DistroKid quietly up their pricing by up to 15%

By Tom NewmanMay 10, 20236 mins read

DistroKid have just upped the pricing of every subscription tier. Subscriptions now start at $22.99/year, over 15% more than $19.99/year.

Music distributor DistroKid just subtly updated their pricing page, with each tier receiving between an 11% and 15% price increase. The good news for DistroKid users is, there’s a better and more affordable option. Keep scrolling to learn more and for details on how to switch.

Don’t be fooled by those attractive “/ mo” prices on DistroKid’s plan page above. Each tier is priced annually from the moment you sign up, meaning by the time you discover the limitation in place, it’s already too late. A glance at the Ultimate tier, with its “5-100 artists” and it may seem a reasonable price for label managers, but dig a little deeper and you’ll soon realise the $89.99/year is for 5 artists only. Need more artists? You’ll soon find yourself forking out far more! See the full true pricing breakdown below:

Musician
- 1 band/artist, limited features
  - $19.99/year -> $22.99/year (+15.0%)
Musician Plus
- 2 bands/artists
  - $35.99/year -> $39.99/year (+11.1%)
Ultimate
- 5 bands/artists
  - $79.99/year -> $89.99/year (+12.5%)
- 10 bands/artists
  - $139.99/year -> $157.99/year (+12.8%)
- 20 bands/artists
  - $239.99/year -> $269.99/year (+12.5%)
- 50 bands/artists
  - $599.99/year -> $674.99/year (+12.5%)
- 100 bands/artists
  - $1199.99/year -> $1349.99/year (+12.5%)

This new pricing is on top of the Album Extras, which costs extra per song/album/year or sometimes a percentage cut for basic features, like Shazam, delivery to new stores, YouTube Content ID, leaving tracks online after a lapsed membership payment, etc.

A better and cheaper alternative

DistroKid start charging from the moment you open an account. At RouteNote, we believe all musicians should have access to the same tools, regardless of their size and budget. For this reason, we offer music distribution to all artists and labels with zero hidden, upfront or recurring subscription fee. This means anyone can upload an unlimited number of tracks from an unlimited number of artists, free of charge!

Once you’ve created your release, you choose whether it should be on our Free or Premium distribution model. RouteNote Free costs absolutely nothing, while you keep 85% of the revenue. RouteNote Premium costs a small fee, while you keep 100% of the revenue. All features (such as sending to new stores, customizable label names, release dates, preorder dates and iTunes pricing) and stores (such as Shazam and YouTube Content ID) are available across both tiers. You are never locked in and can switch tiers at any time. Miss a Premium payment? No problem. We’ll keep your release online and simply switch it to our Free model.

You can find a full comparison between RouteNote and DistroKid here!

Fortunately, switching your music from any music distributor over to RouteNote is easy to do, plus you can even keep your existing artist pages and statistics! Simply follow the steps in the video below.