Distrokid is no doubt a popular music distribution company of note but that does not mean it is without ups and downs. In this review, I discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of Distrokid based on my own personal first-hand experience in comparison to other music distributors such as CD Baby and TuneCore or Ditto Music.
As a core member of an agency that manages digital contents for creators including DJs, musicians, SMEs among other artists, it is expected of someone like me to have tested the waters before hand and one of the simplest ways to accomplish that is to sign up with Distrokid and others like it, upload some demos and compare our results.
Apart from helping us understand the ethics of the industry, working with as many music distribution companies as possible helps identify the norms from the fantasies in the industry.
And of course, maximizing the profit is the ultimate goal here.
- The Pros: Why Distrokid is Better than TuneCore, CD Baby and other Alternatives
- The Largest Value Added Services
- Detailed Royalty Reporting
- Prompt Monthly Revenue Update
- Easier and Multiple Remittance Options
- Faster and More Robust Digital Fingerprint Recognition System
- More Trusted By the Stores
- Fastest Onboarding Access for Pro Artists
- Best Lyrics Sync Services Across Stores
- Digital Music Protection Services via DistroLock
- Widest Essential But Optional Services
- Relatively Larger Users Base
- Cons: Why Distrokid May Not Be that Good for You
- Distrokid As A Music Distributor - the Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions
Now, having being with Distrokid since 2016, I would say the experience has been more of lovely than disappointments. And here, in this review, I have put everything together so that you may see Distrokid through the lense of what it actually is in the year 2025.
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The Pros: Why Distrokid is Better than TuneCore, CD Baby and other Alternatives
Remember that I say this review would be based on my personal first-hand experience of Distrokid music distribution services? Therefore, everything discussed in this review may not reflect the opinions and experience of the others and you, certainly may not have the same experience as me but, except you are a bot or an AI, your experience would certainly be similar to the ones reveal here.
And here are the pros:
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The Largest Value Added Services
Comparing Distrokid to the likes of TuneCore and CD Baby, you would realise that none comes close in terms of value added services that, with some of these services, in a few clicks; could shoot your music presence and relevance to the moon.
Playlister, Wheel of Playlist, Playlist Spotlight, HyperFollow, Mini Videos, Meme Video Generator, Promo Cards among others are value added services you can either activate for free or subscribe to with one-time payment or on a month-to-month basis.
Of course, the value added services are optional, but if you need to boost your music distribution and presence which would eventually tell on your monthly revenue, you should consider these services.
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Detailed Royalty Reporting
If knowing exactly how much you earn per stream of your music means much to you, Distrokid is for you.
Through their excruciating reports data, you get to know how much a store pays you for every single stream. Let us take Spotify for example; if you wish to know how much Spotify pays you for a stream of a particular song, just click on the excruciating reports and all the details would be displayed before your eyes.
The same applies to streams that occured as a result of YouTube content ID, Meta Music Rights manager and TikTok Sounds Protection. Revenues generated from these streams can also be viewed through excruciating reports and you would know exactly how much, for example, YouTube content ID pays you for every single view.
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Prompt Monthly Revenue Update
You are certainly paid in every 28 - 35 days.
Provided content ID detects your sound used in videos across YouTube within this period, for YouTube at least, this includes revenue generated from YouTube Music and YouTube content ID, you are paid between your first 28 - 35 days of uploading your music to Distrokid. - of course, this depends on which date in the previous month your music was uploaded.
For other stores such as Spotify, iTunes, Soundcloud, Pandora and others, 45 to 60 days is the minimum wait time to get paid.
If this is to be compared to other alternatives, your wait time to get paid at all is 60 - 90 days minimum.
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Easier and Multiple Remittance Options
Processed through Tipalti, you can withdraw your earnings by ACH, Wire transfer and cheque. Other electronic money transfer channels supported by individual local mainstream banks could be optionally available.
Additionally, earnings can also be sent to PayPal. This is especially good for residents of locations where PayPal is fully supported.
