What is the difference between “Plain Lyrics” and “Synced Lyrics”?

DistroKid makes it possible add collaborators to any track. When someone buys the entire album (as opposed to buying or streaming an individual track), we’ll automatically calculate pro-rata revenue split. Example: if an album has 2 tracks, and you’re owed 50% of one track, then you’ll receive 25% of a full album sale. The Team manager can see this by clicking “Edit Team” > “Review Changes”, and scrolling to the bottom.

Yes! It’s easy with DistroKid “Teams”! Automatically route any percentage of earnings from any track to anyone. Add your collaborators, producers, bandmates, managers and more. We’ll pay them directly, so you don’t have to think about it. Free for all DistroKid members! Zero commission! AND, you can edit teams and percentages any time. Easy setup – so you can focus on making music – and leave the accounting to us. To get started, sign into DistroKid and click “Teams”. Note: Each collaborators will need to have a DistroKid account to collect their earnings. Until they accept your invitation, their assigned split of the earnings will be held in DistroKid’s bank. Once they accept and create an account, the held earnings will be available in their own Bank within 24 hours. If they never accept, you can claim their funds and/or reallocate them to another team member. Sounds complicated but it’s super easy 🙂

If DistroKid is telling you that your PayPal payment was sent–but the money isn’t showing up in your PayPal account–then there is likely something wrong with your PayPal account. Please reach out to PayPal directly and ask them why your account isn’t able to receive money. After your PayPal account is fixed (or you open a new PayPal account), contact us and let us know, so we can resend your payment.

Yes. PayPal, as well as our payment provider (Tipalti) charge DistroKid a small fee for sending money, which is automatically subtracted from your earnings when you withdraw. Paypal The PayPal fee comes out to 2% of the transaction, with a maximum ceiling of $1 in the United States, or $20 USD if you’re outside the U.S. Withdrawals over $10,000 (PayPal’s maximum per transaction) may be split into multiple transactions. In the U.S., each individual payment can be no more than $10,000.00 USD. For accounts in other countries, the maximum individual payment varies according to the payments standard sending limit. TipaltiACH (U.S. only) – $1 per paymenteCheck (U.S.) – $1.50 per paymenteCheck (non-U.S.) – $5.00 per paymentPaper Check – $3 per checkWire Transfer (U.S.) – $15 per paymentWire Transfer (International in local currency) – $20 per paymentWire Transfer (International in USD) – $26 per paymentPayPal (Non-US resident): USD 1.00 +%2 Up to USD 21.00PayPal (US resident): USD 1.00 + 2% Up to USD 2.00 Note: FX fee of up to 3% may apply if payment currency is different than the country you select. Visit DistroKid.com/payouts > Step 2 for details.

When you’re owed money, DistroKid will ask you for you payout preferences in the “bank” tab. Until you’re owed money, you won’t be asked for your payout preferences. If you don’t have a PayPal account, we can send you a ACH, wire transfer, eCheck, or even a paper check! Please visit https://distrokid.com/payoutmethod/ to select your preferred payout method. 1. Fill out all required contact information. 2. Choose your payout method: Direct Deposit/ACH, Wire Transfer, Check or PayPal. 3. Select and complete the required Tax Forms. If you have questions, click “Need Help? Start the tax form questionnaire” Note: We’re unable to help with any tax questions/issues. Please consult a tax professional.

DistroKid cannot give tax advice, so we must state that this is not tax advice. Please consult a tax professional if you have any questions about the information here. If your country of tax residency is not in the United States, up to 30% of your earnings may be subject to tax withholding. If there is a tax treaty between your country and the United States, and if you qualify for the benefits of that treaty, withholding may be reduced or eliminated. Depending on the rules and regulations in your country of tax residence, you may be able to credit some or all of the United States tax withheld (if any) against your taxes. A detailed list of applicable withholding rates per country can be found in the column labeled “Copyrights” here:https://support.tipalti.com/Content/Topics/UserGuide/TaxInformation/WithholdingRates.htm If there is a tax treaty between your country and the United States, and you wish to claim the treaty benefit of a reduced withholding rate, instructions for doing so are outlined here for your convenience:https://distrokid.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360044282254These instructions don’t constitute tax advice. Please consult with your tax advisor before completing a tax form.

