DittoMusic Review Get your Music Distributed to all Digital Stores 

Ditto music digital music distribution for the independent artists

Warning” This is a “Review” of “DittoMusic” services and not a “Recommendation” that you should use their services.

ditto-ltd-j_3The best way to sell a lot of Album’s or EP’s is to have them available on every digital music download stores right? “Can Ditto Music deliver on their promise to distribute your Single’s, EP’s or Album’s to all the top download sites without any hiccups read on to find out.

Who is Ditto Music?

Ditto Music is an independent music distributor created for the independent solo artist or band. Founded by Matt and Lee Parsons, back in 2006, they offer services to distribute EPs, Albums, single music tracks to digital music stores, such as iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and eMusic to name a few, at very low affordable cost any independent solo artist or group can afford to pay.

They also provide other services to enable independent artists to set up and start their own record label.

Register your releases for UK, Ireland, Sweden, USA and Canadian Charts. You can choose what country charts you want to be registered for, along with PPL Airplay Royalty Registration. And mixed media release packages, your single, EP or Album packaged with your video. There are options to suit every independent artist whatever part of the world they live in.

What Can DittoMusic Do For You?

Once you have signed up and chosen your package you will be able to upload your music tracks for distribution to the online stores. All other services you choose to pay for usually run alongside the distribution package you have in place. You must upload your tracks in .wav, .mp3, or .m4a files.

You will only be allowed to sell a remix if you have written permission to do so. Cover songs and tribute versions to be sold in the US or Mexico will need licensing from Limelight or Harry Fox, etc.

Any uploaded tracks you produced and hold full copyrights to… Your own original work must not be misleading. There are restrictions and guidelines on what you call your release or artist name. The purchaser or end user of your music tracks must not think they are buying anything else but YOUR music and any use of another artist’s name or song title is not allowed by music stores.

ISRC codes, “International Standard Recording Codes” that are used by the whole of the music industry, uniquely identify your songs and every other artist’s songs ever released will be provided by “ditto music” and will be genuine codes registered ISRCs for your release.

Can Anyone Use DittoMusic Even If I just Produce Music From Out Of My Bedroom?

Anyone I believe can use DittoMusic to have their music distributed to online stores or high street retail stores even those who represent artists, like record labels, PR representatives, Managers, so long as all guidelines are followed by whoever is representing the artist. Your uploaded music conforms to strict international guidelines and meets all requirements of the music industry. There should be no problems so long as you are not trying to rip off other artists, producers work.

Are There Any Complaints From Others Who Have Used DittoMusic?

Online reviews for Ditto Music are both positive and negative. However, their reputation is growing worldwide. Ditto Music was founded in the UK in 2006 they now distribute for artists around the world.

Wired UK Magazine” described them as a ‘powerful service…with more than a dozen bolt on options,’, and crowned them the ‘Best Digital-Music Distributor’.

Whereas, the negative reviews, that are very few in numbers, I found, crowned them, lacking in the support department and not delivering on what was promised on time.

However’ to be fair, the negative reviews seem to have the same circumstances repeated. In that distribution of music is dependent upon other factors like ” third parties,” getting their end right. So it goes without saying that master copies of your music must be uploaded well in advance of your release date to ditto music to avoid the possibility of some or all digital music download stores not having your music available and ready for download and sale, in their database.

How Much Will It Cost To Have Your Music Distributed?

As a solo artist or group, you will pay a small upfront fee to get your music into hundreds of online stores, including iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, eMusic and more. You can also pay for other services such as setting up your own record label. Have Ditto to register your tracks to become eligible for charts all over the world. Ditto can also make it possible to sell your work on pre-release on iTunes. They have many options you can take advantage of to make your music really take off.

The most important to you is, being an independent artist… You retain all copyrights to your music and receive all royalties that your music generates, from T.V, Radio and shopping malls, retail outlets or any other public use of your music.

