly and definitely not fully functional in some global markets.
For example, most artists, DJs and otherwise using Ditto Music distribution services in Africa can request for payout and receive their revenues in their bank accounts, through Payoneer within 24 hours or a maximum of 72 hours. Whereas, most African cannot even receive payments via PayPal.
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Ditto Music Mobile App Experience
The fact that you can download the Ditto Music app and access your account via same is a lovely experience to reckon with.
All other competitors also have mobile apps that you can download and use but with most, basic or starter subscribers cannot access their accounts via the mobile app.
And now, let us discuss the cons.
Some Bad Experiences I Had Using Ditto Music
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Poor Customer Service
Actually, this did not come as a surprise because I already had similar experience with other alternatives customer service, too. At a point, it got me wondering why poor customer service had become a norm in the industry.
One particular encounter I would never forget with Ditto Music customer service was the very first message I sent their customer service. The first response arrived almost immediately which was auto-generated by a bot anyways and to which I responded, but more than six weeks down the line, no single response from a human representative.
In the seventh week, I finally got a response from a human rep that was not so helpful, but at least, I was glad somebody eventually replied me aside bots and computerized responses.
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Absurdity in Pending Royalties Review Delays
This was by far my worst nightmare with Ditto Music - understandably, it is already stated that royalties reporting usually take between 2 - 3 months to appear in the reports dashboard but when it eventually did, my accumulated earnings got stuck in the pending revenue for about eight months.
What! After the first 2 - 3 months that the royalties amounts finally showed up, every single month afterwards, the royalties revenue shows up but were been added to the pending balance - and until it appears under available balance, you cannot attempt a withdrawal or request a payout.
At a point, I got so tired of waiting that I had to try my luck and contact the customer service, luckily this time, a human response came in less than six hours.
Afer everything, in about 48 hours from submitting that query, I got a confirmation that my earnings in the pending balance have been moved to the available balance which meant I could then withdraw the balance. - this got me conclude that if I had not contacted the customer service, those earnings would have renained stuck in the pending balances till forever.
Ditto Music Distribution Services in a Nutshell - Conclusion
Although I have had ridiculous experiences with Ditto Music, but because;
- There is no disappointments Ditto has served over the years that is so unusual. I mean, poor customer service experiences is common to all of them including the online music distribution company I was aspiring to try out in the future - so I have seen on X and similar platforms. Similarly, royalty or payments delays is not a new thing. It's common to all.
- With Ditto Music, we are able to save time in uploading music and music videos, thereby allowing us get our music into the digital music stores faster than any other alternative.
- More importantly, we earn more royalties revenue through the platform. - and in the end, that is what really matters more.
I would still choose Ditto Music over the other alternatives.
Meanwhile, it should be noted that; the best practice would be to subscribe to and use at least, two of these many online music distribution platforms - that way, you would enjoy what services are missing in one in the other. For example, you can subscribe to and use Distrokid and Ditto Music at a go.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What Does Ditto Music Do?
Ditto Music is one of the few reputable online music distribution platforms that help artists, DJs and record labels distribute their music and music videos to various audiences and deliver the same to digital music stores such as YouTube music, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Vevo, Amazon, Apple Music, Beatport, Deezer, Shazam, Soundcloud, Boomplay, Audiomack among others.
In addition to the distribution services, Ditto Music also offer digital content protection services which allows you, as an artists, DJ or record label, claim royalties on eligible uses of your content anywhere in the world.
Ditto Music distributes to a little above 150 digital music stores world wide.
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Is Ditto Music better than Distrokid?
As much as I love Ditto Music, it is hard to say emphatically that it is better than Distrokid. What I would say however, is that; the duo of Distrokid and Ditto Music is priceless.
Because there are some aspects where you would find Ditto doing extremely fine while Distrokid is poor at likewise, in other aspects where Distrokid does fine and Ditto is woefully disappointing. In other words, it is a good practice to combine the two services.
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How long does Ditto Music take to pay?
As I have stated in my review from above in this same article, it took me about 8 months to receive my first payments from Ditto Music though, I may have received the payments earlier than that if I had contected their customer service earlier.
Officially, Ditto pays out royalties in your third month and afterwards, you can withdraw your available balances every month provided your balance is up to $25 which is the payout threshold.
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How much does Ditto Music cost?
Starter plan costs $14 per year. Pro plan costs $39 per year and the Lebel plan costs from $59 per five artists per year.
While you may tryout the Starter plan, the Pro plan is the most suitable plan for nearly everyone. Except you are a record label that manages more than two artists, then you should go for the Lebel plan.
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Which artists use Ditto?
Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, Sam Smith, Royal Blood, Chance The Rapper and Sarkodie been the debut artists, Ditto Music has since been distributing for lots of popular artists including Paul Ruud, Maxta, Mikey Wax, Anastasia Vedyakova, SunKissed Lola, Mystic101, Malta, Melani García Gaspar, Silent Sanctuary, Prettos and a host of other known artists.
