Every track on Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal got there through a distributor — yet most independent musicians pick one in under ten minutes, often choosing based on a single forum recommendation. The decision matters more than most artists realize: your choice of distributor affects how quickly music goes live, how royalties are calculated and paid out, who holds your ISRC codes, and what happens when you eventually want to leave. This guide walks through the selection criteria that actually matter and the setup process, step by step.
What a digital distributor actually does
A distributor’s job is to deliver your audio files, metadata, and artwork to digital service providers (DSPs) — Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, and dozens of smaller platforms. They handle the technical handshake: encoding formats, metadata ingestion, ISRC registration, and the content delivery agreements each DSP requires. They also collect and forward streaming royalties back to you.
What distributors do not do: collect performance royalties (that’s your PRO’s job) or mechanical royalties from licensing bodies (that requires a separate publishing administration service, like Songtrust or DistroKid’s Publishing Admin add-on). Understanding this boundary prevents the most common royalty collection gap independent artists fall into — releasing music, seeing streams, and wondering why the money doesn’t add up. For the full breakdown of that gap, see our dispatch on the streaming payout problem.
Distribution also does not equal promotion. Uploading to a distributor puts your music available on a platform; getting it heard is a separate problem. The Wikipedia entry on music distribution provides useful context on how the industry evolved from physical to digital infrastructure and why the current distributor model emerged.
The four platforms worth comparing
DistroKid is the most widely used option for high-volume releasers. Its flat annual fee covers unlimited releases, it retains 0% of royalties, and Spotify delivery typically processes within one to two business days — faster than most competitors. The weaknesses: customer support is slow and transactional, and the default Musician plan excludes YouTube Content ID (that requires upgrading to Musician Plus at $35.99/yr). ISRC codes are assigned by DistroKid and attached to your account; if you leave, migrating with the same ISRCs requires a paid transfer or re-releasing music under new codes.
TuneCore charges per release ($14.99 for a single, $29.99 for an album, annually) with no revenue share. The model works well for artists who release infrequently. The per-release annual renewal structure becomes expensive at scale: a catalog of 20 singles costs $300/yr in TuneCore fees before you earn a dollar. TuneCore generates ISRCs that you own outright, and the platform includes social media monetization (TikTok, Instagram Reels) as standard.
CD Baby charges a one-time fee per release and takes 9% of streaming earnings. The perpetual delivery model means your music stays live indefinitely with no annual renewal, making it the lowest-friction option for catalog longevity. The 9% commission is a real cost at scale: a catalog earning $50,000 annually loses $4,500 to the share. CD Baby also offers physical distribution and sync licensing submission, which DistroKid does not.
Amuse has a free distribution tier with slower delivery and no analytics, and a paid tier at $19.99/year. It’s suitable for artists testing the ecosystem before committing to a paid service. The free tier’s delivery limitations make it unsuitable for time-sensitive releases or editorial pitching.
How to make the choice
Three questions narrow the decision for most artists:
How frequently do you release? If you release more than three or four projects per year, DistroKid’s unlimited-release flat fee wins mathematically. Below that threshold, TuneCore or CD Baby per-release pricing may be cheaper depending on whether you prefer annual fees or a one-time cost.
Do you want revenue share or flat fees? CD Baby’s one-time payment is a sunk cost — you pay once and the catalog works perpetually. DistroKid and TuneCore require annual renewal; if you stop paying, your music comes down. For a catalog with strong back-catalog earnings, CD Baby’s model trades a 9% commission for infinite longevity without ongoing subscription exposure.
What ancillary services do you need? Physical distribution points to CD Baby. TikTok and Instagram monetization is stronger on TuneCore. YouTube Content ID on DistroKid requires the $7.99/year add-on or an upgraded plan. If publishing administration is a priority, DistroKid’s Publishing Admin and Songtrust both integrate cleanly with any major distributor.
