Can I Opt in for Leave a Legacy After I Upload Music Distro Kid
Cassettes, CDs, and in many cases, fifty-fifty record labels, are things of the past. Nowadays it's easier than always for musicians to remain completely independent and avoid signing their lives away to a label simply interested in maximizing profits. To get your music out into the world without a characterization, you need to join a distribution service. There are a few options out there, only 1 of the most popular is DistroKid. Let'southward go over its benefits and its downfalls, so you can decide if information technology's the all-time distribution service for your music career.
Editor's notation: This review was updated on July 12, 2021, to address an FAQ near artist accounts.
What is DistroKid?
DistroKid is a distribution service for independent musicians who release music often.
DistroKid is a music distribution service that performs some of the functions of a record characterization, like releasing music and collecting royalties, designed for artists who either aren't nonetheless signed to a label or who want to remain independent. Independent musicians with a DistroKid membership can upload audio files, upload album artwork, and name their track or album, and DistroKid will ship it off to digital stores and music streaming services like iTunes and Spotify, where it tin gain traction with fans and generate earnings.
Who should use DistroKid?
Vollume DistroKid is a music distribution service for anyone.
- Independent musicians who release music often volition capeesh DistroKid. It's a subscription-based service, and so if yous release a song every month, this blazon of payment plan will relieve money in the long term.
- Musicians who want publicity and exposure to record labels can use DistroKid'southward career evolution tools, which include a matchmaking service between artists and labels.
How does DistroKid work?
Afterwards signing upwards for DistroKid, you'll want to blueprint your personal profile. DistroKid lets you input your social media information, categorize yourself by expertise (songwriter or producer) and select your genre and artist influences. You lot can always change these things, but the initial input automatically sets you upwards in online communities with similar musicians.
To release a single, album, or EP, click the Upload tab on the superlative panel of the DistroKid home folio. Hither y'all'll select how many tracks you lot plan to release, and the distribution partners y'all want to send your release to. You'll upload audio files, track titles and information, and album artwork. If you lot have a Musician Plus or Label subscription, you'll be able to adjust your release's price on iTunes, and some boosted freedoms we'll go over later. The audio file types DistroKid accepts are WAV, WMA, M4A, FLAC, MP3, and CDDA.
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Different some of its competitors, DistroKid does not review the releases yous put out. This means y'all tin can avoid long wait times, but it also means DistroKid won't help you preemptively avoid legal issues with your releases.
Can you release a cover vocal through DistroKid?
You lot tin release comprehend songs hands, and DistroKid will assist y'all have care of which royalties go where.
DistroKid provides a service to help you easily release encompass songs, which costs an additional $12 per yr. When you opt into this service, DistroKid manages your encompass by obtaining a license for information technology and paying the original songwriter their royalties. It too keeps tabs on the copyright laws that ensure you're allowed to go along the encompass song public and go along to earn money from your master.
How much does DistroKid toll?
DistroKid subscriptions are relatively affordable, simply the service contains a lot of hidden fees. While this seems unsavory, these fees could lead to opportunities that advance your music career. DistroKid offers three options for subscription plans, and none of them come with a costless trial flow. This makes sense: in order to continue your music available in stores and on streaming platforms, yous have to continue to pay an annual fee.
| Musician | Musician Plus | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Musician $19.99/twelvemonth | Musician Plus $35.99/yr | Label $79.99/year for v artists |
| Unlimited vocal uploads | Musician ✓ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Number of artists | Musician one | Musician Plus 2 | Label 5 to 100 |
| Spotify verified checkmark | Musician ✓ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Synced lyrics for Instgram | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Daily sales stats | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Characterization ✓ |
| Customizable label name | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable release date | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable preorder date | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable iTunes pricing | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
DistroKid is a unique distribution service because its members pay annual subscription fees rather than paying for each individual release. Nevertheless, the caveat with this is that if you cancel your membership, or switch banks and forget to let DistroKid know, all your music will be removed. Luckily, at that place is an easy, though pricey solution chosen Leave a Legacy.