DistroKid cannot give tax advice, so we must state that this is not tax advice. Please consult a tax professional if you have any questions about the information here. If your country of tax residency is not in the United States, up to 30% of your earnings may be subject to tax withholding. If there is a tax treaty between your country and the United States, and if you qualify for the benefits of that treaty, withholding may be reduced or eliminated. Depending on the rules and regulations in your country of tax residence, you may be able to credit some or all of the United States tax withheld (if any) against your taxes. A detailed list of applicable withholding rates per country can be found in the column labeled “Copyrights” here:https://support.tipalti.com/Content/Topics/UserGuide/TaxInformation/WithholdingRates.htm If there is a tax treaty between your country and the United States, and you wish to claim the treaty benefit of a reduced withholding rate, instructions for doing so are outlined below for your convenience. These instructions don’t constitute tax advice. Please consult with your tax advisor before completing a tax form. How to make a treaty claim on DistroKid’s W8-BEN tax formVisit https://distrokid.com/tax, select your Country of Tax Residence from the dropdown menu, and click NEXTProvide your tax identifying number (this can be a US or Foreign tax identifying number or both) If your country of tax residency has a treaty with the United States, you are presented the option to claim treaty benefits in the “Claim of Treaty Benefits (Part II)” section After selecting your country of tax residency, you are able to complete the request to claim treaty benefits if you wish to do so How to make a treaty claim on Tipalti’s W8-BEN tax formVisit https://distrokid.com/payouts/ and confirm your DistroKid passwordEnter/confirm your contact information as they appear on your bank records, and click NextOn Step 2, select your payment method (Direct Deposit/ACH, Wire Transfer, Check or PayPal. Note: Some payout methods may not be available to you based on your payment country). Click NextOn Step 3, Select and complete the required Tax Forms. If you have questions, click “Need Help? Start the tax form questionnaire”Note: If you have previously completed the tax form, you’ll see when that was submitted. To submit a new tax form, follow the link on the Tax Form Review page.Select Your Tax Form (W-8BEN/W-8BEN-E) and click Complete FormComplete the required fields, and provide your tax identifying number If your country of tax residency has a treaty with the United States, you are presented the option to claim treaty benefits in the “Claim of Treaty Benefits (Part II)” section, if you wish to do so

There are no minimum payout thresholds for PayPal withdrawals. If you’ve enabled other payout options, you’ll have the following minimum thresholds:ACH (U.S. only) – $1 minimum.eCheck (U.S.) – $1.50 minimum.eCheck (non-U.S.) – $5.00 minimum.Paper Check – $3 minimum.Wire Transfer (U.S.) – $15 minimum.Wire Transfer $20 minimum.Wire Transfer $26 minimum. Note: you’ll keep more of your earnings if you withdraw larger amounts, since you’ll save money on fees.

A PayPal account is not required. DistroKid supports a large number of payout options. If you don’t have a PayPal account, we can send you a ACH, wire transfer, eCheck, or even a paper check! Please contact us to have additional payment options enabled on your account.

One thing to keep in mind is that engagement is more important that vanity metrics such as how many streams your song/album has. Some artists use services that offer hundreds or thousands of additional streams for a cost. This leads to a massive spike of streams, but from a relatively small number of accounts/users. Stores frown upon this, and refer to using these types of stream-farming services as “streaming fraud”. This can lead to stores removing your release(s) altogether, and potentially withholding any earnings the stores deem fraudulently acquired. It’s much better to promote your releases in other ways for organic engagement, increasing a base of actual fans, rather than inorganic streaming counts. tl;dr – Use of any service offering to get you “guaranteed” streams might actually result in getting your music removed.

If you think your single or album has sold more than 500,000 copies (gold) or 1,000,000 copies (platinum) in the US, or streamed the equivalent*, please let us know. We’ll verify your numbers & work with the RIAA to get you certified. From there, you can authorize who gets a plaque. It’s typical to award a plaque to anyone who had a hand along the way–lawyer, manager, distributor, label, recording studio, and of course the artist(s) and anyone involved in the creative process. It’s up to you! There’s a fee associated with each plaque. You can pay it, or let each recipient pay for their own, or mix & match. Want to see what a gold plaque looks like? Check out this unboxing video we did. * For purposes of calculating sales with regard to streaming equivalents, here are the certification criteria published by the RIAA.

If it looks like we skipped a month, have no fear! We didn’t skip it. Apple just jumped forward a month, that month. So streams that happened in Jan–which used to be reported as Jan–were reported as Feb. Something similar happened in April, where April streams were reported as March 31. March streams were reported as March 3. And July 2017 streams were reported by Apple Music as “Aug 4”, so they show up as August in DistroKid. Which makes it appear as if July was skipped, even though it wasn’t. The same thing occurred for January 2018 and April 2019 earnings. We know this is confusing. And apologize. Hope this helps clarify!

DistroKid’s “Musician Plus” and “Label” accounts give you access Daily Stats. Sometimes (often, usually), the sales numbers in Daily Stats differ somewhat from the figures shown in your monthly earnings statements. That’s normal, usual, and nothing to be concerned about. Behind-the-scenes, those two data sources (stats & earnings reports) come from 2 different feeds that the stores make available to labels and distributors like DistroKid. The Daily Stats that we show you, come from reports referred to by many stores as “trend reports.” As the name implies, thesetrend reports are designed to give you a general idea of how you’re doing–but are almost guaranteed to vary from your actual sales numbers. There are several reasons for the variation between trend reports & earnings reports. Some of the reasons may include returns, free trials, promotions, and other mysteries. Earnings Reports (in DistroKid’s “bank” tab), on the other hand, are accurate to the cent (actually to 20 decimal places in DistroKid’s database…). Earnings reports take about 2-3 months for stores to prepare & make available to us. TL;DR – Don’t be concerned if your “daily stats” numbers are different from your earnings numbers in the “bank” tab. They almost certainly will be different.

There are several factors that streaming services use to calculate earnings. Some streaming companies might not pay earnings for listeners who are on a free trial or other promotion. Other services (like Spotify) say that they split the revenue pie on a country-by-country basis. So if the stream happens in a smaller country where there are few Spotify subscribers or ads, it seems the payments may be smaller or nonexistent. Note that we can’t speak for Spotify or other streaming services–this is just speculation. DistroKid passes on 100% of whatever earnings the stores send us for your sales/streams, minus banking fees/applicable taxes. You may need to Google around and/or check their FAQs for current rates.

