Spinnup Music Distribution Review

Spinnup is connected to a number of labels and A&Rs and promise to promote you to these people who can take your career to the next level. So do they deliver on this promise? Find out below!

Check Out Spinnup Here

Starts at $9.99/year

Features

 3/5

Spinnup boasts promotion to A&Rs which is great but they don’t have an offering as strong as some of their competitors in this area

Price

 3.5/5

Plans from $9.99 – $39.99 Per Year

Ease Of Use

 4/5

Platform is easy to use and navigate

Support

 4/5

Solid support and FAQ section

https://youtu.be/KDRhQIHIo8k

Check Out Spinnup Here

• 0% commission taken on your earnings
• Music promotion services included
• Free barcodes
• Educational articles to help you as an independent music
• Discounts available to many other music industry services and websites

• Limited distribution to only 44 stores/platforms
• Pre-orders are only available through a manual setup
• No built-in services for cover song licensing
• No YouTube or SoundCloud monetization
• No publishing or licensing offers
• Limited analytics
• No payment splitting

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When it comes to releasing your music online, how does one go about picking the right distribution company? There are more options now than ever, with new companies seemingly emerging all the time. How can you narrow down all those choices into one, definitive answer?

Well, what if you found a distribution company that did more than just release your music to the world? What if there was a distribution company that helped you promote your music and potentially even landed you a record deal?

This is where Spinnup comes into play. A small distribution company based out of Sweden, they were “created by Universal Music to find new artists.” This revolutionary mindset is paired with simple and straightforward distribution options, making them an intriguing choice for independent musicians everywhere.

In the following review we’ll take an in-depth look at what Spinnup has to offer and how they compare to their competitors. We’ll then help you determine whether or not this is the distribution company you need.

 

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Spinnup Distribution Review 2023 – What You’ll Learn

• How Spinnup promotes your music to music industry professionals
• How Spinnup might be a cheaper option than a competitor such as TuneCore
• What features Spinnup offers and how they compare to competing distributors

Who Is Spinnup For?

Let’s take some time now to look back over this review. What conclusions can we reach about Spinnup and how can we determine if it’s the best fit for you?

Well first off, if you’re wanting a leg-up in getting your music heard by industry insiders, Spinnup’s promotion services are well worth your consideration. After all, why wouldn’t you want the help of a company who will promote your music to Universal and other labels?

Second, if you want a simple and straightforward distribution setup, Spinnup is a great choice again. They prioritize only your most important needs as an independent artist.

However, if you need a distribution company with extensive and comprehensive services, we’re not so sure Spinnup is the best choice for you. This is because we find their overall features to be on the limited side.

For example, they do not offer any way to monetize your music if someone uploads it to YouTube or SoundCloud. In the same way, they do not offer you any services to help you collect royalties from radio airplay, sync licensing, or other similar scenarios.

There are other limitations, too. They have no built-in ability to license cover songs with them and if you want to sell pre-orders, they have to set it up for you manually – it’s not a feature automatically available.

It would seem then that Spinnup appeals to a specific niche: the independent artist who values industry-insider promotion and wants a streamlined distributor without any fancy extras.

 

Fees & Commissions

One question that is at the forefront of every artist’s mind is, how much will it cost to distribute my music online? Am I going to be hit by expensive annual fees or lose a huge cut of earnings due to commissions?

This is an all-important topic, so we’ll start off the review with just that: how much does Spinnup charge for their services and how much can you earn with them? Read on for all the details!

First off, some great news: Spinnup does not charge any sign-up fees. That’s right – it’s completely free to set up an account with them!

If you were worried that you’d get hit by a heavy commission fee from Spinnup, you’re wrong! That’s because they take 0% commission of your royalties. In other words, 100% of the payouts from iTunes, Spotify, and all other online platforms go straight to your pocket. No worries about someone else getting a piece of your pie!

The way Spinnup makes their money is by charging you a flat annual fee, dependent on the type of your release. Here’s how it breaks down:

It doesn’t get more straightforward than that! But how does this pricing stack up to the competition?

In general, Spinnup’s annual fees are on-par with most of the other distribution companies out there. $39.99 a year may seem expensive to distribute an album, but this in fact cheaper than competitor TuneCore, who charges $49.99 each year following your release.