How to make sure your music stays available even if y'all abolish your DistroKid subscription
If y'all want to upload your music today and ensure it remains available for years to come up, you lot must opt into the Leave a Legacy program. For each unmarried or anthology y'all release, you pay a one-time fee that keeps the music bachelor in perpetuity. Yous'll continue to accrue royalties even if you forget to pay your membership fee, your bill of fare is declined, or if you cancel your membership altogether. If 200 years pass and your great-great-neat-grandchildren listen to Spotify on their updated Neuralink fries, your singing or guitar playing will still be in that location for them to enjoy.
When finishing up a release, you can add on additional charges for services like Get out a Legacy, which will make sure your music stays online forever, even if you stop paying your subscription fee.
Exit a Legacy costs a 1-fourth dimension fee of $49 USD for albums (or any release composed of two or more songs) and $29 USD for singles. If you're not sure you want to opt-in at the time of release, you lot can always go into your releases and add it later in your career.
Different forums accept conflicting information most Leave a Legacy with regards to what happens to your music if yous cancel your business relationship. As of May 2021, yous will exist able to select whether or not you want your Leave a Legacy releases to remain online when you lot cancel your account. There is no guarantee, however, that your Leave a Legacy releases will remain published if DistroKid goes out of business.
Which partners does DistroKid distribute to?
DistroKid distributes your music to all the major streaming services and digital stores.
DistroKid distributes your music to all of the major streaming services and digital stores, including Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, and many more than.
DistroKid prides itself on how rapidly it places music in stores, but to exist safe, yous should set your release appointment iii-4 weeks in advance. Unfortunately, if you have the basic Musician subscription of DistroKid, you volition non exist able to set a release date for the hereafter, and all releases volition become live immediately. This can cause big bug in marketing your release because some digital stores and streaming services will not receive and publish the release at the same fourth dimension as others. For this reason, we recommend the Musician Plus subscription.
What kind of royalties does DistroKid collect?
DistroKid collects royalties every time someone interactively streams your music or digitally purchases it.
Not everyone can afford to hire a manager to parse through the legal jargon, and plenty of independent musicians track and manage their own royalty collection. It can be difficult to empathize the weather of royalties, and which types of royalties DistroKid tin collect on your behalf.
DistroKid only collects reproduction royalties, which are a blazon of recording royalty. Recording royalties are the royalties generated by masters. A master refers to an bodily audio recording of a song. DistroKid does not collect whatsoever publishing royalties, which are generated by compositions. A composition refers to the lyrics and notes of a song.
Recording royalties encompass those generated from reproduction rights, synchronization rights, and performance rights. Reproduction royalties are a type of recording royalty, and generated by each individual use of a master, such as when a song is sold on a digital store similar the Qobuz download shop, or when someone plays your vocal on a streaming service similar Tidal. Synchronization royalties are generated when a vocal is used in a TV prove or video game, and accrues a one-time royalty. Performance royalties are generated from digital/Cyberspace radio or satellite radio plays. DistroKid collects reproduction royalties just—it's but like how record labels distribute music and collect recording royalties for their artists, but for independent artists.
DistroKid only collects reproduction royalties, which are a subset of the recording royalties generated by masters.
Many independent musicians write and perform their own music on a recording, in which instance they will want to collect both recording royalties generated past masters, and publishing royalties generated past compositions. In society to collect these publishing royalties, yous must exist affiliated with a performance royalty organization (PRO), similar ASCAP, and you demand to take a publisher or publishing ambassador, like Songtrust or CD Baby Pro Publishing.
How practice you lot get your money?
Flickr user: reynermedia You can receive your earnings through PayPal or DistroKid's payment processor, Tipalti.
Once your music is out in stores and bachelor on streaming services, you'll receive reproduction royalties through DistroKid. You can either have DistroKid send these earnings directly to your PayPal account, or you tin can use DistroKid's payment processor, Tipalti, which can pay y'all with eChecks/direct eolith, PayPal, wire transfers, and physical checks.
DistroKid distributes payments every month, and you retain 100% of your earnings. That'due south right, DistroKid does not take fifty-fifty a small percentage of your earnings, quite unlike other distribution services like Repost by SoundCloud, which takes 20%. However, maintaining rights through DistroKid comes with boosted fees for each of its additional services; the company has to make coin somehow.
