Horus Music Distribution Review: The Honest Truth

Your success in music comes down to a series of decisions. Some decisions will have a larger impact than others but your ability to be strategic in how you arrive at your decisions is very important.

One decision you’ll need to make, is which company you will use to distribute your music. For some, this is a no brainer and for others, it will take a bit of research and understanding of what your needs as an artist are alongside your goals and aspirations.

One company trying to make that decision easier for you through their feature-rich offering is Horus Music, a UK based music distribution company. They have recently undergone some key changes and repositioning in terms of how they charge artists to use their main distribution services. 

In my opinion, these changes are for the better and make them a strong competitor that you may want to consider. Let’s dive deeper and see exactly why Horus Music may be the right partner for you and your music career.

Who Is Horus Music For?

So the big question is, who is Horus Music for? Well, it would seem that there are more advantages to using the platform if you are from the UK as this is where the company is based. 

Although the company does have a ton to offer in the form of feature. Depending on your needs, these can add up as they are not all for free. If the features we’re about to present interest you, having the budget to take advantage of them will be important. 

If you’re not swimming in cash or if some of the features listed will not be a huge benefit to you then you may be better off with some of the other distribution companies out there like Distrokid for example. 

Fees & Commissions

Getting a chance to experience the Horus Music platform will not cost you a penny. The platform is free to join which is great for you as an artist trying to decide which distribution platform is best for you.

With Horus Music, you used to be presented with two different options for distributing your music. Similar to competitor Routenote, Hours Music allowed you to have zero annual fees or distribution fees in exchange for a commission of 20%. Or, you had the option to avoid the commission on your revenue, and pay a fee dependent on the type of release you were working on.

This has since changed and Horus Music has now implemented an annual unlimited distribution model where you pay $20 for the year and can distribute as much music as you’d like. Furthermore, you now keep 100% of your royalties which is a huge plus. You can read more about the switch here. 

As you will learn about shortly, Horus Music distributes to a large number of stores and furthermore, they do not charge you for any additional stores that they may partner with in the future. 

One thing that artists need to be aware of with Horus Music, relates to their fees for the removal of your music from their platform. They charge $100 if you decide to remove your music within 3 months of adding it to Horus Music. This is very rare in comparison to all of the other competitors on the market.

Update: Horus Music has made important changes to their takedown policies mentioned above. The fee previously mentioned has been removed entirely since the company switched to unlimited distribution in 2018 and all takedowns are now free.

Outlets & Release Options

As previously mentioned, Horus Music has the ability to distribute your music to a wide range of platforms. They officially distribute to over 200+ stores and are also one of the few companies with distribution channels throughout China.  

Speed To Stores

Like many companies, their speed to the main platforms is typically quick. With Horus Music, this is no different as you can expect about 1-2 days for your music to arrive in iTunes/Apple Music and then 4 or 5 days for distribution to Spotify. Horus Music recommends that you give them 6 weeks in advance to allow enough time to distribute your releases to all stores.

You’re also able to opt out of specific territories when it comes to the distribution of your music if you so choose. However, when it comes to opting out of individual stores, you will need to submit a request in order to get this done.

A feature that some companies present, is the ability to pay for quicker delivery of your music. While I’m not a fan of this it makes a lot of sense from the distributors perspective. Horus Music offers this at a rate of $60 if you need to get your music uploaded fast. 

Depending on how urgently you need your music live in stores this may be of interest to you. My advice? Be super planned and prepared so you can avoid these charges.

Release Dates

There are no restrictions or up-sells on your release dates except for the urgent delivery we previously mentioned. When it comes to your release dates you are able to set them as long as it is 48 hours in advance of your submission to Horus Music. 

Pre-Order

You are also able to set up a pre-order with your music and are not charged extra to do so. You simply do this by choosing the date you would like the pre-order to start during the upload process.

General Features

Chart Registration

This is an interesting feature provided by Horus Music that is pretty unique. As their site reads:

“Having your music enter the charts is likely to be one of the biggest measurements of success you can have for a release. Tracks that break in can receive massive amounts of exposure online and off and can take your career to the next level. Once you register your release, you are making it possible for your music to achieve this huge potential.”

In order to register your releases with the official UK Charts Company, you will need to pay a fee of $20. Unlike Ditto Music who allows you 4 options to chart your music in different areas around the world. Horus Music only allows for UK chart distribution.

