Why I Use DistroKid: Comparing Top Music Distribution Services
Choosing the best Music Distribution platform to get your music on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer, Tidal, Shazaam, and everywhere else is one of the most important decision you can make as an artist. With there being so many options though it might be hard to choose one that is right for you.
This was a decision that took me around 2 weeks to make myself so I've made this video and article to make it easier for you to get a grasp on what's out there. Ultimately my research led me to signing up for (spoiler alert) DistroKid and I think their service is ideal for almost any other musician out there, with very few exceptions.
In this article and video we are going to compare DistroKid with CD Baby, Tunecore, Emu Bands, Amuse, Repost by Soundcloud, Landr, Record Union, Vydia and Reverb Nation. And this only is the tip of the iceburg. Many other services didn't even make the cut to be even discussed because their pricing was just so high and feature set so limited.
If at any point in this article I do convince you that DistroKid is also right for you, which let’s be real, it probably is, then know at any point you can click this link to save 7% on your first year plan with DistroKid.
Also if you find this information helpful, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel.
The Music Distribution Scene
So there’s a lot of competing companies that all offer music distribution services. Making an article breaking down the full featured set of each one would be really freaking long. So instead I’m going to talk about the features that attracted me to DistroKid and compare those features to some of these other platforms to see who can truly standup to the rich feature set and affordability of DistroKid.
I’m not going to lie to you, some of these companies offer so little features at such a high price that I have no idea how some of them are still even in the business of distribution. I feel sorry for customers using some of these services but that’s just the cost of not doing your research.
Luckily for you, by watching this video you are clearly doing your research so you’re already ahead!
Pricing
That being said, let’s start off with one of the biggest aspects us consumers look at: pricing.
One of the things I really like about DistroKid is they offer THE most affordable pricing on the market. Plans start at $20/year (even less if you use that referral link in the description *wink*) and that gets you access to unlimited uploads and you get to keep 100% of your earnings.
To compare that to some other services, CD Baby, Tunecore, Landr, EmuBands and Reverbnation all charge on a per album basis ranging from $29-$85 per album and in some cases you don’t even get 100% of your royalties.
I personally think that anything less than 100% of your royalties is unacceptable.
Amuse has unlimited distribution for $25/year and Repost by Soundcloud has unlimited distribution for $30/year and that also allows you to monetize your Soundcloud streams, however the feature set is wildly limiting for both with the only notable feature of each being split payments, but the buck stops there.
But that does brings me to my next feature which was a must for me which is split royalties.
Split Royalties
I love collaborating with other musicians so cutting everyone involved in a track into the action was a requirement for me. Surprisingly, this feature actually isn’t as common as you think it would be. Luckily DistroKid to the rescue!
With Distrokid’s Teams section you can setup royalty splits with any artists you’ve collaborated on. And since DistroKid is so popular and a lot of artists are already distributing through it, setting up your team and assigning royalty percentages really couldn’t be easier.
You can also edit the royalty splits for your team at any time which is really convenient.
As mentioned earlier, Repost and Amuse offer royalty splits but that’s the only feature they really offer and these platforms include no other artists tools. They’re very basic. So that’s basically the end of the road for those two.
Moving on, let’s now talk about Spotify Preferred Distributors.
Spotify Preferred Distributors
Spotify has a provider directory where they recommend companies to distribute your music through. The great thing about being on this list is that it ensures your track will appear on Spotify as quickly as possible.
Can you guess what company is at the top of the preferred list?
DistroKid, baby!
They have 5 total referred brands including DistroKid.
CD Baby and EmuBands are two which as mentioned earlier are both wildly expensive and you're charged on a per album or single basis and offered almost no features, unless you want to pay for a bunch of add-ons.
Record Union is on the list and is about as bare bones as it gets for music distribution with very little features. They also only give you 85% of royalties but they do give you the generous option to pay them $5/month to increase that to 92.5% </sarcasm>
Vydia is the 5th preferred distributor but that’s a closed, invite-only platform which is also designed for managers, labels, and video work. It’s sort of a totally different thing.
So even running through just the Spotify preferred list, DistroKid is the only one offering the most affordability, biggest feature set, and 100% royalties.
I mean that’s like the triple crown of what you’re looking for in a distribution partner, right?
Now I keep talking about this “rich feature set.”
So what do I mean exactly?
DistroKid’s Rich Feature Set
Well in case you haven’t heard enough reasons about why DistroKid is the top dog, then I’m really about to pile it on here. DistroKid has a ton of artist tools that I find super rad and it really just sealed the deal for me. So let’s do it!
Hyper Follow
Everytime you finish uploading a track onto DistroKid, it automatically generates what is called a Hyper Follow page (here’s an example of a Hyper Follow page).
This is a landing page that you can use as a promotional tool for your music which includes links to every major streaming service that your track can be streamed on.
What’s cool about this page is that while your waiting for your track to be delivered to stores, this page is automatically populated with a Spotify pre-save link and allows visitors to enter their email address to be notified when this track is released.
This lets you build a contact list so that on the big day of your drop, you have a list of contacts to get some initial buzz behind your track.
If you want to learn more about email marketing and your music feel free to check out my video on it here.
Cover Songs
Another really great feature of DistroKid is you can easily distribute cover songs.
For a small annual fee, you can upload a cover song and DistroKid will take care of all the legal work to ensure you're authorized to upload that song and will take care of paying royalties to the song writer.
This makes it really easy to upload cover songs and not have to worry about all the confusing legal shit.
Having cover songs in your discography can be a great way for people to organically find you as people will actively search for covers of their favorite songs so being able to quickly do this is kind of rad!
Promotion Tools
DistroKid also offers a whole suite of promotional tools. This can range from generating short videos and promo cards to share on social media to making these really fun meme videos like Grogu flipping switches in the Razor Crest.
Come on, that’s just fun! If you don’t have any experience designing your own assets these can be really useful tools.
Verify Spotify For Artists Page
I also like that DistroKid makes it easy to instantly verify my Spotify Artist page.
Blue checkmarks on most social media networks can take a while to get but with DistroKid you can instantly verify your Spotify for Artists page.
You can also setup your Apple Music for Artists page and if you have a YouTube that you already upload your music to, then you can easily sync that channel with your releases.
This is something I did and that’s why you see the little music note next to my name on YouTube because I set this page up as my official artist channel.
I can really keep going cause there are a numerous other small features to explore, but these were some I think were worth mentioning.
There is no other tool that offers all of these features and for $20/year you literally can’t beat it.
DistroKid is also very involved in the music community.
You will find no other streaming platform that is as involved with giving back to the industry than DistroKid because they support a huge number of YouTube channels.
I’ve seen no other music distributor do this and that means a lot to me as both a music artist and a content creator.
There is also no shortage of musicians across the internet that glowingly recommend DistroKid over any other platform.
So did I convince you?
I’m telling you, take the load off and let DistroKid be your trusted distribution partner. They stay out of your way and let you focus on creating more music.