Distrokid Review 2025: Pricing, Features & Everything You Need to Know

Distrokid 7% Off

Top Reason to Choose Distrokid

Distrokid's Leave-a-Legacy - A feature that allows you to pay a fee per release that ensures your music will remain in stores even if your card can’t be charged or you cancel your Distrokid subscription. With Leave-a-Legacy, you continue to collect 100% of the royalties you’re owed. This addresses a top concern with the unlimited distribution model. Artists fear the prospect of their music being removed due to non-payment or cancelation. Too Lost and Landr are two distributors that offer artists the ability to keep their releases in stores but come with revenue splits. It’s a great mixed-model offer because you can distribute tons of tracks and allow them to pay for themselves. When a track earns $29, it pays for a permanent spot with Leave-a-Legacy.

Leave-a-Legacy Price

• $29/Single
• $49/Album

Things to Note 

Distrokid Extras - Hidden Fees?

Features other distributors include with their service are add-ons with Distrokid: Content ID, automatically having your releases added to new stores, Shazam, and other audio recognition services all cost extra. The fees are applied annually, per release which drives up the price. 

• Content ID Price: $4.95 per single, per year | $14.95 per album, per year
• Store Maximizer Price: $7.95 per album, per year 
• Discover Package Price: $0.99 per track, per year  

Content ID is a feature where an audio fingerprint of your song is added to a tracking system that searches YouTube for matches to identify your song when it’s used in third-party videos. The vast majority of artists use Content ID to monetize uploads of their music to their channel without qualifying for YouTube’s Partner Program. The often overlooked consequence of activating Content ID is that any channel that seeks to promote your music by using it in its videos will have 100% of the revenue generated from it taken and paid to you. A music channel with a following will elect not to promote your track if it means a loss of revenue, so Content ID works out to be counterproductive. You’d be better off distributing an Art track through VEVO than activating Content ID. 

Store Maximizer is a feature that automatically adds your releases to new stores. Distrokid doesn’t restrict you from adding your releases to new stores; instead, it’s charging you for the convenience of having it automated. You can manually add your releases to any new stores. Additionally, Distrokid often breaks this rule when it adds popular services.

Discovery Package is for distribution to audio recognition services. Beyond Shazam, there are metadata service providers like Graceonotes. Apple owns Shazam, so all songs in Apple Music’s library are automatically identifiable. Gracenotes gathers data from various sources, including DSPs, direct user submissions, and web crawlers that scan the internet for public information. Though having Distrokid submit the data directly would ensure the correct data is collected and made available to consumers faster, they’ll get the information one way or another, so it’s unnecessary.

Music Fights Fraud Member 

Music Fights Fraud is an alliance of distributors and DSPs that have come together to form a database to ban artists that have been flagged for streaming fraud. The ban would extend to every distributor and platform in the network. Many artists are victims of streaming fraud. Scam companies feed them false promises and take their money. The methods of Music Fights Fraud add insult to injury by punishing the artist for being scammed. It exists to protect the interests of major record companies and not indie artists. No major label artist is likely to be flagged for streaming fraud, and there's no way they would be added to any database. Additionally, Music Fights Fraud members are adopting a new policy called KYA(Know Your Artist) that requires artists to upload their state IDs so bans can extend to their identity. 

The Rundown 

Model:  

Unlimited distribution for an annual fee 

Price: 

Ultimate: $7.50 per Month or $89.99 annually
Musician Plus: $3.33 per Month or $39.99 annually
Musician: $1.92 per Month or $22.99 annually

Transaction Fees: 

ACH (U.S. only) - $1.07 per payment
PayPal (Non-US resident): USD 1.07 + 2% Up to USD 22.47
PayPal (US resident): USD 1.07 + 2% Up to USD 2.14

Stores: 

Limited Inventory 

Distribution to New Stores: 

Yes +$8 per release annually for Store Maximizer

Artists: 

Musician: 1 Artist
Musician Plus: 2 Artists
Ultimate: 5 - 100 Artists

Split Pay: 

Included - Payees must pay $10 annually for their own Distrokid subscription to collect. 

Keeps Music Live: 

Yes - Requires the Leave-a-Legacy feature 

$29/Single or $49/Album for Leave-a-Legacy

Exclusivity:

No Exclusivity clause. 

Customer Support:

Average at best 

Content ID:

Included - Keep 80% +

$4.99/per single Annually
$14.95/per album Annually
+$20% of Royalties

AI Licensing Policy

No official policy or plans to allow AI to access artists' music for LLM 

Streaming Fraud 

Warnings, Removal, Fines. Distrokid allows songs that have been flagged for streaming fraud to be re-uploaded using new ISRCs and UPCs. 

Music Fights Fraud Member 

Yes - If another distributor has banned you, you may automatically be banned by SoundCloud. Music Fights Fraud is a database of artists that have been flagged.

KYA (Know-Your-Artist) / KYC (Know-Your-Customer)

This is promoted as a protective tool and requires you to upload your State ID to verify your identity. The Music Fights Fraud alliance and its members have plans to use this information for their database, which will likely be used for global bans and work as a No-Fly list for music distribution. 

No - Distrokid does not require KYA/KYC 

UPC Codes:

Included x cannot bring your own 

Check the Comparison Charts for the most updated and comprehensive information

Rating 

Transparency: Has a history of not being clear about the cost involved. The website only lists one price with no links to the full list of pricing plans. Artists aren't informed that they'll need to pay more for access to certain features. Customer support: Ok. Payment: Great - transaction fees are capped. Stores: Ok - Limited inventory, but not prohibitively limited. Features: Ok. Longevity: Great. Fees: Poor - It charges extra for nearly everything. Red Flags: Yes - Grants itself the option of retaining lump sums paid out by DSPs and other licensees to artists for the use of their music, but isn't directly addressed to any specific artists. Track Record: Ok - A lot of people love it, just as many people hate it. 

Final Assessment

Distrokid offers unlimited distribution to a limited number of stores and the ability to keep music in stores if you cancel or can no longer afford to pay. Unlike other distributors with entry-level price points, there's no quasi-label with Distrokid. Tunecore is owned by Believe, which signs artists; even Tunecore has an A&R department and works with artists to expand on their success. CD Baby is owned by Downtown Music, which is like Tunecore's Believe. Distribution services are being used as development leagues to scout and upstream talent. Because Distrokid doesn't have that, the success of its artists is meaningless to its business. The company has zero incentive to do anything financially beneficial to artists. You can see a lack of incentive in its features. Upstream is a feature that gave labels access to the data of artists. If an artist got signed, Distrokid got a finder's fee, but the tool also allowed for labels to spy and steal burgeoning trends and styles. They formed a partnership with Roblox that paid artists zero royalties for the usage of their work in video games. They have this clause in their terms "If DistroKid receives a lump-sum payment from a digital store that is not attributable to any particular artist account(s) or specific Recordings from any particular artist account(s), DistroKid will, in its sole discretion, determine if, and to what extent, any portion of such monies shall be payable" If a company like Twitter agrees to payout for the usage of music on its platform it'll payout a lump sum to distributors to split between artists because it doesn't track which songs were used and how often. In that instance, Distrokid could keep the money because it's not directly addressed to any particular artists. All businesses look to do what's best for business. The problem with Distrokid is a lack of alignment between its business and yours. 

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