Not all digital distributors are created equal. If you're looking for a distributor to work with for your electronic music label, then of course we'd recommend Proton's services. But we wrote this article to help labels evaluate their choices, in particular, to make sure labels avoid specific distributors that have caused lots of pain.
When shopping for your digital distributor, it's important to consider whether that distributor will allow you to leave & switch to another distributor (like Proton). While almost all distributors allow this, there are a few that go out of their way to make it incredibly difficult and expensive to do so.
DigDis - If you ever want to leave their service, they'll fine you 30 euros for every release in your catalog. That means if you have 10 releases in your catalog, they'll ask you to pay 300 euros to switch these releases over to another distributor.
FEIYR / Dance All Day - Similar to DigDis, FEIYR/Dance All Day makes it very expensive for music labels to leave their service. They will fine you 30 euros for each release that you're looking to transfer.
Most distributors lock their labels into contracts, meaning they will not allow you to leave until a certain time period has passed. At Proton, we don't do this: music labels can leave any time if they're unhappy, without paying any fees. We believe in providing the best possible service, and not forcing labels to work with us if they want to leave.
Below are a list of other electronic music distributors that do not allow labels to leave any time, and instead lock them into annual contracts (or even 3 year contracts), making it difficult to switch when you want to. If you do sign with these distributors, consider asking them to remove that clause before you sign -- and if they refuse, strongly consider working with someone else.
Distributors that don't allow switching anytime:
LabelEngine
LabelWorx
Symphonic
The Orchard
Paradise