Distributor pricing

DistroKid pricing

DistroKid charges a yearly fee for unlimited releases and keeps none of your streaming royalties. Plans start at $24.99 a year for one artist name. The things to watch are the extras: YouTube Content ID costs extra on every release, every year, and your music comes down if you stop paying.

DistroKid’s plans

All three plans include unlimited releases and keep none of your streaming royalties. They differ mainly in how many artist names they cover: Musician covers 1, Musician Plus covers 2 and Ultimate starts at 5.

DistroKid

Plan Yearly fee Per release Royalty cut YouTube Content ID Limits
Musician $24.99 None None $4.95 per single, $14.95 per album a year; keeps 20% 1 artist name
Musician Plus $44.99 None None $4.95 per single, $14.95 per album a year; keeps 20% 2 artist names
Ultimate $89.99 None None $4.95 per single, $14.95 per album a year; keeps 20% 5 artist names

Releases are removed if you stop paying. A one-off Leave a Legacy fee keeps a release up anyway. Prices checked 27th October 2026.

Extras that cost more

  • YouTube Content ID costs $4.95 per single and $14.95 per album or EP, every year, and DistroKid keeps 20% of what it earns.
  • Keeping your music up. If you stop paying the yearly fee, your releases are taken down. A one-off Leave a Legacy payment for a release keeps it up anyway.

DistroKid sells other optional extras too. The calculator below counts the yearly fee and YouTube Content ID, the costs most artists pay.

How DistroKid compares for your releases

Enter your own numbers to see DistroKid next to every other distributor we track.

How much will you release each year?

How much do you earn from streaming?

What do you need?

DistroKid vs TuneCore and CD Baby

Example artist DistroKid TuneCore CD Baby
Just starting out 2 singles a year, earning about $50 a year
$75 Musician plan
$75 Rising Artist plan
$73 Standard plan Cheapest
Releasing regularly 6 singles and an EP a year, earning about $600 a year
$75 Musician plan Same price
$75 Rising Artist plan Same price
$387 Standard plan
Band or small label 8 singles and 2 albums a year across 3 artist names, earning about $4,000 a year, with royalty splits and YouTube Content ID
$927 Ultimate plan
$495 Professional plan Cheapest
Not suitable: No automatic royalty splits

Total cost over three years in US dollars, using each distributor’s own prices (checked 27th October 2026). Assumes you keep paying for the whole period.

See the full comparisons: DistroKid vs TuneCore and CD Baby vs DistroKid.

Common questions

Is DistroKid free?

No. DistroKid has no free plan; the cheapest is Musician at $24.99 a year. If you’d rather pay nothing upfront, see our guide to free music distribution.

How much does DistroKid cost per song?

Nothing per song. The yearly fee covers unlimited releases. Extras such as YouTube Content ID are charged per release.

What happens if I stop paying DistroKid?

Your releases are taken down, unless you’ve paid the one-off Leave a Legacy fee for them.

Does DistroKid take a cut of my royalties?

Not of your streaming and download royalties. It does keep 20% of YouTube Content ID earnings.