# Distrokid - Any disadvantages in comparison to Tunecore/CDBaby?



## tiago

Hi guys! I never really cared too much about getting my music on various digital stores asides from bandcamp, as it would have little to no interest in the point that I currently am as a composer but, as I'm starting to work on some a bit more elaborate projects, I thought it would be a nice idea to start looking already at all the options that we have these days... While Tunecore and CDBaby are still apparently leading in their kind of service, it seems to me that Distrokid gives (by far) the best deal out there. What leaves me with a bit of uncertainty is that, although Distrokid seems to deliver a service similar to its most established competitors, it is a bit hard to believe that you're getting exactly the same as you would with CDBaby / Tunecore for such a very cheap price. Do any of you guys have been using Distrokid for a considerable time? Would you recommend it? What are the main differences between Distrokid and Tunecore / CDBaby? Are there any disadvantages at all in using Distrokid and not the more popular distributors? Any feedback on this would be much appreciated! Cheers!


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## Orchestrata

The short answer is: sign up for Distrokid and never look back.

I should say right off that Distrokid doesn't claim to provide "exactly the same as[...] CDBaby / Tunecore". It does exactly what it says on the tin: puts your music - as much as you want - on the digital stores for $19.95 a year. That's it. I have 6 releases out through them (singles / albums / EP), and couldn't be happier. It's pretty much perfect.

With TuneCore and CD Baby, you're paying a lot of money *per release*, which adds up very quickly. They both have a lot of 'extra features' that you can read about on their sites, but I don't think any of the extras are worthwhile if you're already using Bandcamp (especially if you have a paid account, which is cheap). I use Bandcamp for CD sales, T Shirts, downloads, promo codes etc., and Distrokid to keep my stuff in all the digital stores. That's everything I need. Unless you want to get into all the fancy premium-priced publishing administration stuff, but that's another story...

CD Baby has a great track record. I've heard mixed things about Tunecore (it seems mostly geared toward people who are already selling a ton of music). Both have lots of happy clients, but if I'd been using them: A. my sales would have been the same and B. at those prices, I would probably only have broken even after 6 months. Instead, I've used the money I saved by using Distrokid to buy sample libraries :D They used to have a problem with customer service, apparently, but that's been fixed, and every email I've sent has been answered within 24 hours.

It should be noted that the founders of TuneCore and CD Baby - who subsequently left their companies - both recommend Distrokid above the services they helped to establish


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## Orchestrata

That's a pity. There is a "soundtrack" genre option, though. If I were releasing a purely classical soundtrack, I would set primary genre "Soundtrack" and secondary to "World" or something similar. I've popped them a email to ask what the best approach is, will let you know what they say.


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## tiago

jieff said:


> There's one thing you have to know about DistroKid: when I did a bit of reading about their services last october, I realized that they can't get music categorized under "classical" on iTunes anymore. Just thought this bit might be a concern for you too. Can't say much more about them as I haven't used anything but CDBaby yet.



Hi jieff! Thanks for letting me know about that, I will keep that detail about Distrokid in mind for the future.


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## tiago

Orchestrata said:


> The short answer is: sign up for Distrokid and never look back.
> 
> I should say right off that Distrokid doesn't claim to provide "exactly the same as[...] CDBaby / Tunecore". It does exactly what it says on the tin: puts your music - as much as you want - on the digital stores for $19.95 a year. That's it. I have 6 releases out through them (singles / albums / EP), and couldn't be happier. It's pretty much perfect.
> 
> With TuneCore and CD Baby, you're paying a lot of money *per release*, which adds up very quickly. They both have a lot of 'extra features' that you can read about on their sites, but I don't think any of the extras are worthwhile if you're already using Bandcamp (especially if you have a paid account, which is cheap). I use Bandcamp for CD sales, T Shirts, downloads, promo codes etc., and Distrokid to keep my stuff in all the digital stores. That's everything I need. Unless you want to get into all the fancy premium-priced publishing administration stuff, but that's another story...
> 
> CD Baby has a great track record. I've heard mixed things about Tunecore (it seems mostly geared toward people who are already selling a ton of music). Both have lots of happy clients, but if I'd been using them: A. my sales would have been the same and B. at those prices, I would probably only have broken even after 6 months. Instead, I've used the money I saved by using Distrokid to buy sample libraries :D They used to have a problem with customer service, apparently, but that's been fixed, and every email I've sent has been answered within 24 hours.
> 
> It should be noted that the founders of TuneCore and CD Baby - who subsequently left their companies - both recommend Distrokid above the services they helped to establish