[The prices quoted below have changed since the publication of the article, please visit ditto’s website to check out the updated latest prices and subscription plans]

A yearly ditto subscription costs £6.00*/$8 for a single or £12*/$20 for an EP or £18.00*/$25 for an album. Other bolt-on options and services range from £2 to £80 or their dollar equivalent.

You can also either take out a standard distribution’s package = (Lots of stores worldwide for $1 for a single, or $10 for an album) or hand-pick which stores you want your music to appear in (33p/50¢ per track per store).

My Own Thoughts About Ditto And What They Do:

Matt and Lee Parsons founders of DittoMusic have come a long way since 2006 and are now building up a strong reputation and deliver what they promise to their clients. With over 60,000 artists on their books, they have helped to distribute their music to a worldwide audience.

If 60,000 + and rising artists are happy to trust Ditto Music, the few negative reviews I found on the web should not allow you to be put off from using Matt and Lee’s services, if you really wish to do so. After 8yrs of offering their service, I would expect a lot more than a few negative feedback from people who have made use of the services they offer.

Matt and Lee have expanded to accommodate artists from around the world, and now have offices and support staff in the UK, USA, Australia waiting to help. They continue to grow their business to be a recognized service for the independent artist and bands, who don’t have the time and resources available to accomplish this task themselves.

Pros:

You get your music out to a wider audience, Worldwide…
No need to apply and fill out complicated forms you will find on many digital music download sites. Ditto does all the hard work for you while you use your time to talk to your fans and create more of the music. they want to listen to.

Cons:

Things can go wrong, in the distribution, so make sure you allow plenty of time uploading your music and setting a release date for sale.

Other Music, Artists and band promotion articles that may interest you to read:
Music Marketing Manifesto Review
Your Band Is a Virus Book Review
Avoid These 5 Mistakes To Sell Music Online and Build A Fan Base
Interview with James Moore The author of Your Band Is A Virus

  1. Update, Loose Records updated their comments… comment approved on May 17, 2016
    Update, Jabberdi received an email from Loose Records on Friday, July 10, 2015 8:38 AM stating that Dittomusic has resolved all issues.

    I manage a label under the name of Loose Records based in Japan. We work with various electronic music artists. I have released our artists’ music with them 3 times and have had problems in all occasions.

    Dittomusic’s customer service and support is terrible.

    Sometimes, releases were “lost”. I understand that third parties are involved so problems may occur out of their control and so, have been tolerant – until the following happened.

    I have concrete evidence that my label’s music has been sold on Beatport as Beatport has label charts. Songs only appear in the label charts if people buy music. However, I had no record of the sales on Dittomusic’s sales report regarding Beatport.

    I inquired customer support about this and for 3 weeks they kept on saying they would follow up with their “Accounts” department.

    I only got a concrete reply after threatening them to go through legal means, change distributors and expose them as a fraud. According to them, Dittomusic has been without a Finance manager for 3 months, therefore haven’t been able to report sales correctly.
    3 months??? How can they claim to be a reputable company with this kind of operation?

    At the moment, I am waiting for Dittomusic to “login to the sales system and collect the data manually”.

    Due to Dittomusic’s lack of professionalism, the label’s reputation is being considerably damaged as artists are demanding payment and we have not been able to do so.

    Dittomusic needs to improve the quality of their service and pay their clients what they owe.

    My personal opinion, as of now, is that Ditomusic is a fraud, a scam, until they have paid what they owe.

    Contact me if you want me to send you the email communications I had with Dittomusic regarding this issue below.

    I will also be happy to discuss more issues that I’ve had so feel free to contact me.

    Finally, feel free to contact me if you have had similar problems with Dittomusic.

    Loose Records

    1. Sorry to hear you have been let down by Dittomusic…
      However, like all businesses when one part in the well-oiled machine stops working, it is inevitable that there is going to be a knock-on effect.

      I’m not making excuses for them, and if you feel their support was lacking, then they need to rectify this and put things right without any delay.

