Making a Scene Presents - Your Distributor Is Becoming Your Storefront: Private Equity, Consolidation, and the Fight for the Independent Artist’s Customer

For many independent artists, choosing a music distributor feels like choosing a mailbox.

You upload the song, type in the title, attach the artwork, enter enough names and numbers to make your eyes glaze over, and then wait for the music to appear on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, TikTok, and the rest of the digital neighborhood.

The distributor delivers the package. The stores play the music. Royalties eventually trickle back. Everybody goes home.

That simple picture is becoming badly outdated.

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