DistroKid

Flat annual subscription music distribution where artists keep 100% of streaming royalties

As of 1 September 2026, DistroKid's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. A distribution service priced as a flat yearly fee rather than a commission on royalties, so an artist doing modest streaming numbers keeps everything above the subscription cost. Softwr lists it under Music. DistroKid is made by DistroKid LLC, available on Web, iOS, Android.

Visit siteVisit DistroKid

Overview

What DistroKid does

DistroKid delivers music to Spotify, Apple Music and roughly 150 other stores and platforms, handles royalty collection and payout, and offers add-ons for scheduled release dates, songwriter splits, YouTube Content ID and sync licensing opportunities. Unlimited uploads are included on every tier. The defining fact against TuneCore and CD Baby is the pricing model itself: DistroKid charges a flat annual subscription, currently $24.99 for Musician, $44.99 for Musician Plus and $89.99 for Ultimate, and takes 0% of streaming royalties on any of them. That makes it the cheapest option by far for an artist with meaningful streaming numbers, since CD Baby takes a permanent 9% cut and TuneCore’s subscription model similarly keeps 100% but at different price points and feature splits. The catch that most comparisons skip is what happens on non-payment: if the annual fee lapses, DistroKid can remove releases from stores, and reinstating them means catching up the subscription; a per-release add-on called Leave a Legacy, at $29 to $39, keeps specific releases live even if the subscriber stops paying afterward. Buyers are working musicians who upload frequently and want to keep all streaming revenue. The trade-off is that DistroKid takes 20% from social platform monetisation such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, and 20% from publishing administration, so “0% royalties” is true only for the core streaming stores, not for every revenue stream it touches.

What people use it for

A working artist releasing multiple singles a year who wants to keep 100% of streaming royalties above a flat annual fee
A songwriter needing automated collaborator splits handled at the point of release
A small label managing several artists under one account using a Label tier
An artist who wants their catalogue to survive a lapsed subscription and pays for Leave a Legacy on key releases

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about DistroKid.

If the annual fee is not paid, DistroKid can pull releases from stores, and only releases with the separate Leave a Legacy add-on are protected from that.
The 0% royalty claim applies to streaming stores only; social platform monetisation through TikTok, Instagram and YouTube is charged at a 20% commission.
Publishing administration, if used, carries its own 20% commission on top of the base subscription.
Extra artist profiles beyond the one included per plan cost an additional $14.99 a year each, which adds up for artists running side projects.
Customer support is primarily self-serve and ticket-based rather than a dedicated account manager, which some artists moving from CD Baby’s more service-heavy model find thin.

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of DistroKid

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

DistroKidvs
TuneCore
TuneCore: If you want a similar 0%-royalty subscription model but different feature bundling and pricing points
DistroKidvs
CD Baby
CD Baby: If you prefer a one-time per-release fee with no recurring subscription, in exchange for a permanent revenue cut

Pricing

What DistroKid costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Musician

$24.99 /yr

Unlimited uploads, 0% royalty commission on streaming stores
No custom release scheduling

Musician Plus

$44.99 /yr

Scheduled release dates, daily stats
Custom label name, multiple artist names

Ultimate

$89.99 /yr

Everything in Musician Plus
Higher-tier support and additional artist management features

Label plans

On request

Label 5, Label 10 and Label 25 tiers for multiple managed artists

Capabilities

Features

Unlimited uploads
No cap on releases across every subscription tier
0% royalty commission on streaming
Artists keep 100% of Spotify, Apple Music and similar store royalties
Scheduled release dates
Custom release-date scheduling, included from Musician Plus upward
Leave a Legacy
Per-release add-on that keeps a release live in stores even after subscription lapse
Songwriter splits
Automated royalty splitting among collaborators on a release
YouTube Content ID
Monetisation of unofficial uploads of an artist’s music on YouTube, at a 20% commission

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

Does DistroKid really take 0% of royalties?

On core streaming store royalties, yes. It takes 20% on social platform monetisation (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube) and 20% on publishing administration if used.

What happens if I stop paying?

Your releases can be removed from stores. Leave a Legacy is a per-release add-on that keeps specific releases live regardless of subscription status.

Is there a free tier?

No. Every tier is a paid annual subscription; there is no free plan.

Keep looking

Where to go from DistroKid

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for DistroKid, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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