      Steve,
      P.S
      I have sent a request and asked Dittomusic to respond to your comments.

      1. Hi Steve,

        Thank you for your reply and for sending a request to Dittomusic.

        I understand that when one part in the well-oiled machine stops working, it is inevitable that there is going to be a knock-on effect. Therefore, it is wise to have a backup plan as well as financial backup for these situations, which we do.

        However, the biggest issue here is that artists know their music is being sold but they are not seeing any payment. Because of that, they feel we are a scam. Moreover, although we have financial backup, we do not know how much we should pay artists as we do not even know the value of the sales – no report, no nothing. Simply a record that states “Track A has been sold more than track B. Track C has been sold more than track A”

        Loose Records

        P.S.
        Did you interview DIttomusic personally for this article?

        1. Hi,

          Not knowing what your artists have sold and what they should be paid is an awful situation to find yourself in.

          Is there no way of forwarding them a good will payment until you have this situation sorted out?

          As regards interviewing them for the article, no I did not… However, I did a lot of research on them and confirmed they are a registered company operating in the U.K.

          Keep me updated on how things progress with your ongoing problems you are experiencing with DittoMusic
          support.

          Steve,

    2. I know this was written over a year ago but I promise you it’s only got worse! Ditto music are awful. I used them to release my video on vevo. The first time they messed up. Released it on early, made excuses, blamed me. I was accused to lying. To make it worse, they then too the video down but didn’t put it up at the correct release date. This was their fault not vevo. It is clear they have no control or even care enough to get things right for their clients! In my stupidity I used them the second time hoping that if I explained what happened the first time they would do everything they can to make sure it didn’t repeat itself. They did not. They did not release my video at the promised date and time. This cost me fans, it cost me a lot of tears and heartache especially not being able to reach them to rectify it. My fans tried to use the link in the messages pre-scheduled to them and it didn’t work! On top of this, they couldn’t get it sorted and kept making excuses. The story still gets worse believe it or not because they allowed vevo to load a 25second video for what was supposed to be 4mins. I told them to take this off asap- they promised vevo would. They should double check that they did considering everything that has happened. Here I am still in the middle of this mess. Believe it or not. I have only had excuses and no solution. They do not care. They have left information such as a question to them as it is uploaded to my vevo profile. They have no expertise. They do not care about artists. Please if you are an independent artist reading this. Do not trust them with anything important. I have cried so much because I have felt helpless and let down. They ruined what was supposed to a big stepping stone in my growing music career. I just need to make sure no one else is hurt by them.
      Unacceptable.

  2. Hey!

    I put a track out on iTunes recently and i hope people read this because it’s a pretty interesting turn of events i came through.

    I actually saw this review of Ditto and decided against using them. I then went with another distributor who i wont name but are generally the biggest and had an absolute nightmare.
    I was so desperate i put it through the Ditto system, and low and behold it was up the same day.

    From my dealings with Ditto, they have been outstanding. I honestly wish i had never read this blog (no offence!) because if you look at the industry reviews Ditto is always top.

    I do feel it’s hard to get an unbiased review because 1. People will only post here if something goes wrong, which can happen. And 2) I feel like the competitors post spam comments trying to dissuade people against other companies.
    I have had great support from Ditto, super fast delivery times and been paid (although not huge amounts!) on time. Always! Ditto is rock solid.
    An if you want to check out my single here it is haha
    https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/fantasy-single/id960504468

    1. Hi Thomas,
      You are right, people do only post 90% of the time if they feel unhappy about the service or support received from a company. Alternatively, they want to spam sites like jabberdi to inflict negative comments on competitors, or to gain a self-serving promotional link for themselves by leaving a positive comment. In all honesty, I’m reading your comment and feeling 100% sure that you are spamming to gain a link to your music. However, I’m leaving your link in for now.