Hi there! Thanks a lot for the feedback. It really seems that the extras that CDBaby and Tunecore offer are not worth the money for what I currently have in mind. I think that, unless some unexpected changes happen in the meantime, I'll probably end up using Distrokid after all. Cheers!


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## Orchestrata

Cool! 

Btw, I asked them if there's a way to categorize differently for iTunes and the other stores (i.e. label as "Soundtrack" for iTunes and "Classical" for the others), but they said no, which makes sense. So I guess you'll have to opt for "Soundtrack" if you're using Distrokid.

If, for whatever reason you opt not to go with them, you can consider Dart, which is specifically for independent Classical musicians; it's a bit more pricey than Distrokid, but cheaper than some other options. https://dartmusic.com/pricing/

Good luck!


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## resound

Is it really possible to write "classical" music in 2016 anyways?


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## phil_wc

Anyone using loudr.fm? I'm interested to go for that, sell some of my original score there.


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## tiago

phil_wc said:


> Anyone using loudr.fm? I'm interested to go for that, sell some of my original score there.



Hi there! As far as I understand, Loudr is more focused on artists that do covers, rather than original tracks. I would probably consider looking at some other options (Distrokid, CD Baby, Tunecore...) if you want to get your original music distributed.


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## phil_wc

tiago said:


> Hi there! As far as I understand, Loudr is more focused on artists that do covers, rather than original tracks. I would probably consider looking at some other options (Distrokid, CD Baby, Tunecore...) if you want to get your original music distributed.



Oh I see, they also distribute original music. The thing that I like form loudr is there's no pre-paid fee. While others have. I'm not sure my album will payoff for pre-paid. I'm also looking at Symphonic Distribution if I sure my album will pay back at least more than what I pay upfront. (Symphonic Cus there is no annual fee, one time upfront.)


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## Michael K. Bain

I've used DistroKid for a while, and while I like it very much, the major drawback is that if you stop paying the annual fee, all your music with them is pulled.


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## tiago

Michael K. Bain said:


> I've used DistroKid for a while, and while I like it very much, the major drawback is that if you stop paying the annual fee, all your music with them is pulled.



That's my main concern about Distrokid as well. If I just had to choose between Tunecore and Distrokid, I would definitely choose the latter. But CD Baby does have the advantage of only asking for one single payment (royalties aside...). I really dislike the idea of having to pay anual fees and with CD Baby you don't have to worry about any of that... you just pay for the album once and it stays on sale forever. If you have a huge catalog, Distrokid is the best deal for sure, but, if you plan to release 1-2 albums a year, I'm starting to think that CD Baby could be a better deal. Another thing I've been thinking about is different artist names... With Distrokid, you have to upgrade your account and pay more in order to use different artist names. I suppose that with CD Baby, as you pay per album distributed, it probably wouldn't make a difference (please correct me if I'm wrong on this).


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## Laurent Haricot

Hello!
I use MusicDiffusion (http://www.musicdiffusion.com) which is quite new but great!
Their service and prices are unbeatable.
€ 2.99 per title sent on all platforms, or 29.90 the album of 10 titles, or else the platinum formula at € 15.99 / Year for the unlimited 
The team is super reactive and really nice, it is a label also famous, not just a pipe ... They produced Tal, Akon, Snoop Dogg, Bo movies like StarTrek ... finally very heavy!

I went from Tunecore to them and I'm delighted


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## Daryl

I got banned from Distrokid and there was no appeal. Dumped them and went with CD Baby.


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## Gerhard Westphalen

If you're not making a lot of money on your released music, then I'd recommend Soundrop. It's completely free. They just take a larger cut of the profit. If you're just making half a cent per year off of streams then it doesn't matter but you end up with more money than if you have paid to release it on other services.


