If you’re an independent artist considering using DistroKid as your music distributor, then you’re in the right place.
In this article, I’m going to break down the key things I’ve learnt from using DistroKid over the past year or so.
I’m going to cover the positives and negatives, as well as talk about my personal experience using them for my music.
This article is not sponsored, but if you click the links to DistroKid on this page and make a purchase, I will earn a small affiliate commission, which helps to support my work as an independent music producer.
If you’re interested in signing up for DistroKid, you can get 7% off the first year of your plan by joining DistroKid through this link.
Introduction and background
I’ve been using DistroKid as my distributor for the past year or so, and I decided to write this article to share my experiences of using them for all of my music releases.
I’ve been making and releasing electronic music for a couple of years now (first as Ensōtama and now as finalmartin), and during that time I’ve learnt quite a lot about how distributors work if you’re an independent artist.
When I first start out, I was using SoundCloud for Artists (formerly the Repost Network) as my distributor.
My experience with SoundCloud for Artist was good, and I enjoyed using their platform to distribute my releases to stores such as Spotify and Apple Music.
However, as time went on, I realised that there were some extra features I wanted from my music distributor that SoundCloud for Artists were not offering at the time.
For example, as an electronic music producer, I wanted the option to be able to distribute my music onto Beatport, but at the time this wasn’t possible through SoundCloud for Artists.
So I started doing some research into other distributors, including DistroKid.
After looking into some other options, I chose to go with DistroKid, and it’s been a great experience.
That being said, there are definitely some things to bear in mind if you’re thinking of making the switch to DistroKid. So here are my DistroKid Pros and Cons.
DistroKid Pros
- Keep 100% of your royalties – DistroKid lets you keep 100% of your royalty earnings. This is great, because some distributors, including SoundCloud for Artists at the time of writing this article, take a percentage cut of your royalties.
- Really fast distribution – The first thing I noticed when I moved all my music to DistroKid was just how fast they are at delivering your music to stores. The time-frame can vary, but it usually takes about two working days, and sometimes my releases even appear in my Spotify for Artists the next day! I can’t speak for other distributors, but this is definitely faster than my experience with SoundCloud for Artists.
- Beatport distribution – As I mentioned above, the ability to distribute my music to Beatport was really important to me, and DistroKid offer this service as a paid add-on (it’s a monthly fee).
- Lots of bonus features – DistroKid offer a lot of additional features that you can use to promote and market your music. For example, you can use their Hyperfollow tool to creating landing pages for your music to share on social media.
- Claim your official artist accounts on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok – DistroKid makes it really easy for you to claim your Official Artist Channel on YouTube, which allows you to merge your existing music YouTube channel with your artist channel, allowing your releases to automatically be shown on your new channel. You can also easily link your music to your artist accounts on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
DistroKid Cons
- Add-ons cost extra – One DistroKid drawback I often hear people talking about is the fact that there are some additional fees for added services. For example, if you’d like to distribute your music to Beatport, you’ll have to pay an extra monthly fee. There are also additional fees for things like registering your songs with the YouTube Content ID system. It’s a good idea to do some research into the additional fees when thinking about joining DistroKid, so you can get an idea of what you’ll be paying.
- Payment and withdrawal fees – Another downside for me is the fact that DistroKid’s payment partner charges fees when you withdraw your earnings. The amount varies depending on where you are based in the world, but essentially you will have to pay a fee (which is deducted from your earnings) to receive your payments.
- You can only pay on a yearly basis – There’s no option to pay for your plan on a monthly basis with DistroKid, you have to pay for the whole year up front. And if you don’t renew your plan, it’s possible your music may be taken down from streaming platforms. It’s worth reading DistroKid’s terms and conditions to find out more about this.
Anything else to be aware of?
I really recommend taking the time to do your research before joining DistroKid. There are pros and cons of every music distribution service out there, so it’s definitely worth reading up about some of the options before making a decision.
I’m also going to write a separate article about how to move your music to DistroKid from another distributor (something I did recently), because there are some things to know about that process.
If you’re interested, you can also watch my full YouTube video about DistroKid’s pros and cons below.
Final thoughts
So there we have it, I hope you found this article on the Pros and Cons of DistroKid from my experience to be useful.
Is DistroKid worth it? I can only speak from my personal experience of using them, but I can safely say that:
Overall, I’ve been really happy since I moved my music to DistroKid and I continue to use them as my distributor to this day.
As I mentioned above, if you do decide to sign up for DistroKid, you can use the link below to get a 7% discount off your first year (no discount code required, just click the button below).