Music distributors compared: price, royalties, and what happens if you stop paying

The distributors, side by side

What the table leaves out:

• TuneCore also sells single releases at $24.99 a year and albums at $44.99. Its pricing page lists a 20% fee on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube earnings. Releases come down the day the plan expires if you cancel, or after 42 days if it lapses.
• DistroKid keeps a release up after you stop paying if you add Leave a Legacy to it ($29 a single, $49 an album, once).
• CD Baby charges $14.99 per album and keeps 9% of download and streaming revenue.
• Amuse's Artist plan takes 15% of YouTube Content ID.
• RouteNote Premium costs $10 a single, $20 an EP or $30 an album once, then $9.99 a year per release. The free plan keeps 15%. What you keep is a share of what the streams pay: the pay-per-stream calculator estimates it for your numbers.

Prices change often: check each site before you sign up.

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Which one for what

• You release often and want the lowest yearly price: Ditto ($19), Amuse ($23.99), LANDR ($24), DistroKid and TuneCore ($24.99) all give one artist unlimited releases for about $20–25 a year.
• You don't want a yearly fee: CD Baby (pay once per release, it keeps 9%) or RouteNote Free (no fee, it keeps 15%).
• You want your songs to stay up if you ever stop paying: CD Baby (no fee to lapse), LANDR (releases stay up), RouteNote (switches to free). With DistroKid, add Leave a Legacy to each release.
• You manage more than one artist: DistroKid Musician Plus ($44.99, 2 artists) or Ultimate ($89.99, up to 100), Amuse Artist Plus ($39.99, 2) or Professional ($59.99, 3 or more), Ditto Pro ($59, 2) or Labels ($109, up to 5).
• You release once in a while: paying per release (CD Baby, RouteNote Premium) can cost less than a yearly plan.

What to check before you choose

1. The yearly fee, or the fee per release, and what it costs after the first year.
2. The share you keep, for streaming and for social platforms (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube), which some charge differently.
3. What happens if you stop paying. It decides whether your catalog stays online in ten years.
4. How many artists the plan covers.
5. How far ahead you must schedule. Amuse's Artist plan asks for 14 days' notice for a set release date. You need at least 7 days anyway, to pitch the song to Spotify's editors.

After you pick one

The distributor only gets your song onto Spotify. Getting it heard is the next job: pitching, Release Radar, and bringing listeners who stay. Our guides on putting your music on Spotify and getting on Spotify playlists cover it step by step.

Find the part of your song that brings listeners.

Clips makes the ad for every part, from one song.

See Clips →

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