However, these annual fees can add up very quickly if you put out multiple releases. For example, let’s say you have a back catalog of three albums that you want to distribute online. That’s going to cost you almost $120 a year!

This is the downside to Spinnup’s pricing model. In contrast, competitors such as DistroKid charge you just one, flat annual fee for their services, regardless of how many songs you release with them.

Additional Costs

Now we get to the small print: are there any other extra costs or fees associated with Spinnup that you should be worried about? The answer is (as far as we can tell) no!

If, for some reason, you no longer want your music available online, you can remove it for free — Spinnup doesn’t charge you a penny.

Additionally, when Spinnup has added new distribution stores and platforms in the past, they’ve done that completely free of charge. This stands in contrast to competitors like DistroKid, for example, who charge $7.95 a year to keep you up to date with those new platforms.

As far as we know we can expect Spinnup to continue updating their store offerings for free in the future.

Outlets & Release Options

With Spinnup you can distribute your music to 44 different stores and platforms. This includes all of the mainstays of the digital music industry – iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, etc.

If you need to limit what countries your music is distributed to (e.g., due to a licensing limitation), Spinnup gives you this option. However, it is not possible to pick and choose which specific platforms your music is sent to. With Spinnup your distribution is all or nothing.

It is worth noting that the number of platforms Spinnup distributes to is significantly lower than most of its competitors. For example, CD Baby distributes to over 100, while TuneCore distributes to over 150. Is this gap in numbers worth being concerned about?

Well on the one hand, it is true that Spinnup’s distribution does cover all of the most popular platforms. This is where the bulk of your downloads and streams will be – at least for most artists.

On the other hand, however, it is arguably better to have a far-extending reach with your music distribution. This is because the more platforms your music is available on, the more potential listeners you can reach. Why limit yourself then?

In consequence, Spinnup’s limited distribution reach of only 44 platforms is a bit disappointing. However, all things considered, we don’t think it should be a deal breaker.

Speed To Stores

When you submit your music to be distributed with Spinnup, you can expect it to be available in stores in 3-10 business days. Some stores are quicker than others, with iTunes sometimes taking as little as 1 day to go live.

At the same time though, Spinnup notes that iTunes will sometimes randomly select releases to undergo a review process which can take up to 16 business days.

The lesson to be learned is that you should always allow yourself plenty of lead time when uploading a release.

Release Dates

When releasing your music with Spinnup, you have the option to release it immediately or you can set a release date in the future. This release date has to be at least 10 days out, though best business practices would suggest giving yourself much more time than that.

Pre-Order

Spinnup offers the option to make your release available for pre-order but it has to be set up manually. Therefore you have to contact Spinnup’s customer support to have them do it for you.

This comes at a surprise because many other competing distribution companies have automatic pre-order features built-in. Why Spinnup has to do it manually, we’re not sure.

General Features

Music Promotion To A&Rs

When it comes to the marketing and promotion of your music, most distribution companies leave you high-and-dry. Once they’ve sent your music out to all the platforms it’s up to you to try and gain attention with that music.

However, this is an area where Spinnup stands out in the crowd. As we mentioned before, “Spinnup was created by Universal Music to find new artists. We put your songs in front of music industry insiders, and we work closely with labels and A&Rs to take artists to the next level.”

Spinnup not only sends top tracks to Universal Music, but also many other labels, including:

• Island Records
• Polydor
• Virgin EMI Records
• Republic Records
• Caroline International
• Capitol Records
• DefJam

For those interested, Spinnup has a list of success stories (https://spinnup.com/success-stories/) featuring their top artists who have broken through.

This is a huge deal in our opinion – to know that you’ve got the support of your distributor to help promote your music. It’s unclear how exactly this process works, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

Cover Songs

Let’s say you want to release a cover song or use a copyrighted sample in one of your songs. Is that possible with Spinnup?

The answer is yes, Spinnup allows you to release cover songs or sample material, but ONLY IF you have the necessary licenses. Unfortunately, they do not offer any services themselves to obtain those licenses. You’ll have to go through a third-party company such as Easy Song Licensing to do so.

In contrast, many competing distribution companies have built-in services to obtain the licenses you need to release cover songs. This is much simpler and more streamlined since you don’t have to work with a third-party company or manage all the technical details yourself.

Barcodes

Unlike some distribution companies, all UPC and ISRC codes are provided for free with Spinnup! These codes exist to track the sales of your music, as well as help stores correctly categorize it.

