I’m wicked excited to write this review for DistroKid. As someone who’s both an entrepreneur and musician, I love being able to do everything on my own and have full control over how my tracks are released. I’ve been using DistroKid for almost a year now, and it’s always been a reliable service for independent artists looking to release tracks to major distributors such as iTunes, Amazon, and more.
I’ll also say this: DistroKid didn’t ask me to write this article – I wanted to do it on my own. I wanted to write this review both to give an honest opinion of my experience with DistroKid, and to recommend it, because it’s made my life a lot easier as a musician.
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UPDATE: Here’s my NEW review after using DistroKid for years!
Price
This is usually the biggest factor when it comes to independent distribution. Because you’re not releasing through a label, you have to do everything yourself, which can be costly overtime. DistroKid was made by the original founders of Tunecore and CD Baby, who left those companies and decided to join forces.
Now this post isn’t meant to be a comparison of DistroKid versus other distribution services, but I will say that if you plan to release a lot of tracks, DistroKid is the way to go. It’s only $19.99/year to release unlimited tracks – if you want to release a track a day, knock yourself out. In addition, you keep 100% of the profits – making it even better.
The only flipside is that CD Baby has a one time fee for a single and album – $9.95 for a single and $49 for an album (and thats for the standard package – their pro package is more expensive). There are no yearly fees with CD Baby, so once you upload something, it’s completely permanent (unlike DistroKid, where if you stop paying, your music gets taken down). They do take a 9% cut of the profits, however, so it all depends on what you’re shooting for.
Simplicity
When I was planning to release my debut album The Light Nearby I researched every distribution service out there. If you want a full comparison of all the major ones, check out Ari’s Take Post – it’s definitely the most intricate post out there about all the services. I personally was trying out different services to see what they offered, and what I noticed right away was that DistroKid was way easier.
With the other services you have to sign up and provide all this information. With DistroKid, it was as simple as singing up, uploading my music, selecting the places, and boom. Done. It was extremely surprising how quick and efficient it was, and my music was on iTunes within a matter of hours (some services take longer though).
In addition, if you’re looking to start a music label, DistroKid is a great place to start releasing music under your name. It’s a bit more pricy ($35.99/year), but it’s completely worth it. When I started my label MetaMusic Records, I released all of my works under that name, and it was just as simple as typing in my name under the Label Name section. Pretty simple.
Customer Service
This was actually the precipitant that caused this post. Their customer service is incredible. I ran into some issues with some of my releases, and they will always extremely responsive and helpful. Any problems that I had were quickly fixed, and it was comforting to know that if I ever had a situation, they would be not only responsive but active in resolving it. When doing some research I saw a lot of negative reviews about other distribution companies, although I can’t say from experience because the main one that I’ve used is DistroKid.
Reliability
It’s an extremely important aspect to me (and probably everyone else) that if a company says you’re going to be distributed to a bunch of different places, that it actually happens. DistroKid was always extremely quick and reliable to make sure that all the information is correct and distributed to all the stores that they have. Again, I can’t say from experience, but I’ve heard some unfortunate stories about other distribution companies not doing what they promised.
Negative Aspects
I wanted this to be a comprehensive review, and the truth is, there really aren’t too many complaints I have with DistroKid. There are a couple though. First, it is tough that if you stop paying the yearly fee your music gets taken down. While it is only $20/year, it’s sometimes comforting knowing that once you pay a certain amount, your music is permanent forever.
Second, DistroKid has an additional extra feature that it will automatically send your track/album to new stores and streaming services as they add them. The only catch is that it’s an extra $8/year for each track/album, so if you release a ton of tracks, this can start to get costly. You technically don’t have to do this, but I do it on all my tracks because it’s good to know that if any random services pop up (like when Apple Music was created), everything is automated.
Overall
All in all, DistroKid is my permanent choice for independent musicians looking to release their music. Not only is it the cheapest out of any distributor out there (especially if you plan to release a lot of music), but the customer service is outstanding and the whole uploading process is a breeze. Again, like I said in the beginning, they didn’t ask me to write this and I’m not getting any affiliate revenues from recommending them.
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If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask! If you want to watch my video where I review DistroKid on camera, click here: DistroKid Review Video.
