Leave a Legacy is one of DistroKid’s most interesting Album Extras.

It also reveals something important about the economics of subscription music distribution.

What is DistroKid Leave a Legacy?

DistroKid says Leave a Legacy prevents the selected release being removed because of lapsed membership payments.

It also allows that release to remain available after an account is cancelled.

The current price is:

$29 per single

$49 per album or release containing two or more tracks

The fee is non-recurring, but applies separately to each release.

Why does Leave a Legacy exist?

Normally, using a subscription distributor means maintaining the relationship with that distributor.

Leave a Legacy gives artists the ability to protect particular releases even if they later stop paying for DistroKid.

That’s useful.

But it also raises a question.

Why should catalogue permanence need to be purchased separately?

The cost at catalogue scale

For one important single, $29 probably isn’t a major issue.

For twenty singles, protecting every release would cost $580.

For 100 singles, it would cost $2,900.

Suddenly the economics look different.

Most independent artists won’t necessarily buy Leave a Legacy for everything.

But musicians building large catalogues should understand the implication.

Alternatives

Other distribution models handle catalogue permanence differently.

Amuse currently states that music stays live even if an artist downgrades or cancels.

Too Lost currently allows cancelled subscribers to leave releases live while receiving 85% of royalties until they resubscribe.

RouteNote Free has no annual subscription to maintain in the first place.

Is Leave a Legacy worth it?

If you’re already committed to DistroKid and have a few important releases you want protected, it can be useful.

But before paying for it across a large catalogue, calculate the total.

The cost of permanence matters just as much as the cost of distribution.