Album Mastering

If you require some finishing touches on your new project you can submit your album to be Mastered. Horus music deals with a company known as Vigilante Studios who charges a fee of $125 fee to help you master your releases.

Mastered For iTunes

This service is on a track by track basis. Horus music sends your release to an engineer focused on mastering your music for iTunes. Not sure why this isn’t still done through Vigilante however the fee associated is $20.

Cover Songs

You are allowed to release cover songs through Horus Music however they do not help you with Mechanical licenses. 

Digital Health Check

This feature works to improve your social media profiles by assessing the current state of your platforms and how your actions can be improved. You will need to contact Horus Music for pricing if this is of interest to you. 

Marketing Campaigns

Horus Music has an in house digital marketing team that will work with you to help reach your marketing goals. Again you will need to contact them for pricing on this service. 

Playlist Campaigns

Horus Music has an in house playlist pitching team that can help you to get your music on notable playlists. This is a personalized service that again you will need to contact them for pricing.

Whilst playlisting is such a great tool to use and take hold of, it is important to remember the significance of things like a strong social media presence, playing live at gigs, and to just plainly work on building a core following.

Midem Representation

Horus Music will work with you to help pitch you to industry professionals at the Midem Conference. Midem is the largest business to business industry event in the world. Again you will need to contact them for more information and pricing.

Paid Video Distribution

An area that many platforms neglect, is the focus on video marketing. With Horus Music, paid video distribution to VEVO, Biscoot and FunOnGo are all possible. 

Furthermore, you even get to keep all of the royalties that you generate. Keep in mind that this is only for 1 video and you will need to have a VEVO channel already set up. The associated fee for this service will run you $20.

Paid VEVO Distribution

Following the video marketing path, there is the option for the setup of your VEVO Channel alongside the distribution of your first video. Again, keep all your royalties and distribution to the same video distribution companies listed above all for a fee of $75.

iTunes Video

As you may have noticed, many of your favorite artists are starting to make their music videos available in areas other than YouTube.

One of these places, in particular, is iTunes and Apple Music. Horus Music gives you the ability to send your video to iTunes for distribution as well as the other video distribution stores mentioned above, meanwhile allowing you to keep all your royalties. 

This will run you a fee of $100.

Tidal Video

Instead of iTunes, you can get your video on Tidal and all of the other providers. This option mimics the previous package but does not include the iTunes video distribution. You still get to keep all of your royalties and the fee stays the same at $100.

Delux Video

This option allows you to distribute your video to all platforms including both iTunes and Tidal for a fee of $175.

Artist Payout

You will need to be set up with Western Union in order to access your earnings through the Horus Music platform. You must also keep in mind that they do impose threshold restrictions based on where you’re located geographically. Luckily for UK clients, they do not have a threshold restriction that they need to worry about.

Payment Splitting

From our research, it was determined that Horus Music does not offer payment splitting for artists. Given their large list of features I was hoping that this would be something they provided. I suppose you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Physical Amazon Distribution

For $75 you can sell your physical release on Amazon’s UK store and keep 80% of your royalties. Since this is a UK based platform, they do not have the ability to help you sell on other Amazon platforms exclusive to other countries.

Analytics & Reports

The information provided to you is based on what stores provide Horus Music and the frequency to which stores send them information. They provide sales analytics and royalty statements as well as geographical data. Overall the information provided is decent in relation to the industry. 

Ease Of Use

The Horus Music platform reminds me of Soundrop, but with a lot more features. Horus Music is easy to use and navigate and they provide a lot of guidance for using their platform.

Customer Support

Aside from the ease of use aspect, they provide a solid F.A.Q. section to help you along with your questions. Their email turnaround time is usually within 24 hours and they do have phone support as well.

Final Verdict

Taking into consideration all that Horus Music has to offer, one must admit that they are a solid platform. They have a ton of features, more than your average distribution company and I believe that in order to provide these services you can’t do it for free. 

Although a lot of these features are great, most artists may not be able to sustain them long term unless they plan for it. Furthermore one must consider the return on investment for these options and if it’s really helping to grow your career. 

Horus Music is very tempting due to their feature set and the fact that they recently switched over to an annual fee with no commission certainly strengthens their case.

Let us know your thoughts and experiences with Horus Music in the comments below!