      If you wanted to comment on the great service, you got from Ditto you have the right to do so. However, I would advise you to make it a little more about them and not you. I would not know any reason why our review of ditto would put you off in the first place; it’s not negative or a WARNING not to use their services.

      I feel we gave ditto an unbiased review of their services and take this opportunity to state that we do not receive any, or did not receive any compensation for writing ditto’s review, or write the review to persuade anyone towards another competing company.

      We stand by our review, and believe that ditto, overall provides a good service to independents. We also stated that there were more positive reviews than negative opinions about Ditto’s services that have been reported.

      (If 60,000 + and rising artists are happy to trust Ditto Music, the few negative reviews I found on the web should not allow you to be put off from using Matt and Lee’s services, if you really wish to do so. After 8yrs + of offering their service, I would expect a lot more than a few negative feed backs from people who have made use of the services they offer.)

      The negative review in the comments, from Loose Records was a genuine response to the service and support received by them from Ditto. After posting Loose Records comment we did contact ditto to ask them to respond with their own comments on what went wrong in their process, their PR department decided not to do so. Since Loose Records comments, they emailed to say that ditto resolved all their problems, and asked for their comments to be deleted.

      However, I did not think that was the right thing to do. I emailed Loose Records back and asked them to update their comments to reflect on and rebuff their original comments on Ditto. They have chosen not to do so at this time.

      Here are the original emails… I have removed email address for privacy reasons.

      Loose Records…
      To Whom It May Concern,
      I am writing you to ask if it is possible to delete my previous comments
      regarding Dittomusic’s service.
      Riu,

      Jabberdi…
      Hi Riu,
      May I ask the reason for deletion?
      You can update your comments if you feel that Dittomusic has responded to your original concerns
      and resolved any problems you were experiencing with Ditto’s services.
      Steve,

      Loose Records…
      Hi Steve,

      Thank you for your email.

      The reason why I am asking this is because I would like to have my real name
      removed from google searches as can be found here: (link removed).

      Another alternative would be to change the name of the author of the post to
      “Loose Records” and to change “Riu” to “Loose Records” in the comments.

      Dittomusic has resolved all issues, and I would also like to clarify that, yes.

      Riu

      Jabberdi…
      Hi Riu,
      I have done as requested, removed your name and replaced with “Loose Records”.
      If you wish to update your comments to make amendments, please feel free to
      do so, I will approve your new comment if you choose to go ahead and do that.

      All the best,
      Steve,

      I’m not a fan of spam, negative or positive. In fact, I have closed or deleted many comments on Jabberdi due to spammers, and that’s a shame because people who do have genuine opinions or concerns on reviews they read, and are not out to gain just a ME ME link, don’t get the chance to use their voice.

      All the best,
      Steve.

  3. Final update:
    We have decided to cut ties with Dittomusic. Their attitude and conduct went back to being terrible. Their response is fast when it involves transferring funds to them. However, when it comes to transferring funds to the customer and general inquiries, their response is slow and downright rude at times. They will reply with ridiculous excuses for their unprofessional behavior when they have already shown that they can respond promptly. Their response is selective I.e. When a customer intends to transfer funds to them. At the moment, they have promised me to refund an incorrect charge directly on my credit card within 5 to 7 business days. Over 15 business days have passed and I have yet to receive a reply to my email. Dittomusic used to have a good reputation. However, over the past 3 years, a lot of labels and artists as week as reviewed have reported poor conduct and dishonesty. Maybe they grew too fast and couldn’t handle it or got greedy, I don’t know exactly what but they don’t seem to be very open either. They also claim to be unable to payout sales from unlicensed remixes (which is fair), however, they take no initiative or show any intention in redirecting sales originating from those remixes to the original copyright holder – it’s a double standard. They have withheld sales from unlicensed remixes. At this rate, they will have setup their own failure in the near future. Negative reviews have increased over the last couple of years along with the severity of the issues, namely, financial ones. Stay away from Dittomusic.

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