I'll be totally honest, even though I have been in the music industry for almost 20 years now, music distribution, royalty collection, mechanicals, publishing...It all intimidates me.
So when I sat down to figure out how to distribute my own music I was flooded with options; CD Baby, Tunecore, RouteNote, Ditto Music, and of course, Distrokid.
I got analysis paralysis and just went with Ditto Music.
After a few years with Ditto Music they (unofficially) stopped releasing instrumental music.
This came as quite a blow for me as most of my output is instrumental and it meant that I had to do the horrible task of finding another distributor.
So after hearing Nic D talk about them on his Frdi for Artists YouTube channel, I thought I would give D a shot.
First Impressions
I am not a huge fan of the Distrokid interface. I like clean and simple webpages but it feels like the type of HTML website I might have built when I was learning to code HTML.
However, I am aware that I can be easily fooled by design and what matters is how easy Distrokid is to use.
Uploading Music
This is where Distrokid really shines.
How easy it is to upload music. In fact, not only that but, how quickly your music (and artwork) gets approved.
While uploading a new album with a new artist, Distrokid was able to approve the music, get it into the stores, AND give me access to my Spotify Artists account.
This all happened before another distributor was even able to approve my release...
The thing I love about uploading music to Distrokid is that everything is self-explanatory - there is no music business jargon to confuse me and make me worry that I have checked the wrong box or incorrectly attributed myself.
Not having this worry and confusion is worth the money itself.
Pricing & Plans
Distrokid's pricing and plans appear very reasonable. They seem to be the most competitive for pricing...but...
For these low prices, you are not getting all the functionality that you would really want when distributing your own music.
A great many things are extras that you pay for.
They seem to have gone for that App model where they get you in with low prices but there are in-app purchases everywhere and I am not a huge fan of that tbh.
Here you can see some of the optional paid-for extras Distrokid offers. So if you add these up then the attractive low fees suddenly level out to be not that much less than their competitors.
What are their stats like?
As you can see the stats are delivered in the same vein as the rest of the website.
The stats are fine if you don't want to dive deep into the tracks etc. But if you do they are a bit clunky and it's very easy to get lost.
I have 20 artists on Distrokid so getting stats for them isn't a fun experience as you can imagine.
That being said, those bar charts give you the numbers you need to see so I am nitpicking tbh.
I have the same opinion of their "Bank" page that shows you how much money you have made. You see the total earnings easily but getting detailed breakdowns is pretty clunky.
What do I think of Distrokid?
I like Distrokid, but I don't LOVE Distrokid. They get your music out into the world quickly and easily but for better collection and reporting they are not so great.
What I like:
- Upfront pricing is competitive
- It's easy to upload music
- They get the music out there with little/no issues
- They get you access to Spotify for Artists super fast
What I don't like:
- If there is a delay with your card payment they take your music down
- Stats and royalty data are not easy to navigate
- All the extras that you have to pay for
- When you hit the 20 artists limit you have to jump to pay for 50 artists rather than just adding new artists 1 at a time for a per-artist fee
- YouTube collection is not included
Final thoughts
As it stands Distrokid is an excellent entry to the world of music distribution but beyond that, I would suggest looking at other options for better royalty collection options, more detailed reporting and the ability to add extra artists 1 at a time.
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