Can you divide the payout with collaborators?
If you lot desire to share your profits with your collaborators, DistroKid offers an piece of cake mode to automatically separate your earning by percentages. This is an excellent tool if you work with a music producer and desire to share a per centum of the earnings on your collaborations. This tool tin only separate earnings with collaborators who are DistroKid members, but DistroKid volition offering a 50% membership disbelieve to your collaborators if they have not yet signed upward. If your collaborator doesn't renew their membership the following yr, their banking company will however receive payments from your release every bit long as it generates royalties, too.
What artist evolution tools does DistroKid offer?
You can easily grow your audition with DistroKid's tools.
DistroKid offers a slew of artist development tools. Unfortunately, without paying for a membership, you tin't get a very comprehensive overview of the types of services and tools it offers, which is why we've included several screenshots of DistroKid webpages.
With a DistroKid membership, you lot gain access to a wide selection of customizable video templates that you lot can insert your songs into for promoting your releases on social media. DistroKid members tin can link their DistroKid business relationship to an Audiomack account, upload their song'due south lyrics into the Instagram story creator, and go a Spotify verified checkmark. Each time you upload a song to DistroKid, it will store a backup file to the deject. DistroKid also includes a hub for artists where y'all can edit your bio and contour pictures for streaming services all from one identify.
Beyond these basic features, DistroKid has a referral plan where you tin can offer discounts to your friends and receive money when they sign up. At that place's also a Twitch affiliate program, and an AI bot that analyzes your song and tells you how danceable it is (in percentages) and its key signature. You lot can also get a social telephone number to directly text your fans (for $12.99/mo), and this tin can serve every bit a smashing marketing tool. DistroLock is another tool that you can utilise to preclude your music from being stolen and uploaded without your permission.
DistroKid also uses a few programs to assist get its members in front of larger audiences, including Hyperfollow, Playlist Spotlight, Wheel of Playlist, Slaps, and Upstream.
Hyperfollow
You can easily create Hyperfollow links and when someone clicks one, they'll automatically follow you on Spotify and have your music saved to their library. You'll also receive their email address and other data about them, like what region they're in and what other artists they listen to on Spotify. If your release hasn't gone live yet, you can likewise utilise your Hyperfollow link as a Spotify pre-salve link to build traction around it.
Some may find Hyperfollow invasive, and so y'all can e'er choose not to share the links that DistroKid creates for your releases.
Playlist Spotlight
My personal favorite DistroKid tool is Playlist Spotlight. If you've e'er played KittenWar, it works a lot like that. You're presented with two vocal previews released to Spotify by DistroKid members, and y'all can vote on which ane you retrieve DistroKid should add to 1 of its official Spotify playlists—you tin even sort songs to vote on by genre.
Playlist Spotlight is a uncomplicated and quick mode to support other independent artists yous think deserve more attention. You tin as well send a direct bulletin to the artists behind each of the presented songs and let them know you liked their song. You don't really need to be a fellow member of DistroKid to vote for songs with Playlist Spotlight, but you practise need to be a DistroKid member to submit your own tracks.
To submit your track to Playlist Spotlight, just click +Your Track on the Playlist Spotlight menu bar. Y'all can submit one track per artist at a fourth dimension, and so if y'all take a Musician Plus subscription and manage 2 artists, y'all can submit one track for each. The playlists are updated every week, and when the playlists become updated, all the votes reset to zero.
Cycle of Playlist
Bike of Playlist is a tool where artists tin select which of their songs they want to encounter featured on DistroKid's Spotify playlist. You tin can spin the virtual wheel three times within 24 hours, and each spin will yield a number representing a position within the playlist. In that location are nearly ii,000 songs on the playlist at any given time, and the songs simply stay on it without re-spinning for a few days.
Anyone who spins the Wheel of Playlist volition get their vocal on the Wheel of Playlist.
It'south unclear how effective Cycle of Playlist actually is at getting artists' music heard, but the chances of your song getting heard are at to the lowest degree marginally higher if information technology's on the playlist, since the playlist has over 15,000 followers.