Sometimes we get email from well-meaning artists along the lines of, “5 of my friends said they bought my album! But you’re only reporting 2 sales!” There are two possible causes of this: Maybe the albums were bought later than the last earnings reports we have. Stores are usually 2-months behind on reporting (an album bought today won’t show up for about 2-months).We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but… maybe the people who said they bought your album… didn’t. Most people don’t realize the granularity in which artists can see sales data using services like DistroKid. So your friends thought they’d get away with it. if the problem is #1, just wait a bit and they’ll show up eventually. If you think the problem is #2, call your friends out for being cheap and not supporting your art! 🙂

Click “Bank” to see your earnings reports for sales and streams. First, you’ll see the summary report. It shows how much you’ve earned from each store & streaming service. You can break that down by month. Click “See Excruciating Detail” to see individual line-items that contain the following information:Reporting MonthSale MonthStoreArtistTitleQuantitySong/AlbumCustomer priceCountry of saleYour earnings Example: If your song “Feel The Beat” was streamed 500 times on Spotify in July by people in Japan, that would show up as a single line-item.

None! When you use DistroKid, you keep 100% of your earnings, minus banking fees/applicable taxes. We feel strongly that you shouldn’t give a percentage of your sales & streaming revenue to your distributor. You earned the money, not them. The only time we take a percentage, is if you opt into our optional “YouTube Money” service. That’s the service where we find videos on YouTube that use your music– and tell YouTube to monetize them (more info here). We keep 20% of the revenue from YouTube videos that we find, and send you the rest (80%). But you still keep the money you earn from sales & streaming sites like iTunes, Spotify etc. You always keep 100% of that, minus banking fees/applicable taxes. Enjoy!

If you’re not seeing the latest reports yet, don’t worry! Rest assured that we’re working to get them to you ASAP. To see detailed information about the latest streams & sales, visit “Bank”, then click “See Breakdown By Store,” then “See Excruciating Detail.” Stores usually deliver these reports monthly — but please note that each store & streaming service delivers reports & payments on their own schedule. So, for example, you likely won’t receive updated iTunes & Spotify numbers on the same day each month. Same thing goes for different distributors–if you have other music online via a distributor other than DistroKid, that distributor may reflect your Spotify (and so on) numbers before or after DistroKid does. We’re usually first! But not always. For more information about how and when you get paid, please check out this article.

Sales reports and payments are available to you based on when DistroKid receives sales numbers and earnings from stores. Stores usually deliver these reports monthly, andthey reflect sales from about 3 months ago. So a song you sold yesterday won’t be reflected for about 3 months. That’s how long it takes before stores send us (or any distributor) the information. It’s also important to note that not all stores report at the same time, or at the same frequency. Each store & streaming service delivers reports & payments on their own schedule. So, for example, you likely won’t receive updated iTunes & Spotify numbers on the same day. The same thing goes for different distributors–if you have other music online via a distributor other than DistroKid, that distributor may reflect your Spotify (and so on) numbers before or after DistroKid does. We’re usually first! But not always. To see detailed information about your streams & sales – such as country and currency – visit “Bank”, then click “See Excruciating Detail.” Your money will be sent within 1-14 days of a withdrawal request from https://distrokid.com/bank.

Yes. Let’s say you decide to delete a release from availability for whatever reason. You will still get any earnings you may have earned while your music was live on stores, up until the point it disappears. The earnings will flow through to your account, as per the following reporting schedule. Expect to wait up to 1-2 weeks for your deleted music to disappear from all stores, sometimes sooner.

Yes! To see detailed information about your streams and sales once stores have reported your earnings:1. Visit “BANK”2. Click “> SEE BREAKDOWN BY STORE…” to expand3. Scroll down and click “SEE EXCRUCIATING DETAIL”4. Click the Download button next to DISPLAY in the upper-right. Here’s what the download icon looks like: The file will save with the extension .tsv (tab-separated value), which you can open in the spreadsheet software of your choosing (Excel, Google Docs, etc.) and sort as you please to sum up earnings per artist/release/etc. If you have a lot of sales, it could take a minute or so for the file to be generated. Files can get large. A 150,000 row spreadsheet file is about 14mb.

To see the tracks you’ve sold (and how many), sign into DistroKid and click “bank”. Sales reports are available monthly-ish, as soon as we get them from stores. A song sold in July might not show up until the September reports.

If you stop paying the annual fee (and haven’t opted into “Leave a Legacy,” more info on that in bold below), we may remove your DistroKid songs & albums from stores. You will continue to have access to DistroKid.com and (of course) will receive any earnings owed to you. Assuming that you didn’t opt into Leave a Legacy… the reason why we remove former-customers’ music from stores is because it’s a lot of work for us to gather revenue reports from stores, pay out earnings, do customer service, and so on. Your membership fee covers all that. We’ll automatically re-bill you every year so you don’t have to think about it. If the charge fails, we’ll give you ample notice before removing any of your music from stores. We know you don’t want any surprises when it comes to your music. Also, in the rare case that we remove your music from stores after your yearly subscription ends, you can of course re-join DistroKid any time and upload it again. If you want your music to stay in stores forever in the event of a lapsed credit card payment, check out our “Leave a Legacy” option. Read about it in our FAQ here.

