Distrokid Music Distribution Assessment

Pioneers of the unlimited distribution model, Distrokid revolutionized the industry and forced all other digital distributors to adapt. That’s a great accomplishment for Distrokid, but the problem is that competing distributors adapted. Distrokid realized artists weren’t looking for much in the way of service, they’d be happy to see their music in stores. And, not even all stores, only the notable stores. Distrokid didn’t get you into all stores like Tunecore and CD Baby. It got you into what it called \\\"essential stores\\\" and focused on keeping overhead low to scale its business. Tunecore and CD Baby’s features, you couldn’t find with Distrokid. Customer support, wasn’t a whole lot invested into that. Effectively, using Distrokid was like purchasing a knockoff Gucci bag. What happened was, Gucci started selling its bags at knockoff prices. With price no longer the determining factor, what’s the argument for Distrokid? It may be more a matter of if there’s an argument against it because, for most artists, it’s the name they know. The truth is, there isn’t a strong argument against it because the service providers you’ll find with distribution at this price point, with a few exceptions, are virtually all the same. 

Top Reason to Choose Distrokid

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 which is the fear of music being removed due to non-payment or cancelation. There are other distributors that offer the ability to keep your music in stores but they come with revenue splits where you have to sacrifice a percentage of your royalties. Choosing a distributor that charges a one-time fee but takes 15% would result in paying about $29 annually vs. paying $29 one time with Leave-a-Legacy for the life of the release. 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

Distrokid vs. CD Baby vs. Ditto vs. Too Lost Distribution - Keeping Music in stores

Too Lost allows you to keep music in stores even if you cancel but takes 15% of the revenue generated. CD Baby charges a one-time fee then 9% of revenue long-term. Ditto doesn’t charge any additional fee or take a percentage of revenue to keep your releases in stores. You keep 100%, the catch with Ditto is the funds are locked until you reactivate your subscription and there’s no clarity on whether they claim 100% of the royalties until you do. Buying out 100% of the royalties with Distrokid could be the best option, especially if significant revenue is generated. 

Distrokid Plans & Key Differences - Is It Worth Upgrading?

Distrokid Musician Plan 

• Price: $22.99 annually 
• How many artists? 1 
• Upload Unlimited Songs 
• Royalty Splits - Collaborators must have their own Distrokid account to collect which costs $10 annually. 
• Access to 21 free tools 
• Mobile app access

Musician Plus - Includes everything in the plan above 

• Price: $39.99
• How many artists? 2
• Daily streaming stats - Consolidates daily streaming and sales day for review and analysis. It’s not an essential tool, but it’s beneficial. 
• Custom Label Name - Essential for branding and presentation. 
• Custom Release Date - Essential for planning and building a marketing strategy. 

Ultimate - Includes everything in the plans above

• Price: $89.99 
• How many artists? 5 - 100 - Essential for labels and artist collectives. 
• 1 TB Instant File Sharing 
• Search engine for playlist contact info 

Distrokid Customer Support 

You don’t choose Distrokid for customer support. That’s a feature of White-Glove digital distributors like Venice. You choose Distrokid because it’s easy to use, affordable, and the name you know. Charging $20 for unlimited distribution isn’t a model that lends itself to a business having the best resources. Nobody walks into a neighborhood Chinese Food restaurant and expects to hear \\\"Right this way sir.\\\" we need to set the proper expectations. With Distrokid, you get Email support and the support staff is likely some combination of bots and virtual assistance with scripts that can’t help you with anything that takes them off script. If your issue is basic, the problem will be solved and you’ll be happy. If the issue is complex, you’ll likely head to Trust Pilot to write a scathing review and give them 1 star. You get what you pay for. 

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 you desire. Additionally, Distrokid often breaks this rule when it adds popular services so it isn’t competitively disadvantaged.

Discovery Package is an audio recognition service. 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.

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