These codes are useful in others ways as well. What can you do if your music has already been distributed online with another company but you want to switch to using Spinnup? Is there any way to migrate your music over?

With Spinnup the answer is yes! All you have to do is upload your music through Spinnup, matching the exact barcode details of your previous release. Once the upload is live you can cancel your account with your old distributor! Spinnup will help ensure that your playlist positions and play counts remain unchanged.

Artist Payout

Once you have started generating income from your downloads and streams, Spinnup allows you to withdraw that money using Paypal. You can withdraw money at any time as long as there is at least €10 in your account.

Unfortunately, PayPal is the only payment option that Spinnup offers. You have no ability for direct deposit or wire transfer, unlike other competing distribution companies.

Payment Splitting

A newer feature being introduced by many distribution companies, most notably Stem & DistroKid, is payment splitting. This allows you to automatically pay out royalty shares to multiple parties. Unfortunately, this feature is not available at all with Spinnup.

Analytics & Reports

To help keep track of your sales, Spinnup provides two types of analytics.

The first of these is a monthly sales reports. These reports become available about 45 days after the end of the month the sales took place in. The reports can be broken down by release, by store, and by country.

For more frequent reporting, daily trend statistics are available from 6 services, including Spotify, iTunes, and Apple Music. In addition, Spinnup offers social stats – more on that below!

Social Dashboard

To help further augment your analytics and reporting, Spinnup offers the “Social Dashboard.” This tool connects to your Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, and YouTube accounts, showing you all of your social stats in one, convenient location. This helps you to understand your fan base and make savvy decisions as you grow in popularity.

Informative Guides

When you visit the FAQ page on Spinnup’s website, you’ll find that it has a lot more to offer than the average FAQ page you might run across. It starts off, of course, with the typical questions one might have about Spinnup’s services and how to use them. However, it then continues into more general questions about the music industry and how to be successful as an independent artist.

Each of the corresponding answers are surprisingly extensive and provide a lot of valuable insight that many artists could benefit from.

Extra Benefits Of Being A Spinnup Artist

Signing up to release your music with Spinnup includes a whole host of added benefits. These mostly come in the form of discounted offers for various companies Spinnup has partnered with. Take a look for yourself!

• Abbey Road online mixing and mastering: one of the most iconic studios in the world, you can get 10% off their mixing and mastering services
• Abbey Road Topline App: an app developed by the studio to help musicians write new music, this is available for FREE!
• AP Academy: a music production school for learning programs like Logic and Ableton Live, you can get 10% off the costs of their courses
• Rotor Videos: a platform for building professional looking videos, you can get 15% off the cost of use
• MusicNow App: if you need to live-stream video, this app is available for FREE!
• Cover Art Factory: a builder software to help you create your own album artwork, you can get 10% off the price
• Yaygoo: an online graphic design company, they have a 10% discount available for their services
• CuttingRoom Studios: one of the most famous studios in Sweden, you can get your music mastered at a 15% discount
• MFG Studios Stockholm: a new music complex in Stockholm, Sweden, they are offering a 15% discount for all recording in their studios.

Ease Of Use

In general, Spinnup’s website is very easy to use and the upload process is quite simple. However, their streamlined offerings come at a cost – we found their website and platform not to be as feature-filled as some of their bigger, more well-known competitors.

Customer Support

If you have any issues and need to contact Spinnup, they are available via email. They reportedly have a turnaround time of a day or so to respond to your support requests.

Unfortunately, they do not have any phone customer support available. This is an area where Spinnup, like many other small distribution companies, isn’t able to match the customer support offerings of large companies like CD Baby.

As we mentioned earlier, Spinnup’s FAQ and support provide a lot of helpful information on how to develop and market yourself as an independent artist. However, we found the information on how to use their services somewhat lacking. While there was some useful insight, there will still common questions that were not addressed.

Spinnup Alternatives

Symphonic

AWAL

Routenote

Final Verdict

Spinnup is an enticing distributor choice for the independent musician, particularly because of their groundbreaking offer to promote your music to record labels. However, they lack many of the features and services available from their bigger competitors. Therefore, it is important to consider your exact needs before signing up with Spinnup. They can’t do everything, but the few things they do, they do well.

Check Out Spinnup Here


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