Distribution gets your music into American streaming services and stores. It does not, on its own, get anyone to listen. Here is how the system works, and where a label fits.
A distributor delivers your recordings and their data to streaming services and stores, collects the money they pay, and sends you reports. That is the core job. A label does more: it funds or runs the campaign that makes people want to hear the music. In the U.S. you can have one without the other.
If your home label already distributes worldwide, your music is probably available in America already. The question is not delivery. It is whether anyone in America is working the release.
Spotify's own getting music on Spotify page puts it simply: "Distributors handle music distribution and pay streaming royalties. Work with a distributor to get your music on Spotify." It adds that "most distributors charge a fee or commission," and that a signed artist's "record label likely already works with a distributor who can deliver your music."
A basic distributor does not plan the release, pitch radio, book press or decide the single. Those jobs belong to the label, or to a label services partner hired for them. Delivery to Spotify also does not mean an editorial playlist: pitching to Spotify's editors is a separate step through Spotify for Artists, made at least seven days before release under Spotify's pitching rules. Our playlisting and DSP relations service covers that side.
Billboard's guide to picking a distributor sorts them in three tiers:
These are typical market figures from published sources, not LUSIVEX prices.
Most U.S. distribution runs through companies owned by the three majors. A November 2024 Billboard report on MIDiA Research's independent market share found that "the major labels have an 84.3% distribution share" in the U.S., through Virgin Music Group (Universal Music Group), The Orchard and AWAL (Sony Music) and ADA (Warner Music Group).
That matters for an international label choosing a partner: ask who owns the distributor, and what that means for your release. Our distribution and label deals page lists the partners we work with, from ADA, Virgin Music Group, BMG and The Orchard to AWAL, EMPIRE and Believe.
For many international pop acts, and especially K-pop groups whose fans buy albums, physical distribution matters as much as streaming. It is a different business: manufacturing, warehousing and getting stock into stores.
U.S. physical distribution has consolidated. Rolling Stone reported on the vinyl and CD distribution crisis that followed when Warner Records moved its physical distribution in April 2019 to Direct Shot Distributing, "a company that was already being used by the other two major labels." In 2023 CD Baby said it would stop distributing CDs and vinyl and close its warehouse.
Independents still reach American shelves through companies such as Alliance Entertainment. Billboard describes Alliance as both a one-stop and a distributor through its AMPED division, which "partners with labels across the country to fulfill their vinyl and CD needs." For an international label, the practical questions are who manufactures, who holds stock in the U.S., and which retailers the distributor actually reaches.
Distribution is the plumbing. It needs to be right, and it is rarely what decides whether a release works in America. The order that worked for BTS and Monsta X ran through television, Top 40 radio, collaborations and touring, with distribution in place underneath. Our guide on how to release music in the US as an international artist walks through that order.
Through a distributor that delivers to U.S. streaming services and stores. If your home label already works with a global distributor, your music is likely available in the U.S. already. Spotify notes that signed artists' labels usually already work with a distributor.
A distributor delivers music to streaming services and stores and collects the money. A label funds or runs the campaign: the single, radio, press, playlists and marketing. A label services partner offers those label jobs to artists who keep their recordings.
Through a physical distributor or one-stop that manufactures or holds stock and supplies retailers. Billboard describes Alliance Entertainment's AMPED division as a distributor that fulfills vinyl and CD orders for labels across the country.
International artists and labels can see how distribution fits into U.S. label services, or start on the U.S. launch page.