DistroKid has become one of the biggest names in independent music distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its pitch is attractive: pay an annual membership, release unlimited music and keep 100% of your normal streaming royalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But is DistroKid actually worth it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For some artists, absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For others, there are several reasons to think carefully before signing up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DistroKid’s biggest advantage is unlimited distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you release twenty singles a year, paying one annual subscription can make considerably more sense than paying separately for every release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DistroKid also offers useful tools including royalty Splits, HyperFollow pages and relatively straightforward distribution to major streaming services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also says artists receive 100% of the earnings stores allocate to them for normal streams and sales, minus banking fees and taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s compelling once your music generates meaningful revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The issue is that DistroKid is an ongoing subscription rather than simply a one-time upload cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your catalogue may remain active for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That means artists should think about distribution as a long-term relationship rather than deciding based on what something costs this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DistroKid offers Leave a Legacy specifically to allow individual releases to stay live if your membership later lapses or you cancel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It currently costs $29 per single or $49 per multi-track release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For one release, that’s manageable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For fifty releases, it becomes something very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are also numerous optional Album Extras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A musician releasing covers through DistroKid currently pays $12 per cover every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Social Media Pack is another recurring release-level charge and also carries a 20% share of revenue it generates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Again, these are optional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the more of them you need, the less meaningful the basic subscription price becomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DistroKid makes the most sense for artists who:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It looks less attractive for musicians who:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DistroKid is a good distributor for a particular type of artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it isn’t automatically the cheapest or best option simply because its headline annual price looks low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New musicians should particularly ask whether paying before their music earns anything makes sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RouteNote Free takes the opposite approach: no upfront distribution fee, with artists retaining 85% of net revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For many emerging artists, that means the distributor only makes money when the artist does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DistroKid is certainly worth considering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It just shouldn’t be considered the default choice without looking at the long-term economics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DistroKid has become one of the biggest names in independent music distribution. Its pitch is attractive: pay an annual membership, release unlimited music and keep 100% of your normal streaming royalties. But is DistroKid actually worth it? For some artists, absolutely. For others, there are several reasons to think carefully before signing up. What DistroKid does well DistroKid’s biggest advantage is unlimited distribution. If you release twenty singles a year, paying one annual subscription can make considerably more sense than paying separately for every release. DistroKid also offers useful tools including royalty Splits, HyperFollow pages and relatively straightforward distribution to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2119,1378,1365],"coauthors":[2],"class_list":["post-3775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-costs","tag-distrokid","tag-pricing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n