At this time, the only way to downgrade is to delete your albums, cancel your account, and create a new account with a lower plan with a new email address. For more information about how to do this, please check out this FAQ article. Please note that if you choose to do this, and sign up for the Musician plan instead of Musician Plus or a Label plan, you will lose the ability to choose a label name, specify release dates, and other great features.

Unfortunately, no. Currently DistroKid requires payment using Visa, Mastercard, or American Express cards.

Your account will automatically renew every year on the date that you signed up and paid for your current subscription. We do not send an email prior to charging the renewal fee, so you may just want to make sure your credit card information is up to date. To view the date that you signed up, simply click on “More” in the upper right > Account Settings > Tap Receipts. The first date/charge listed will be the date you signed up. Note: You may see an occasional $1 charge, followed immediately by a $1 refund. That is a test hold that our credit card processing system administers use to verify that cards are still active.

Generally, we reply to all emails within 1-2 days. If you’re not receiving a response from DistroKid support, or not receiving the 2-step authentication emails, it’s likely that they’re either going to spam, or being bounced entirely by your email provider. More info here! Check in with your email provider to ensure that all emails from distrokid.com are allowed. If you’re using an older email, such as a school email, etc., considering using something more permanent, like Gmail. If you’re still not able to get through, send a DM or Reply via Twitter, and we’ll get back to you ASAP!

Let’s say you need a refund, but you no longer use the card that DistroKid originally charged. Where does the refund go? Great question! It varies by bank. If the you have another credit card account with the same bank, sometimes the bank will apply the refund to the your other card. Sometimes, they’ll send the funds to your bank account, or apply the refund to any outstanding balance on the card (it should still appear on a statement, however, if this occurs.) Other times, your bank may send a paper check. And sometimes, the funds sit there for a long time until you contact your bank to request the funds manually. What doesn’t happen is the refund automatically going to whatever other card you have on file with DistroKid (unless it falls into one of the categories above). TL;DR: Ask your bank.

Need a receipt for your bookkeeping? No problem! You can find detailed information about all charges by going to Settings (Gear in Upper Right) > Receipts. That should have you covered. We’re not able to add additional info (like invoice numbers, tax info, etc.) to receipts.

Log into www.distrokid.com and click on the “More” button (in Upper Right) > Account Settings > Credit Card to update your payment information.

Trying to log into your existing DistroKid account but being asked to choose a plan instead? That usually means that you signed up with a different email address, or entered a typo in your email address. Please make sure you’re using the correct email, and try again. If you’re unsure as to the email address you used to sign up with, please reach out here and we can help locate the email you used to sign up!

Here’s how to change the email address associated with your DistroKid account:Sign into DistroKidClick “More” then “Account Settings”Click “Account” Boom. If you forgot the email on your account, and can’t log in, please let us know here.

If you forgot your password:Step 1: Make sure you’re logged out of DistroKid. (Click here, or click “More” > “sign out” to log out) Step 2: Go to distrokid.com and click “Sign In” (top right) > “Forgot your password?” Step 3: You will then be asked to enter the email you used when signing up for DistroKid, and we’ll send an email with steps to reset your password. If you remember your current password:Go to “More” > Account Settings > Account, and click “Want to change your password?” If you forgot your account email:Please let us know here.

There is a known problem with Amazon’s website that makes it impossible for them to display some non-latin characters, such as cyrillic. Amazon is working on a fix, and we hope to see a solution soon. Rest assured that the correct characters are stored in Amazon’s database, and the customer will receive the right metadata embedded in their purchased tracks, if their player supports these character sets.

No. All Beatport releases go to this page.

DistroKid is capable of sending an extreme amount of detailed metadata to streaming services. Which is awesome! More info here. Some streaming services can handle it all. Others only have the capability to accept a small portion for now – but likely more in the future. We’ll monitor each streaming partner, and continuously update them with the maximum amount of metadata they can handle at any time. Most are starting with songwriters and producers. Please note that credits may take 1-2 weeks to appear in any stores that accept them.

DistroKid’s Musician Plus and Label accounts give you access to Estimated Daily Stats from Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, and Amazon. Sometimes, the sales numbers in Daily Stats differ somewhat from the figures shown in your monthly earnings statements. They may even drop to zero on occasion. Have no fear! ​That’s normal, usual, and nothing to be concerned about. It’s generally an issue with how the stores are reporting to DistroKid (API), and these types of issues generally clear up within 24 hours or so. Also, it’s important to remember that estimated stats come from a completely different system than earnings reports, and any fluctuations will have absolutely no affect on your actual earnings from sales/streams.

Congrats! This means that your album has been successfully delivered to iTunes, and they’re in the process of making it live in all iTunes stores across the world. Albums sometimes go live in your country after a few hours, and sometimes a few days. Only thing to do now is wait. There’s nothing else DistroKid needs to do at this point, as your album is safely in Apple’s hands now. FYI re: pre-orders: iTunes links default to Apple Music on mobile, where the release won’t be available until the actual release date. You’ll still be able to find your pre-order in the mobile and desktop versions of iTunes, though. You can also try adding ?app=itunes to the end of your iTunes link, which may help force mobile devices to check iTunes directly, rather than Apple Music.