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## C M Dess

They are like the only good thing left in the music business at this point. The only thing missing is a shitload of gatekeepers so there's a point to "releasing" music. Otherwise tree in the woods falling with no one in sight doesn't make a sound. AKA cmdess Marcom


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## Thomas Kallweit

I tried to use Stem (relatively new, startup with venture capital) - they take 5% pro sale and no extra fee.
The problem which came up was of technical nature - I did not got the upload managed via several browsers, they recommended me to use dropbox or one drive instead - but I stopped at this point - maybe it's working now.


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## Desire Inspires

Orchestrata said:


> The short answer is: sign up for Distrokid and never look back.



And there it is. 

Do Distrokid and do the other services as well.


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## ceemusic

here's an older comparison article-
https://aristake.com/post/cd-baby-tunecore-ditto-mondotunes-zimbalam-or


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## tav.one

If you like your music on Shazam then Distrokid is a big NO, they charge $1 per year per song, so if you feel I can release 20 singles this year without paying anything extra on DistroKid then get ready to add $20 to your yearly subscription and so on, fails the point of unlimited song/album releases. If you don't care about Shazam or other services which extra on DistroKid then its perfect.


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## Daryl

ka00 said:


> What was the reason they gave for banning you?


No reason given. Refused to answer emails, after a couple of replies, and wouldn't investigate anything for us. Really shoddy service, so I can't recommend them at all.


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## ThomasL

Another tip is Catapult Distribution. No yearly fee but they charge for withdrawals as well.


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## ceemusic

I've used & like everything about Catapult except for their take down fee..Keep in mind they don't support distribution to the classical genre.


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## Katzenjammer

I recommend http://amuse.io

Free. No fees. 100% of the earnings.


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## Daryl

Just a quick update from me. CD Baby has just changed their terms and conditions. They take the same %, but now charge you for "hosting" your albums.


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## rollasoc

I have used CDbaby for about 10 years on and off. Tried a few others, with annual fees, but unless you are making more money than the annual fee, it isn't cost effective.

Currently using Symphonic (https://symphonicdistribution.com/) . I set up as a record label, since I record under a few different names / bands. That way it is free to distribute and they just take their cut. Had no problems with them so far. (though the last Hair Thieves EP and probably the next will be through CDBaby again, since I realised I had paid in advance for some releases).


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## ka00

Found this comprehensive comparison chart from the site Ari’s Take:


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## benatural

Know that no matter who you choose, it is possible to migrate your music over to another service later if you want to. As long as you haven't signed an exlusivity agreement, and you retain identical track ISRC codes and album UPC codes, some services will migrate your music while still retaining stream counts and user playlists. 

When looking for a service, make sure they have features you want. For me, it's important that I have the ability to bug fix/update an album after release, and I need to be able to tag the album so it is catalogued in the soundtrack category. Not all services provide this.


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## benatural

ka00 said:


> I didn't know this was possible. Meaning, for example, you could update a track 6 months or a year later and update the album and have that update pushed to all stores? That's a great feature. Which distributor are you using?


INGrooves allows you to do this, not sure about other services though.


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## X-Bassist

tiago said:


> That's my main concern about Distrokid as well. If I just had to choose between Tunecore and Distrokid, I would definitely choose the latter. But CD Baby does have the advantage of only asking for one single payment (royalties aside...). I really dislike the idea of having to pay anual fees and with CD Baby you don't have to worry about any of that... you just pay for the album once and it stays on sale forever. If you have a huge catalog, Distrokid is the best deal for sure, but, if you plan to release 1-2 albums a year, I'm starting to think that CD Baby could be a better deal. Another thing I've been thinking about is different artist names... With Distrokid, you have to upgrade your account and pay more in order to use different artist names. I suppose that with CD Baby, as you pay per album distributed, it probably wouldn't make a difference (please correct me if I'm wrong on this).



Three years later... How is the OP liking Distrokid now?


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## tiago

X-Bassist said:


> Three years later... How is the OP liking Distrokid now?