Slaps.com
Slaps.com is a daughter website of DistroKid that artists can use to discover music and support each other. The home page promotes artists and in that location are designated group pages with various artists organized past genre, mood, other musicians that serve as inspiration, and more. You can create a group and requite information technology a proper name and clarification, and anyone volition exist able to join. Music on the habitation page of Slaps and the home folio of each group is organized by what is currently popular on the website, and what is new in that category.
The coolest function of Slaps is the comment/track ratio (CTR). The goal is to increase your CTR by commenting on and engaging with other musicians' uploads, and your good karma will advantage you by featuring you lot above on the CTR folio. The CTR page features tracks by artists with very loftier CTR who take non received a lot of engagement on their uploads. It's a great system that encourages community.
Slaps is like to SoundCloud in that y'all can comment on specific timestamps of a track—if you lot actually liked one line in the second poetry of a song, yous can permit the artist know right then and in that location. It also lets you send direct letters to other artists, making information technology easy to collaborate or start a chat with them.
DistroKid Upstream
If you lot are using DistroKid to distribute your music but promise to sign a record deal someday, DistroKid Upstream tin help you out. This is a lot like a dating app, except information technology matches artists to record labels. Upstream is completely free for DistroKid artists, and record labels pay a finders fee to DistroKid if they sign an artist from Upstream.
Distrokid Upstream is like Tinder for record labels and artists.
If you opt into Upstream, labels will accept admission to your Upstream profile, which will include links to your music, your streaming statistics, and your contact data. Opting in to Upstream doesn't commit you to signing a deal with any record label—rather, it gets you on the market to see what you tin can take hold of. If a record characterization likes what it sees, it will reach out to you straight.
Record labels and music managers tin sign up for Upstream one time they've gone through a vetting procedure that proves they have a history of beingness successful and issuing agreements that benefit artists. Every bit of May 2021, the only record label signed upwards to Upstream is Republic Records, only this is considering Upstream is a new service that started this Jan. More record labels, both major and independent, should bring together soon.
Should you bring together DistroKid?
I'm torn: DistroKid offers arguably the best exposure and promotional tools of any distribution service, but the fact that you accept to pay for every add-on service is kind of sketchy, especially since DistroKid does not tell you about these charges from the start. Many distribution services offer things similar your music's permanent existence on the internet and YouTube monetization, and they don't charge an additional fee like DistroKid.
If you don't intendance well-nigh whatsoever of these add-ons and just want to maximize your exposure and frequently release music for a low price, DistroKid will be your best friend. Even if you are someone who wants to employ the Go out a Legacy feature, you'll take to calculate the cost-benefit of the artist development tools and quick distribution times.
Which distribution service is better: DistroKid or CD Baby?
CD Baby Standard costs just $29 per anthology and is an affordable fashion to begin every bit a DIY musician.
From a pure value perspective, DistroKid is a better choice if y'all're releasing music ofttimes and don't care about opting in to the Exit a Legacy programme or any additional services. You tin can read our in-depth comparing of DistroKid and CD Baby, but if you're in a rush, read below:
CD Baby charges $9.95 per single and $29 per album, and CD Baby Pro Publishing bumps these numbers upwardly to $29.95 per single and $69 per album, which is a lot higher than Distrokid at face value. However, if you lot use the Leave a Legacy program for all of your releases, opt-in for YouTube monetization, or partake in whatever of the other paid services DistroKid offers, it will toll you more than per release—you'll pay additional fees on pinnacle of your annual subscription. Oh, and don't forget that when you hire a publisher or publishing administrator, information technology adds even more than bucks to your bill.
As for the offered benefits and usability of each distribution service, they're similar. Much like DistroKid, CD Baby offers tools similar generating Spotify pre-save links, and it also offers unique tools like cheap sound mastering. Releasing embrace songs is a petty less streamlined with CD Babe, however, and it doesn't offer any programs similar Slaps or DistroKid Upstream.
Read adjacent: Bandcamp review
Often asked questions
Yes, the just way to employ DistroKid's services is to pay for a subscription. If y'all are a solo artist, your subscription will price $19.99 per year.
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Source: https://www.soundguys.com/distrokid-review-51459/
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