Sometimes stuff will appear in stores before it has fully processed. If you’re ever worried about something, we recommend giving it 48-72 hours or so to sort itself out. From the time you upload, it can take 1-2 business days for your release to be reviewed, approved, and sent to stores. Then the stores have additional processing time on their end before they push your release live. For more information about the time it takes for releases to go live to stores once approved, please check out the FAQ article here. Delays are rare, but they do happen, and are often out of our control. Please double check this article in regard to release dates–Particularly the “Note” section.

If you plan on releasing music between November 22, 2019, and January 3, 2020, stores ask that you remember to check the following delivery deadlines. Holiday Season Delivery Schedule Release DateDelivery DeadlineNovember 22, 2019 Friday, November 15, 2019November 29, 2019Friday, November 15, 2019December 6, 2019Friday, November 22, 2019December 13, 2019Friday, December 6, 2019December 20, 2019Friday, December 6, 2019December 27, 2019Friday, December 13, 2019January 3, 2020Friday, December 13, 2019 Music delivered after these deadlines may not be available on the desired release date.

Some streaming services don’t allow name change requests. Although some stores are currently honoring name change requests, not all stores are able to process them. DistroKid won’t send conflicting metadata to different services – because most artists would prefer to have the same name across all services. We know that this is annoying, and we’re working on getting all streaming services to honor name change requests. But for now, they don’t. You are more than welcome to use the new artist name on any future releases, but any existing releases will need to retain the current artist name.

Most stores & streaming services compress audio files to make them download faster. An unfortunate side-effect is that compressed audio may not sound as good as the original tracks you uploaded to DistroKid. As compression technology advances and bandwidth gets faster, this will become less of a problem. In the meanwhile, there’s usually a way for listeners to make audio sound better. For example, in the Spotify app (desktop or mobile), paid users can go into “Preferences” and turn on “High Quality Streaming.”

Each store has their own style guide–the way in which they show information. When you upload music to DistroKid, we reformat the data & deliver it separately to each store, complying with each stores’ style guide. Below is an example of how featured artists look differently in Apple Music vs Spotify. Apple Music: Spotify:

If you searched by artist name or release title and still cannot find your music, it is likely that one of the following has occurred: Music is not live yet: See here for live timesStores are still indexing your artist name. Until your name is indexed, it may not appear in search, despite your music being live. Stores handle this internally (we don’t control search results), but it shouldn’t take too long for them to index your name shortly after your release is live. This generally happens if this is the first time using your artist name.Your release title is too common. If you have a common song or album title, such as “Home,” it may not show in search results at the top, if other releases are very popular in rank.

It can take up to a week or so for your first DistroKid upload to go live in all stores. (For more information about the time it takes for releases to go live to stores, please check out the FAQ article, here) Even after your release has gone live, it may require some additional processing time before DistroKid detects your release(s) in stores. If you’re trying to get your Spotify artist page verified and you see a message saying that your release has not yet been detected, please try again later.

They are not. However! If your release contains cover songs, you can still opt into YouTube Money, and we’ll send it without the cover songs.

YouTube Music is a streaming service where subscribers can stream your music, just like other streaming services. The music you distribute to YouTube Music through DistroKid will not be identified by Content ID, unless you also opt into Content ID through DistroKid’s optional YouTube Money service. If you opt into YouTube Money but want to allow specific videos to use your music without Content ID claims, you can do so here.

Google Play and YouTube Music used to be separate option on DistroKid’s upload page. Due to a change on Google’s side, uploads to Google Play are also added to YouTube as an “Art Track” (your album art as the video, with the music playing. Example here). This helps ensure maximum possible exposure (and revenue) for your music. As YouTube has its own music service, Art Track Videos act just like streaming subscription tracks. This doesn’t preclude you from uploading your own separate video to YouTube for the same song. In fact, most major artists upload via a service like DistroKid to get an Art Track into YouTube, and then separately upload a music video directly to YouTube. Here’s an example from possibly the biggest song of 2017, “Despacito”:”Despacito” official video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJQP7kiw5Fk “Despacito” Art Track Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv61KxM2m1s (Note: YouTube Music is currently available in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Canada, Norway, Ireland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and South Korea, and will be available anywhere YouTube has a subscription music service as new territories are supported. If you’re trying to play YouTube Music Art Track videos from outside of these supported territories, you may see a message that the content is not available.)

YouTube Music is currently available in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Canada, Norway, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and South Korea, and will be available anywhere YouTube has a subscription music service as new territories are supported. If you’re trying to play YouTube Music Art Track videos from outside of these supported territories, you may see a message that the content is not available.

DistroKid’s optional Content ID extra “YouTube Money” is powered by Audiam. Please check out the Audiam FAQ for very specific information about Audiam & YouTube: http://www.audiam.com/faq/ For more information about YouTube Money, please check out the FAQ article here.

