As the CEO of Elton Audio Records, I feel it is my responsibility to protect our artists and share our experience with Too Lost, a music distribution service that has caused significant disruptions and setbacks. This public warning aims to prevent others from encountering the same issues. While their platform may seem promising on the surface, Too Lost is riddled with critical failures, deceptive practices, and unprofessional behavior that no artist or label should tolerate.

A Deceptive Start

From the beginning, we encountered major problems with Too Lost. Their transfer function, intended to streamline the migration of our artists' music, failed to populate data correctly and included inaccurate information such as artists and individuals who were never involved in the release. Corrected uploads were delivered with missing credits and liner notes, which should have been properly handled by Too Lost. Despite repeated promises to improve, these issues persisted across multiple releases.

Poor Communication and Service Failures

As we continued working with Too Lost, communication became a major problem. Response times for support inquiries stretched from days to weeks. A critical catalog consolidation request went unanswered for six weeks, despite escalating the issue to account managers. Time-sensitive requests, like obtaining pre-save links for Apple Music and Deezer, were delayed for days, jeopardizing our artists' release schedules. Apple Music and Deezer, by contrast, responded to our direct inquiries within hours, further underscoring Too Lost’s inefficiency.

Recent Catastrophic Failures

In recent months, the situation with Too Lost escalated dramatically. Here are three key examples of the issues we faced:

Delayed Release: One release was delivered late, causing the track to appear on Spotify a day after the scheduled release date, and two days late on Apple Music. This delay negatively impacted the artist's promotional efforts during the crucial release window.
Undelivered Track: Another release was marked as delivered but never appeared on Spotify for Artists. After contacting Spotify, we learned that the track had never been delivered. Too Lost failed to explain why this happened, forcing us to take down the track and redistribute it through another platform.
Mistrust in Delivery: While a third release did eventually appear in Spotify for Artists, the previous issues had already eroded our trust in Too Lost’s ability to manage releases reliably. Every release felt like a risk.

Payment Issues

Too Lost’s payout system also caused significant frustration. When our first royalties came in, we found the ACH payment option wasn’t functioning. It took multiple emails and communication with three different people to learn about a hidden $50 payment threshold, which wasn’t disclosed anywhere on the platform. While there’s nothing wrong with having a payment threshold, it should have been clearly stated from the beginning. The lack of transparency was alarming.

Account Blockage and Deletion

The most egregious failure occurred when Too Lost suddenly walled off our account with a paywall, without any prior notice and in direct violation of our original agreement. This move cut off access to essential release data, UPC codes, ISRCs, and more—making it impossible for us to continue our business operations. Although Too Lost provided a 3-month access code to resolve this issue temporarily, the damage was already done.

UPDATE Sept 6, 2024:
On this date, we were locked out of our account again. This time, the account appeared to have been deleted, as the account recovery tool confirmed that our email/username was no longer in the system. It was only after contacting Too Lost about a different issue that our account was restored. Notably, this lockout happened just days after we posted a negative review on Trustpilot. Too Lost denied that our account had been deleted, despite clear evidence showing otherwise. A screenshot of this incident is posted below.

Screenshot of the Too Lost recovery page showing that our account was not found/recoverable.

A Generic and Insincere Response

Following our negative review on Trustpilot, Too Lost responded with a copy-and-paste message that failed to address any of the specific issues we had raised. Their reply read:

"Hello there,
Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy your experience with Too Lost.
We are on a mission to provide all independent creators, at any level, the access and tools to build successful music businesses... [You can contact support, etc.]..."

This generic response completely disregarded the seriousness of the issues we had experienced. It is clear that Too Lost is not genuinely interested in addressing the problems they have caused for their clients.

Screenshot of Too Lost's copy and paste response to many reviews.

False Claims and Unprofessional Conduct

In multiple conversations, Too Lost's representatives—up to and including their CEO and CTO—made comparisons between themselves and other distributors like DistroKid, TuneCore, The Orchard, and Symphonic, claiming they were superior to both self-service and label-service distributors. This struck us as odd, given that these services cater to completely different markets. Additionally, Too Lost’s leadership failed to provide any convincing answers about what truly made their service better. These vague and inflated claims only reinforced our concerns.

Widespread Issues for Artists

Since our dealings with Too Lost, we have heard similar horror stories from other artists who also encountered issues with the platform. Many were not fully briefed on the scope of their agreements, and those without representation were left feeling misled and frustrated. Too Lost’s poor communication and lack of transparency continue to harm independent artists, especially those who trusted their sales pitch without the benefit of a management team.

A Call to Action: Avoid Too Lost

We can no longer remain silent about Too Lost’s failures. If you are an artist or label considering using their services, we urge you to reconsider. Too Lost may seem promising, but their system is plagued with critical failures, poor communication, and unprofessional conduct. Even Spotify has advised us to switch to a different distributor and is currently investigating the issues we encountered.

Conclusion: Artists and Labels Deserve Better

We are now in the process of transitioning all of our artists to a more reliable platform. Your music deserves better, and so does your career. Too Lost has proven that they are not equipped to handle the basic responsibilities of a distributor, and we strongly advise against using their services. There are far better options available that can offer you the transparency, reliability, and professionalism you deserve.

Louis Elton
CEO, Elton Audio Records

Here’s Why You Should Not Trust Too Lost for Music Distribution