One underweighted factor: ISRC portability. ISRCs are tied to specific recordings and affect how royalties are tracked across systems. Using a distributor that assigns ISRCs you don’t control makes migration painful, particularly if you accumulate DSP editorial playlists or significant stream history. The U.S. Copyright Office provides foundational guidance on registration and code systems at copyright.gov, worth reading before your first commercial release.
Setting up your distribution account, step by step
Step 1: Prepare your audio file. Export your final master in WAV or FLAC format, minimum 44.1 kHz / 16-bit. Most DSPs accept up to 24-bit / 48 kHz. Do not distribute from an MP3 — audio quality cannot be upgraded after ingestion. Verify your file with a free tool like Audacity or iZotope’s trial version before uploading.
Step 2: Prepare your metadata. Your track metadata needs: artist name (exactly as you want it across all platforms), track title, featuring artist credits, composer and songwriter credits, producer credits, ISRC (the platform assigns one if you don’t provide your own), explicit content flag, release date, and genre. Get this right before uploading. Fixing metadata post-distribution requires filing corrections with each DSP, which typically takes two to four weeks and sometimes doesn’t fully propagate. For the most common errors and their royalty impact, see our dispatch on 9 metadata errors that quietly drain musician royalty income.
Step 3: Prepare your artwork. 3000×3000 pixels minimum, RGB color space, JPG or PNG. No URLs, social handles, pricing, or explicit-content text in the artwork image — most DSPs reject these automatically. Black-and-white images are allowed but often display poorly on dark-mode interfaces. Test your artwork at small sizes (the album art tile on a phone lock screen is roughly 60×60px at standard resolution).
Step 4: Set your release date with lead time. Spotify editorial pitching opens through Spotify for Artists at least seven days before release. Apple Music editorial requires submission through Apple Music for Artists at a similar lead time. For releases where editorial consideration matters, build four to six weeks of lead time into your release calendar — enough for playlist pitching, press outreach, and a pre-save campaign. Research from Berklee College of Music’s Music Business Program on independent release strategy consistently identifies release lead time as one of the most undermanaged variables for indie artists.
Step 5: Register with your PRO before distributing commercially. Register the compositions (not the recordings — that’s a separate step) with your performing rights organization: ASCAP, BMI, or SOCAN for Canadian artists. Unregistered songs cannot collect mechanical royalties from Spotify’s licensing agreements with the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) in the US or CMRRA in Canada. For the complete PRO registration walkthrough, see our dispatch on PRO royalty collection for independent artists.
Step 6: Submit and monitor delivery status. After upload, your distributor’s dashboard will show delivery confirmation per platform, usually within one to five business days. Verify your release appears correctly on each DSP by searching your artist name 48 hours after confirmed delivery. Check that you appear on your existing artist profile rather than a newly created duplicate — this happens when the artist name in your metadata contains a spacing variation or different capitalization from your existing profile.
After your music goes live
Claim your artist profiles on Spotify for Artists, Apple Music for Artists, and YouTube’s Official Artist Channel program. Unclaimed profiles mean you cannot edit your bio, upload artist images, or see granular streaming analytics beyond aggregate totals.
Verify your ISRC codes are correctly filed by checking your recordings through your PRO’s registration portal. ISRC mismatches are the first cause of uncollected neighboring rights in international markets — a particularly common problem for artists releasing in multiple countries without a publishing administrator. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry maintains global ISRC standards at ifpi.org and provides documentation on the code structure if you’re managing ISRCs independently.
Finally, set a calendar reminder for your distributor’s renewal date. More than a few artists have discovered their music went dark because an annual subscription lapsed quietly. If you’re using CD Baby’s one-time model, this isn’t a concern — but for DistroKid and TuneCore, add the renewal date to the same calendar where you track release schedules.
Related reading
For the mechanics of royalty collection once your music is distributed, see PRO royalty collection for independent artists and the streaming payout problem. For the contract language to watch when a distribution service offers additional label or publishing services, see self-releasing without signing away your masters. The metadata preparation steps in this guide connect directly to the errors catalogued in 9 metadata errors that quietly drain musician royalty income.