YouTube Music is a music streaming service from YouTube. Your music and artwork will be automatically combined to create an “Art Track,” which is a video on YouTube that displays your artwork & plays your song. You’re paid for each monetized play of your music. A “monetized” play is when YouTube displays an ad on the video, or when a YouTube Music paying subscriber listens (in which case you’re paid, pro-rata, based on how much he’s paying and what percentage of the time he listened to your tracks). YouTube Music is currently available in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Canada, Norway, Ireland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and South Korea, and will be available anywhere YouTube has a subscription music service as new territories are supported. If you’re trying to play YouTube Music Art Track videos from outside of these supported territories, you may see a message that the content is not available. Here’s some more information: http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2014/11/youtube-music-2014.htmlhttp://www.theverge.com/2014/11/12/7201969/youtube-music-key-new-subscription-service

Claiming your Official Artist Channel on YouTube is quick and easy when you use DistroKid. How to claim your YouTube Official Artist Channel:Make sure you already have a channel dedicated to your content as an artist on YouTube. If not, please create one, and name it after your artist name.*Make sure your artist has at least one release that has selected “Google Play/YouTube” as a store.Go to the YouTube Official Artist Channel section of your DistroKid account (Click the “More” menu > “Streaming Service Goodies”)Select the artist you want to associate with your YouTube channel.Authenticate into your YouTube accountClaim your channelDone! *Note: You can only link one artist to a YouTube account. A label channel cannot be converted to an Official Artist Channel. — Once your Official Artist Channel is approved, you’ll have access to some exciting new features on YouTube, including:Increased visibility through YouTube searchAccess to artist specific tools and analytics in YouTube StudioThe ability to update your YouTube Music pic & bioExclusive access to data and analytics through YouTube Analytics for ArtistA verified music note next to your channel name Here’s a video from YouTube with some additional info about what it means when DistroKid helps you qualify for an Official Artist Channel: Enjoy!

If your release contains any audio (beats, loops, samples, video game sounds, other peoples’ music…) that you didn’t create yourself, it is unfortunately ineligible for YouTube Money. YouTube is really serious about this stuff. All of the following must be true for a release to be eligible:You created all of the sounds yourYour release does NOT contain beats, loops, sound effects, or other audio downloaded from sample libraries or other public sources. This includes sounds that are available for free from GarageBand, Ableton, Logic, Fruity Loops, etc.You will not allow other artists to remix your song(s), or use any of the sounds from your song(s) in their own songs. That’s because if their remix gets uploaded to YouTube, Content ID may claim it as yours. Or if the remixer opts into Content ID, it may think your version is the same song, and claim it as theirs. It’s all very complicated.Your release does NOT contain public domain recordings or songs.Your release does NOT contain sounds from video games, television, movies, etc.Your release does NOT contain any audio from other peoples’ YouTube videos.You are the only person who will add this single to YouTube Content ID. Nobody else (band members, producer, etc.) will also try to add it to YouTube Content ID, because that causes a mess.You have NOT used another company, such as TuneCore or CD Baby, to submit this single to YouTube Content ID. That will cause a conflict, and a mess. Due to the sample-heavy nature of Hip-Hop and Electronic/Dance music, these genres are currently ineligible for YouTube Money.

Earlier this year, Google announced plans to sunset the Google Play Music service. Please visit this page for the latest updates from Google:https://support.google.com/googleplaymusic/answer/9973710?hl=en

When you upload your music using DistroKid, your music will appear in YouTube Music (YouTube’s streaming service) and on YouTube as Art Tracks. Art Tracks will be placed on an auto-generated YouTube channel known as a Topic Channel. If you have an artist channel on YouTube, then you can easily claim your Official Artist Channel by using DistroKid. Once you have an Official Artist Channel, all of your Art Tracks will appear on your artist channel instead of the auto-generated Topic Channel.

DistroKid offers an optional upgrade called “YouTube Money.” We’ll add your audio to YouTube’s Content ID system, which scours YouTube for videos that use your music. When a match is found, ads show on the video and you’ll get the ad revenue. If you have a video on YouTube that uses your own music, you’ll likely get an email from YouTube that there’s been a copyright claim against it. This is nothing to worry about–it’s YouTube’s ContentID system doing its thing. You can safely ignore the message. Ads will appear on your video & we’ll send you the money earned. YouTube may say the copyright claim is from “Audiam” or “Interstreet Recordings.” These are the services that help power DistroKid’s “YouTube Money” feature. You can safely ignore the email. They’ll send the ad revenue to DistroKid, and DistroKid will send it to you. If you opt into YouTube Money but want to allow specific videos to use your music without Content ID claims, you can do so here.

iTunes Match is a service where music fans pay Apple $25/year to be able to upload their entire music collection to the Apple cloud and stream it from Apple’s cloud to any device. Music fans can even upload & stream music they didn’t buy from iTunes. Artists like you get paid every time one of these subscribers streams one of your songs. There are two reasons why iTunes Match is great for artists:1) Artists get paid every time a fan streams their song — even if the fan already bought the song. In this case, it’s like the artist is getting paid twice (once for the download, once for the stream). 2) In the event that a fan downloaded your song illegally or through some other means where they didn’t pay for it — the artist still gets paid every time that song is streamed by an iTunes Match subscriber. Which is cool.