I am currently using Ditto Music, which has a plan similar to Distro. I went with it simply cause Distro doesn't accept payments through paypal... Ditto is working fine for me so far. If I ever have any complaints about their service, I'll make sure to post them here in case any of you is interested to know about it. Cheers!


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## Holden Sandman

tiago said:


> I am currently using Ditto Music, which has a plan similar to Distro. I went with it simply cause Distro doesn't accept payments through paypal... Ditto is working fine for me so far.



Still happy with Ditto Music?


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## tiago

Holden Sandman said:


> Still happy with Ditto Music?



Yes I still have no complaints so far. I'll let you know straight away if the situation changes!


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## Holden Sandman

Just updating regarding DistroKid. *Avoid them*.

They are great until they decide to cut you off.

In our case, with a 10 artist Label Account, they sent us an email telling us to find another distributor.




> Hi,
> 
> We've been notified that this release has been rejected due to editorial discretion.
> 
> There are a few reasons why this may have happened. Some possible reasons are:
> 
> "Businesses" such as beat libraries, sample packs, karaoke collections and sound effects
> Similar content already in stores (ex: "rain sounds" and that sort of thing)
> Poor quality sound recording
> Poor quality artwork
> Too many similar releases from same artist (flooding)
> Sorry about this.
> 
> While the vast majority of releases are approved for distribution, stores do occasionally curate content. This is to ensure that end-users have a high-quality experience. This doesn't mean your music is bad. It just means that stores don't need this release at the moment.




This happens from time to time for some arbitrary reason only known to DistroKid.

They will tell you that a store has rejected a release due to "editorial discretion", however the reality is that DistroKid act as gatekeepers and when they send these notices they haven't even submitted the release to a store.

In our case, we have a backup distributor and got the release onto stores, however those solely relying on DistroKid may find themselves in a pickle.

However further releases have also been blocked and now we have been told by DistroKid to find another distributor. 




> Hi,
> 
> We've been notified that one or more of your releases has been rejected due to editorial discretion.
> 
> There are a few reasons why this may have happened. Some possible reasons are: Too many similar releases from same artist (flooding) Poor quality sound recording Poor quality artwork Similar content already in stores (ex: "rain sounds" and that sort of thing)
> 
> Sorry about this.
> 
> While the vast majority of releases are approved for distribution, stores do occasionally curate content. This is to ensure that end-users have a high-quality experience. This doesn't mean your music is bad. It just means that stores don't need this release at the moment.
> 
> Stores are no longer accepting releases from you via DistroKid. Please try another distributor.



There's no real reason given, but to have a 10 artist label account cut loose is pretty bad.

In our case we're just going to methodically move our releases to another distributor.

We have already now released the albums that DistroKid rejected via our backup distributor without issues.

I had read a lot of reviews about DistroKid and decided anyone playing by the rules wouldn't be affected by such arbitrary decision making, I was obviously wrong. Anyone at any time with a DistroKid account and distribution may find themselves in the unenviable position of being cut loose.

There are various threads on Reddit and other places regarding this behaviour on the part of DistroKid, I wish now that I had given them more credit.


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## Daryl

Holden Sandman said:


> Just updating regarding DistroKid. *Avoid them*.
> 
> They are great until they decide to cut you off.
> 
> In our case, with a 10 artist Label Account, they sent us an email telling us to find another distributor.


Yep, exactly what happened to us.


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## AronVanSelm

I've been using Soundrop from 2015-2017 and Distrokid since 2017 until now.
Both have completely met my expectations, but the reason for me to switch to Distrokid, was because it's more profitable, as there's no cut being taken and their annual rates are really low. I am mostly producing modern classical / cinematic music, both original and covers and have never had any issues. 

The only tricky thing with Distrokid is uploading Christmas covers (old public domain songs) This has failed one time in 2017 when Distrokid didn't seem to have public domain covers under control.
I contacted them just now to ask if it is at all possible and they replied it shouldn't be a problem as long as I mark myself as the songwriter. So will have to wait and see if this works out, otherwise I will use Soundrop who is very good in distributing cover music.


