Music distribution

The best music distribution service for you

There’s no single best distributor. The cheapest depends on how often you release, how much your music earns and what you need, such as royalty splits for collaborators or YouTube Content ID. Below, we’ve worked out the cheapest options for three typical artists from each distributor’s own prices. For an artist releasing six singles and an EP a year, the cheapest is currently Ditto Music’s Starter plan, at $57 over three years.

Cheapest for three typical artists

Example artist	Cheapest	Second	Third
Just starting out 2 singles a year, earning about $50 a year	RouteNote Free plan, $23	Soundrop Pay per track plan, $52	Ditto Music Starter plan, $57
Releasing regularly 6 singles and an EP a year, earning about $600 a year	Ditto Music Starter plan, $57	Too Lost Artist plan, $60	UnitedMasters DEBUT+ plan, $60
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	Too Lost Label plan, $108	Amuse Artist Pro plan, $180	SoundCloud Artist Pro plan, $297

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.

Find the cheapest for you

Enter your own numbers to rank all twelve distributors for your releases.

What else to compare

What happens if you stop paying. With subscriptions such as DistroKid and TuneCore, your releases come down. CD Baby’s one-off fees keep them up for good, and Amuse, LANDR and Too Lost keep them up but take a bigger share of their royalties.
Royalty splits. If you share songs with other writers or band members, check the plan pays them their share automatically. Tick royalty splits in the calculator to see only plans that do.
YouTube Content ID. Distributors keep anything from nothing to 30% of what Content ID earns, and some charge extra on every release to switch it on.
Artist names. Cheap plans usually cover one artist. Bands with side projects and small labels need a plan that covers several.

Common questions

Which music distributor is the cheapest?

It depends on how you release. For artists releasing regularly, a low-cost yearly plan is usually cheapest; right now Ditto Music’s Starter plan, at $57 over three years. If you release rarely and earn little, a free plan that takes a cut can cost less: see free music distribution.

Is DistroKid the best music distributor?

It’s the best known, and good value if you release a lot. But it isn’t the cheapest yearly plan, and YouTube Content ID costs extra on every release. See DistroKid pricing and how it compares with TuneCore and CD Baby.

Where do the prices come from?

We take every price from each distributor’s own website and check them regularly. The date we last checked is shown under each table. The calculator assumes you keep paying for the whole period you compare.