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Faster and More Robust Digital Fingerprint Recognition System
To determine the speed and depth of Distrokid digital fingerprint recognition;
- We uploaded 7 exact demos on Ditto Music, TuneCore and Distrokid.
- Subscribed to and added the album to content ID on all platforms.
- We uploaded videos containing these demos on different Facebook Pages and YouTube channels.
Although we eventually had a shadow ban, we discover that Distrokid claimed royalties from most of those videos that used the demos both on Facebook and YouTube than the other two; TuneCore and Ditto Music.
And this discovery among others, brings us to include the next reason as listed below.
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More Trusted By the Stores
Although I have no tangible evidences that support this claim, I believe stores especially, YouTube, Facebook, Spotify and iTunes; linger more towards music uploaded through Distrokid than its alternatives.
One of the reasons for this conclusion is what was discovered from above. Because, if not trust, although the demos uploaded onto Distrokid got to the stores about 24 hours later than the others, it was still able to claim royalties of more videos than the other music distributors.
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Fastest Onboarding Access for Pro Artists
If you are an artist, upcoming or not and needs either or all of YouTube Official Artist Channel, Apple Music for Artist, TikTok Artist Account, Spotify for Artists or easy Tidal Artist Home management, Distrokid is your fastest and surefire way to get it done.
All other alternatives also offer these services especially, YouTube OAC and Spotify for Artist, Distrokid just makes getting it easiest and fastest.
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Best Lyrics Sync Services Across Stores
If you prefer to upload and sync your own custom lyrics with your songs rather than using the autogenerated lyrics, this service is especially introduced with you in mind. If Ditto Music has had this option, it would have been made a favourite for much more artists, but then, it is what is.
After the more robust digital fingerprint recognition services, this is the next reason for which I often opt for Distrokid rather than most of the other alternatives because, with some stores, I have found that music with more accurate lyrics are more widely distributed and better suggested than those without and this presents a perfect opportunity to explore that option.
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Digital Music Protection Services via DistroLock
If you have ever been a victim of unauthorized release, you will appreciate the DistroLock optional service more.
DistroLock is an optional service you can subscribe to, at an added additional cost of course, that ensures your albums that are distributed through Distrokid are protected to avoid unauthorized releases.
NOTE: an active DistroLock subscription protects only all songs in the album hence, the service is subscribable per album.
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Widest Essential But Optional Services
My favourite in this fleet of Essential but Optional Services list is the YouTube Allowlist, a free service that allows you excuse royalty claims on a video or a set of videos on YouTube that supposedly use your songs.
To put this in a perspective, let us assume you have a YouTube channel that is already monetized and you have a song that you used in the videos that are already uploaded on your YouTube channel. Ordinarily, Distrokid would claim the royalties on those videos so that, instead of you been paid the generated revenues from those videos directly through the AdSense account that is connected to your YouTube channel; Distrokid gets the revenues and then, pays you after they might have deducted their own commission.
To prevent this occurence, so that you may get your revenues generated from those videos in full, you can just submit the videos to be included in the YouTube Allowlist to Distrokid and you are good to go.
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Relatively Larger Users Base
Although, this depends on how individual views it but, from my own point of view; a large user base is a positive signal.
The fact that you do not find yourself amidst scanty audiences is an assurance on its own. I mean, let us assume you are having an issue with Distrokid services, the chance that somebody else already has that same exact issues and has got it resolved is high. If you check both on reddit and X, you can find a lot of redditors and X handles already discussing Distrokid issues and perhaps, possible solutions.
Now, would you rather not just pay attention to the pros, and pay more attention to the cons that Distrokid may serve you too. That way, you may objectively make decisions as to choosing Distrokid or not.
Cons: Why Distrokid May Not Be that Good for You
And based on past personal experiences with them; here are the cons:
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Reasonably Costlier than the Alternatives
The biggest setback with using Distrokid for me, is their pricing. For example, they are $10 costlier than the clossest alternatives I can think of and that is if you are comparing their subscription plans alone.