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## Holden Sandman

AronVanSelm said:


> I've been using Soundrop from 2015-2017 and Distrokid since 2017 until now.
> Both have completely met my expectations, but the reason for me to switch to Distrokid, was because it's more profitable, as there's no cut being taken and their annual rates are really low.



I would have said exactly the same until DistroKid suddenly pulled the rug from under us.

We had a 10 artist label account, releasing high quality original music. Now, everything has had to be moved. A simple Google search for Distrokid problems, Distrokid Scam or Distrokid Editorial Discretion will reveal so many of the same stories. I hope your account is safe and you continue having good distribution through Distrokid, but let me tell you, they are great until the day they screw you.


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## Damarus

Sooo.. whats the consensus. Who's the top pick for 2020?


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## josephspirits

Holden Sandman said:


> I would have said exactly the same until DistroKid suddenly pulled the rug from under us.
> 
> We had a 10 artist label account, releasing high quality original music. Now, everything has had to be moved. A simple Google search for Distrokid problems, Distrokid Scam or Distrokid Editorial Discretion will reveal so many of the same stories. I hope your account is safe and you continue having good distribution through Distrokid, but let me tell you, they are great until the day they screw you.



Just out of curiosity, could you see how any of those 5 reasons could be applied to what your label had on there? 

_"Businesses" such as beat libraries, sample packs, karaoke collections and sound effects_
_Similar content already in stores (ex: "rain sounds" and that sort of thing)_
_Poor quality sound recording_
_Poor quality artwork_
_Too many similar releases from same artist (flooding)_
Not that they should pull your music for those reasons, just curious if you could see their reasoning at all, however unfair it may have been.


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## Holden Sandman

josephspirits said:


> Just out of curiosity, could you see how any of those 5 reasons could be applied to what your label had on there?
> 
> _"Businesses" such as beat libraries, sample packs, karaoke collections and sound effects_
> _Similar content already in stores (ex: "rain sounds" and that sort of thing)_
> _Poor quality sound recording_
> _Poor quality artwork_
> _Too many similar releases from same artist (flooding)_
> Not that they should pull your music for those reasons, just curious if you could see their reasoning at all, however unfair it may have been.



No, none of our music was in any of those categories.

The trigger for this seems very obscure, there are quite a number of Reddit threads where the same thing has happened to others and one person in this thread also had the same experiece we did.

The only things that I can think of that triggered this was royalties due to be paid or number of releases. One of our artists moved their entire back catalogue over (14 albums) [we put in a support ticket with Distrokid to give them the heads up about that and they replied that it was fine]. Now of course they need to be moved again.

The release that triggered 'editorial discretion' was a 4 track EP of Piano Music from a relatively established artist with 6 releases total over 3 years.

My personal opinion is that Distrokid is a shoestring run operation and something got triggered by an automated process that no human there is willing to undo. Which is a shame, we were just about to upgrade to a much bigger plan for more artists. I am glad this happened while we only have 10 artists to deal with.

I would say for anyone thinking about Distrokid, think again, because this stuff can happen to you and there is no recourse.


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## AronVanSelm

Holden Sandman said:


> I would have said exactly the same until DistroKid suddenly pulled the rug from under us.
> 
> We had a 10 artist label account, releasing high quality original music. Now, everything has had to be moved. A simple Google search for Distrokid problems, Distrokid Scam or Distrokid Editorial Discretion will reveal so many of the same stories. I hope your account is safe and you continue having good distribution through Distrokid, but let me tell you, they are great until the day they screw you.


thanks for making me aware, I'll keep my eyes open could you share to which distributor you switched?


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## GtrString

Man digital distributors is the wild jungle!

Also if you pitch music to film/ tv and music libraries, watch out for administration services. This basically turns the digital distributers into a regular publisher, and will restrict you for these outlets.


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## Mighty

And here is a new one I found:

FanRaizd


36 Euro
Unlimited artists and albums
ISRC/UPC included
Really fast to deliver to Spotify, took me 2 days
Have been working well so far


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## InLight-Tone

What are peoples experiences as far as income with these types of services?


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