This is one of the most important questions to ask before choosing a subscription-based music distributor.

DistroKid’s Leave a Legacy option exists specifically to allow selected releases to remain live after cancellation or a lapsed membership.

That means artists should not assume every normal release will simply remain in stores permanently once the subscription ends.

Why would a distributor remove music?

Music distribution isn’t just a one-time file upload.

The distributor continues to:

receive royalties

process store reports

manage metadata

handle relationships with DSPs

account to artists

manage rights issues

That ongoing service has a cost.

DistroKid funds much of it through annual subscriptions.

Can you prevent removal?

Leave a Legacy is one route.

Transferring the music to another distributor before cancelling is another.

For artists with large catalogues, transferring may make more economic sense than purchasing permanence extras across everything.

Compare the model before signing up

A new artist might think:

$24.99 is cheap.

A better question is:

What will keeping my catalogue live cost over twenty years?

That may lead you to a completely different conclusion.

Alternatives

Some distribution models avoid annual catalogue-maintenance subscriptions entirely.

RouteNote Free, for example, has no annual distribution fee.

That’s not automatically better for everyone because RouteNote Free takes 15% of net revenue.

But it shows why artists need to compare business models rather than prices.