At a glance
| RouteNote | TempoDigital | |
|---|---|---|
| Release without paying upfront | Free plan: no fee; RouteNote keeps 15% | Not offered; the lowest is $8.99 per release (we keep 10%) |
| Keep 100% of store royalties | Premium per release: $10 a single, $20 an EP, $30 an album, $45 an extended album, then $9.99 a year for each release | $29.99 a year for one artist, unlimited releases (Artist) |
| Labels | The same Free and Premium options, offered to artists and labels; a custom option (All Access) on request | $149 a year for up to 10 artists, or Label Partner with no fee |
| YouTube Content ID | No charge; RouteNote keeps 15% on Free and nothing on Premium | Included on every plan; we keep 20% |
| If you stop paying | A Premium release that is not renewed moves to Free (you keep 85%); nothing is charged to keep music online | Releases stay in the stores; only new deliveries wait |
Free, per release or yearly
RouteNote's Free plan really is free: there is no fee, and RouteNote keeps 15% of what each release earns. TempoDigital has no free plan. Our lowest price is the Release plan, $8.99 once per release, where we keep 10%. If paying nothing upfront matters most, RouteNote Free is the simpler choice; is free music distribution worth it? explains the trade-off.
To keep 100%, RouteNote charges per release: from $10 for a single to $45 for an extended album, then $9.99 a year for each release you keep on Premium. Ten releases on Premium cost $99.90 a year in renewals. On TempoDigital, $29.99 a year covers unlimited releases for one artist with 100% of store royalties, so the more you release, the more a yearly plan tends to save.
YouTube Content ID
RouteNote does not charge for Content ID. It keeps 15% on Free releases and nothing on Premium ones. We keep 20%, so on this point RouteNote keeps less than we do.
What we offer instead is Content ID run from our own Content ID networks by the same team that delivers your music, with publishing administration and YouTube channel services alongside if you need them.
Which one should you choose?
RouteNote may suit you better if
- You want to release without paying anything upfront and accept a 15% share
- You have only a few releases and want 100% on each for a small yearly fee per release
- You want to keep more of your Content ID money: 85% on Free or 100% on Premium, against 80% with us
- You want to move each release between free and paid as it grows
TempoDigital may suit you better if
- You release often and want one yearly fee for every release, not a renewal for each one
- You run a label of up to ten artists
- You also need publishing administration or a YouTube channel partnership
- You are in the Balkans or the diaspora and want a team that speaks your language
Moving from RouteNote
Deliver each release again with its original ISRCs and UPC, wait until it is live everywhere, then remove it at RouteNote. Play counts and playlist placements normally carry over with the codes. RouteNote claims YouTube Content ID for releases sent to YouTube, so those claims have to be released there before we can claim the recordings. The steps are in how to switch distributors.