iMusician offers distribution and many of the same features as RouteNote, but with no truly free option, how does it compare to RouteNote?

At the start of this year, iMusician switched up its pricing model. We take a dive into what the music distributor offers artists and how much it really costs to get your music on to the world’s online stores and streaming services.

Pricing

iMusician

iMusician’s pricing is unlike most other distributor, where their Free model, on top of charging a commission, also charges per release.

With RouteNote, we have two basic distribution models. Of the options below, RouteNote Free is the only way to get your music on stores without paying a single penny upfront. We never lock our artists in and they can switch models, per release, at any time.

  • Free
    • 10% commission
    • $0 subscription
    • $9 per single
    • $15 per EP
    • $20 per album
    • Limited features
  • AMPLIFY
    • 5% commission
    • $5/month or $50/year
    • $9 per single
    • $15 per EP
    • $20 per album
    • Some features
  • AMPLIFY+
    • 0% commission
    • $10/month or $100/year
    • $9 per single
    • $15 per EP
    • $20 per album
    • All features

RouteNote

  • Free
    • 15% commission
    • $0 subscription
    • $0 per release
    • All features
  • Premium
    • 0% commission
    • $9.99/year/release
    • $10 per single
    • $20 per EP
    • $30 per album
    • $45 per extended album
    • All features

Features

As much as iMusician advertise “you only pay once” and “no annual fees”, they severly limit the range of stores and features available to all but the top-paying subscribers. At RouteNote, we believe the same tools should be accessible to all musicians, regardless of budget. RouteNote gives all paying and free users the same stores and features.

FeatureiMusician FreeiMusician AMPLIFYiMusician AMPLIFY+RouteNote Free & Premium
Music/revenue analyticsX✓✓✓
Custom release dateX✓✓✓
Email supportX✓✓✓
Custom release regionsX✓✓✓
YouTube Official Artist ChannelX✓✓✓
Distribution to all storesXX✓✓
Pre-savesXX✓✓ (free with PUSH.fm)
Custom label nameXX✓✓
Classical music distributionXX✓✓

With iMusician Free you can only distribute to four stores of your choice, except Apple Music, Beatport, Traxsource, Qobuz and TIDAL. Pay up for an AMPLIFY account for access to Apple Music, Beatport, Traxsource, Qobuz and TIDAL require an AMPLIFY+ subscription.

Outside of paid for stores, iMusician simply don’t distribute to many of the same partners as RouteNote, such as SoundCloud, CapCut, Claro música and Kuack Media Group, as well as leading Asian streaming services like Bugs!, FLO, Joox, Kanjian, LINE MUSIC, NAVER VIBE and Zing MP3.

Some of the features only available to AMPLIFY+, such as distribution to Beatport and playlist pitching, are available on our All Access tier.

Much like RouteNote, iMusician offer YouTube Content ID. Unlike RouteNote, this will cost you an extra $1 per release on top of distribution, or $20 per release by itself. With RouteNote, YouTube Content ID works the same as any other store. No additional fees. You keep 85% – 100% depending on which tier you’re on.

The fees don’t stop with iMusician. AMPLIFY and AMPLIFY+ users get the option of paying extra on top of their monthly/yearly subscription for ‘Express/Priority delivery’. $15 per release for 1 week ‘Express delivery’. $30 per release for 2 working days ‘Priority delivery’.

iMusician has a platform called Artist Hub that offers its users smartlinks and pre-saves (for those on AMPLIFY+). Our friends over at PUSH.fm offer these fully customizable features and more, to all artists and creators, for free. Discover all that PUSH.fm has to offer here.

Conclusion

Let’s take a single release for example. Distributed with iMusician, presuming that you want all of the essential features that come with online music, like distribution to all stores, YouTube Content ID, pre-saves, a custom label name and delivery within a week, you are looking at paying $125 for just one year with iMusician.

With RouteNote Free, you can get all of the stores and features above, with zero upfront costs, while you keep 85% of the revenue. Or go with RouteNote Premium, pay just $10 and keep 100% of the revenue.

Free distribution to the world

Choose RouteNote for all of the same features and more, at a lower price!