Distribution Process

The process of music distribution occurs once a song has been produced by an artist. The song then undergoes this process through many traditional and online record distributors in order to reach their audiences. Record distributors simply provide a connection between the artist/ band and their fans. How successful the distribution process is will all depend upon a number of factors such as the record companies budget and the companies used to distribute. Small time record distributors are less likely going to reach a large audience than a more established mass media downloading site such as iTunes. If little is spent on advertising by record companies to promote an artist/ band and their song, then this could cause problems when trying to distribute to a mass audience, especially if the band/ artist is fairly new in the music industry. Record distributors are essential to an artist/ bands success in order to get as many viewers as possible, to in turn break even and make a profit on their product.

Previously; methods of music distribution consisted of the producer sending out the same amount of songs to every possible distributor, expecting high sales in return. However, in order to make distribution more efficient, producers now study the audiences that sellers appeal too and also the music genre they may specialise in. By doing so they can then send out a specific amount of products that are more realistically going to sell by various distributors, in order to make distribution more effective by costing them less in the first place.

Categorising music distributors (with examples):

- Major label vs. independent
The largest music distributors remain to be the ones associated with the big record labels within the music industry that are: WEA Distribution (Warner Music Group), Capitol/ EMI Distribution (Time Warner) Sony/ BMG Distribution and UNI Distribution (Vivendi Universal). Independents tend to be regional or national, the biggest being Curb Distribution.

- Subdistributors
Subdistributors purchase from the major distributors previously stated and sell to other, smaller individual retailers.


- Regional, National and International
Smaller distributors such as individual record stores, not large enough to compete with major distributors on a national scale will sell in a smaller geographical area. International distributors sell overseas.



- Online, Digital Distributors
Now the most popular, frequently used form of media distribution operating in a virtual world. Websites such as Napster, iTunes, YouTube, Rhapsody and downloadable applications like Spotify and Deezer provide the user with instant access to songs and other media products. Physical products are also available to be purchased from these sites. Through technical convergence, sites and applications like these are becoming more accessible on a variety of media devices.

- Niche Distributors
Many smaller individual distributors specialise in certain genre; restricting their customers by aiming for a specific target market/ audience.

Traditional forms of music distribution through record stores and other retailers such as HMV are closing down and reducing their music space within stores. This is due to digital distribution taking over majority of sales in the market and are continuously increasing as percentages in CD sales of rapidly on the decrease. Although traditional sales in vinyl and CD's have drastically fell- being replaced by online download sales, the music distributors role are virtually the same as before.