Yes! Apple Digital Masters (formerly ‘Mastered for iTunes’) allows you to deliver high-resolution masters with the highest quality audio to Apple. Make sure your audio is a 24-bit resolution WAV file, with a sample rate of 44.1kHz or higher. By encoding from high-resolution masters, Apple music engineers are able to capture all of the detail of a recording in a size that is convenient for streaming and downloading. Using 24-bit files means less noise and higher encoding efficiency, making your uploads virtually indistinguishable from the original master recordings. If you already have your music mastered via an approved Apple Digital Masters mastering house, let us know and we can enable you to upload this audio. Once enabled, you’ll be asked to enter the email address of your Apple-approved Apple Digital Masters mastering house on the upload form. Note: All former Mastered for iTunes songs will continue to be available under the Apple Digital Masters program

We’re currently running some beta tests with Beatport, and we’ll have more info once we see how everything works! If you’re interested, please contact us.

Pandora has several services. One of them is called “Pandora Premium.” We can help get your music into Pandora Premium. But first, some background. Pandora has three services:Pandora (free) – Pandora’s ad-supported radio servicePandora Plus – Pandora’s paid (no ads) radio servicePandora Premium – Pandora’s paid on-demand service (works like most other streaming services) When you select “Pandora” on DistroKid’s upload form, we send your music to Pandora. Pandora’s services are curated by Pandora (info here). Curation means there’s no guarantee your music will be selected, but if Pandora likes your music, it’ll go live in “Pandora (free)” and “Pandora Plus” and there’s nothing else you need to do! Getting your music live on Pandora Premium requires an additional step you’ll have to go through. If you have content that is being distributed to Pandora but is not yet live, please sign into your Pandora account and complete the simple three-step form at amp.pandora.com/submit. While your content may be delivered to Pandora by DistroKid, Pandora is still a curated collection. Submitting your content will prioritize it for review by Pandora. Hope this is helpful, thanks for reading!

Stores consider a release to be an “EP, when it has:4-6 tracks with a total running time of 30-minutes or less. -OR- 1 to 3 tracks, with one track at least 10-minutes long, and a total running time of 30-minutes or less.

Most stores consider an album to be a “single” if it contains 1-3 tracks, that are each less than 10 minutes. If you upload an album with 1-3 songs to iTunes, iTunes will automatically add the “- Single” notation to the end of the album title. See below…

HyperFollow is a completely free (and awesomely powerful) promotional tool that is available for all DistroKid artists. These days, it’s a must to have one link that leads to your music on all streaming services, and that’s where HyperFollow comes in! The instant you finish uploading your release, you can start promoting and collecting pre-saves on Spotify (including fan email addresses) with HyperFollow. As soon as your release goes live on its release date, your HyperFollow page will AUTOMATICALLY UPDATE(!) to include links to other streaming services. Your HyperFollow link never changes, and you’ll never have to update your marketing copy or social media posts. You can find your HyperFollow link on your DistroKid album page, or by clicking “HyperFollowâ€_x009d_ under the MORE menu when logged in. Here are some of the additional benefits of using HyperFollow:More followers! Anyone who clicks the button on your HyperFollow page will automatically follow you on Spotify. More listeners! In addition to following your artist page on Spotify, whoever clicks the button will also automatically save your album to their Spotify library. More contacts! You will be given each fan’s email address. More research! You will have access to the city-level geographic location and other (anonymized) demographic information about your fans. More insight! You’ll be able to see the other music that your fans are listening too. Even if those other artists don’t use DistroKid. More stats! You’ll know how many people visited your HyperFollow page, and how many followers you added. Need to edit your HyperFollow page? Check it out! https://distrokid.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039543054

Yes! If you’re interested in adding your music to TouchTunes, please contact us. Opting in will also automatically send your music to PlayNetwork. While we can submit your music to TouchTunes and PlayNetwork, their catalog is hand-curated based on industry research and popularity as it relates to their particular needs. Therefore not all of the music they receive will be made available. Because we don’t control the curation process, we’re not able to provide much info with regard to what gets chosen, or how long it will take to go live in TouchTunes and/or PlayNetwork. To find out if you’ve been added to TouchTunes, you can use the TouchTunes app to search for your music on a jukebox. Note that the catalog may differ depending on your location. For more info about TouchTunes, check out their website: https://www.touchtunes.com/

Facebook & Instagram are building a music catalog. DistroKid can get you in! For more information, see our blog post here: https://news.distrokid.com/facebook-507b5e567593 Frequently Asked Questions:How do I send my music to Facebook? To get your music into Facebook’s music catalog:New music: Just select the “Instagram & Facebookâ€_x009d_ checkbox when uploading your music to DistroKid.Old music: Sign into DistroKid → Click your album → Click “Add to more storesâ€_x009d_ → Choose “Instagram/Facebookâ€_x009d_ → Click “Addâ€_x009d_. If you don’t see “Instagram/Facebookâ€_x009d_ here, congrats, you must’ve opted in when uploading your music & it’s already been added. How does Facebook’s Monetization service work? Opting into distribution to Facebook/Instagram allows users to put your music in the content they create and share on Facebook and Instagram. This includes features such as a searchable Audio Library. Sending your music to Facebook allows your music the chance of earning revenue. Note: Some videos may be muted due to product restrictions. In general, Facebook/Instagram videos that mimic an audio-only listening experience are not permitted. Examples include still image videos, or live streams with large amounts of matched audio. How much does it cost to monetize my music on Facebook/Instagram? There is no charge for opting into distribution to Facebook/Instagram.