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Although, in spite of the cost, arguably, Distrokid has the largest users base in the industry. Do not take my word for it. Check a few of reddit threads and compare the number of active redditors who, most likely, are at the same time; active Distrokid subscribers. When you compare these numbers to other competitors such as TuneCore or CD Baby for example, you should get my point here.
But, why should Distrokid charge relatively higher amounts for the same service?
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Limited Mobile App Access
While I do not understand the logic behind this and for me, certainly not a big issue. But, for who cares to know, mobile app access level varies by subscription plans.
For example, users with musician+ plan enjoy better access than ordinary musician subscribers. And ultimate subscribers enjoy the deepest experience of the mobile app.
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Frequent Payout Issues Due to Downtime Caused By Large Simulteneous Requests
For some years now, users have consistently experienced one issue or the other in an attempt to withdraw earnings particularly between 23rd - 27th and between 2nd - 5th days of every month.
Again, this is not a deal breaker for me as these issues at requesting payment usually occurs at certain periods of the month. In fact, you would only experience it at certain periods of the days of the month and it would only happen so briefly.
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Transparency and Trust Issues
Something has happened with a few of my releases for the third time. First experienced it in the year 2017 and it casts a doubt on their overall transparency claims.
It was around the payout period when I was expecting the previous month earnings to be added up so that the whole lump can be withdrawn once but alas I got there and it was all gone. Two of my releases disappeared and the entire balances were gone.
After a few back and forth, I realised I was shadow banned for a possible violation of their terms, which I never got to know which one specifically. Well, perhaps, that reasonably explains why the two releases may have been removed. But, what about the earned revenues?
I had that experience twice in 2017 and the last one was in late 2018.
Since the last encounter, I have been more careful with what content I upload and from or for which artists I upload.
Distrokid As A Music Distributor - the Conclusion
As an artist; DJ, musician, vocalist or otherwise that wishes to receiving revenues from his or her art from month to month, going through Distrokid would be one of the best decisions you would ever make as it could not just be the starting point but also set the stage towards projecting any artist to the world.
Well, shadowm ban is still very much around but you would never have such issue as in my case so long as you do not violate their policies especially, any copyright policies.
Frequently Asked Questions
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How much does Distrokid pay per 1,000 streams?
There is no fixed amount paid per 1,000 streams and it is impossible to determine the exact amount that is paid for every 1,000 streams. However, if you check through the excruciating reports data, you might be able to know how much you are peid per 1,000 stream but then, it cannot be fixed as the amount that is paid is dependent on various factors including the stores and the regions where those streams came from which are not always fixed.
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Which famous artist uses Distrokid?
Ludacris was one of the big names that uses Distrokid. Besides Ludacris, there are the likes of 21 Savage, Arizona Zervas, The Red Pears, Christian Kuiria, Carly Pearl, Eydrey among others.
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Does Distrokid pay you monthly?
Yes. This is as simple an answer you can get. But Distrokid has a varying withdrawal threshold that changes based on your chosen payout method. For example, if you choose to get paid via cheque and you are in a country outside US, the minimum amount in your bank balance must not be less than $25 to request a payment.
And the payout threshold can go as low as $2 for users in some regions that use PayPal as a payout method.
Regardless, Distrokid updates your bank monthly and your ability to request payout would then be determined by if your balance reaches the payout threshold for your chosen payout method or not.
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Is Distrokid free to upload?
Yes. For as long as you have an active subscription, you are free to upload unlimited songs throughout the duration of your subscription and if you want, without incurring any additional costs on your part.
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Is Distrokid better than CD Baby?
Yes. Based on my own personal experience of both distributors, Distrokid is miles better than CD Baby. And unless something changes drastically, I think it will be so for many years to come.
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Is Distrokid better than TuneCore?
Arguably, yes. Arguably because both distributors have got many things in common and as a matter of fact, I have experienced as many issues as I have had with TuneCore as with the other. And YES because the volume matters in this case. And as far as I am concerned, Distrokid has the volume.
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How long does Distrokid take to release?
Sometimes, within 24 hours. Other times, within 48 hours. But I have got my releases done within 72 hours more times than within either of 24 or 48 hours.
