Tunecore vs Reverbnation vs CDBaby vs The Orchard

UPDATE (30 June 2014): I had another look at this subject matter recently and found this guy Ari, who has done a much more comprehensive job than me. Go and checkout his post on the subject at http://aristake.com/?post=92 ... for now here is the original post from 2011:

I'm working on a comparison of the 4 main (as I see it anyhow!) worldwide digital distribution networks available to musicians looking to get their music out there. I got a bit outraged when both Tunecore and Reverbnation refused to budge on my requests for some kind of protection from the yearly fee for music releases that fail to sell enough to break even each year - say 5 or 10 years after the release, you'd still be paying their $34.95 and so forth. So I searched around to find other options: CDBaby looks good with $0 yearly fee, with the one catch being the comparatively high 9% royalty rate - if you're planning to sell a lot of CDs (who isn't? but lets be realistic), then perhaps Tunecore/RN would be the way to go, but I'm personally pretty skeptical about future sales figures so am gonna go with CD Baby for The Hotel Vermont Sessions release as a test. The Orchard website claims they've been doing it longer than anyone else, although I couldn't find the info I needed fast enough to compile the first draft of this blog post.

Summary: Use CDBaby if you're up and coming, and try Tunecore or ReverbNation if you've already cracked it / doing very well out of your recorded music and plan to retire on it, cos you're gonna need something to keep up those $34.95/year fees till you die and beyond with RN/Tunecore. With CD Baby theres no annual fees - over the life of an album, this is a big deal. Especially as your musical catalog grows. If you have 5 albums up for sale and have to pay a $35 annual fee per album per year, it will cost you $175 a year just to keep your music on iTunes. You would have to sell over 1,900 song downloads a year for the CD Baby 9% cut to equal that amount. Over in NZ we gotta convert that USD Fees into NZD.

Bandcamp: You also need a Bandcamp website and go via one of these distribution networks. They aren't mutually exclusive. Not having one is not allowed , you'd be insane not to. In fact, I've already launched the Tomachi.TV Bandcamp site for my album.

[1] Source: http://tunecore.websitetoolbox.com/post/Distribution-Channels-5055989
[2] Source: http://www.reverbnation.com/main/overview_label?feature=digitaldistribution
[3] Source: http://members.cdbaby.com/cdbaby-vs-tunecore.aspx http://members.cdbaby.com/digitaldistributionpartners.aspx
[4] Source: http://www.theorchard.com/distribution
[5] Source: http://members.cdbaby.com/sell-on-itunes.aspx

And here is Ari's chart:

Ari's chart