Yes! You can opt into Pandora at no additional charge. We will submit your music to Pandora, but that’s no guarantee it will go live in Pandora Radio. That’s because Pandora Radio has their own in-house review process for curating content. And because Pandora’s curation process is out of our (or anyone’s) hands, we’re not able to provide much info with regard to what gets chosen, or how it will take to go live in Pandora. To have your music included in Pandora Premium, Pandora’s rad streaming service, there’s an extra step you need to take. You can learn about that HERE. A good way to find out if you’ve been selected for Pandora, is to to type your artist name or song title(s) into the Pandora app sometime (a week? longer?) after you’ve uploaded the music to DistroKid. If your search shows results, then… congrats! You’re in! Another way to know if you got selected, is if you start to see Pandora earnings in your DistroKid account. Click here for more information on DistroKid earnings.

Spotify gives artists an easy way to pitch music for playlist consideration. To be considered, your release date must be at least 3-weeks in the future (only possible with DistroKid’s “Musician Plus” or “Label” plans). Here’s info from Spotify on how to pitch:https://artists.spotify.com/blog/share-new-music-for-playlist-consideration Here’s an article that explains how Spotify’s curators make decisions:https://artists.spotify.com/blog/behind-the-playlists-r-and-b Good luck!

If you have uploaded a release via DistroKid and need to grab your Artist, Album, or Track URI, you can use DistroKid’s URI Looker Upper! Check it out at here: https://distrokid.com/uri Note that for super recent uploads, you may need to wait a day or two for a URI to populate. If you need a URI for a release that you didn’t upload through DistroKid, follow these steps in the Spotify Desktop application (not the web version):Click to the three dots next to the artist name/album/track titleClick ‘Share’Click ‘Copy Spotify URI’ from the second menu

Google Knowledge Graphs are created based on a number of factors that DistroKid has no control over. We have, however, heard that making a Wikipedia and/or MusicBrainz page is helpful. In general, the more the more information about your music you have online, the more likely Google is to make it. Nothing we can guarantee, though.

When uploading to DistroKid, you may be asked to enter your “Apple Artist URL.” Here’s how to find it:Make sure you’re on a computer (not a mobile device)Open the iTunes appSearch for your artist name in iTunesRight-click (or control-click on Mac) your artist nameGo to “Copy Link” That’s it! You can now go back to DistroKid’s upload form and paste in this URL.

For obvious reasons, you may want to obtain links for your music on storefronts, so you can point fans directly to your releases on any given store. To obtain a link, simply find your release on any given store (search by artist name or release title), then right click on it, then click ‘copy URL’ or ‘copy link’ (may differ from store to store, but generally similar wording). Once you have this link, feel free to share it with fans, so they can find your music on whichever store you are pointing them to. Each store has a different link, so you’d need to share links to individual stores separately.

YouTube Music is YouTube’s streaming service. DistroKid lets you easily add your music to YouTube Music – just select “Google Play/YouTube” on DistroKid’s upload form. When you upload your music using DistroKid, you can also upgrade your artist YouTube channel to an “Official Artist Channel”. You can do this when you upload your next new release, or by going to the Official Artist Channel page in your DistroKid settings. If you haven’t upgraded your artist YouTube channel to an Official Artist Channel, then YouTube will post your music on what is called a Topic Channel.Topic Channels: Many artists are automatically assigned a topic channel. This is usually your name, followed by “-Topicâ€_x009d_. For example, Drake – Topic. Note that this a different channel than his Official Artist Channel, Drake. Both of those channels contain his music. If you do not claim your Official Artist Channel, fans will be directed to your Topic Channel on YouTube.Various Artists – Topic: Many times, YouTube adds artists’ music to a channel called “Various Artists – Topic”. This is usually for undiscovered artists with smaller play counts. When an artist becomes more popular, their music is often moved (by YouTube) to a hashtag channel. Learn more about how to claim your Official Artist Channel.

Spotify Updating your artist pic & bio is done through Spotify for Artists. Get instant access to Spotify for Artists. iTunes/Apple Music You can edit your artist image directly via Apple Music for Artists. If you’re not already registered, sign up for Apple Music for Artists through Apple directly: https://artists.apple.com. When asked for contact info, you can use your own. Google Play/YouTube Music To manage your profile on YouTube Music, claim your Official Artist Channel through DistroKid by following these steps. Musixmatch Get verified and update your profile on Musixmatch by following these steps. Deezer, Napster & TIDAL Contact us Shazam Sign up for Shazam for Artists. Other Services You may need to reach out to stores individually or check their FAQ. There’s a company called AllMusic Guide that manages a database of music releases. They provide bio and review information to stores including iTunes, Spotify, and other outlets. So try them. Hope this is helpful!

Getting verified on Spotify is easy when you use DistroKid and takes less than a minute. To get instantly verified on Spotify:Sign into DistroKidClick “More”Click “Streaming Service Goodies”Click “Spotify for Artists” and follow the instructions. Verification also gives you access to “Spotify for Artists” which is Spotify’s app that offers:​Stats you can’t get anywhere elseThe ability to update your Spotify artist pic & bioAccess to the Spotify team to answer your questionsA blue verified checkmark FYI, it can take up to a week or so once your first DistroKid upload is live in Spotify before your release is fully processed and recognized in the system to be able to verify your artist page. If you see a message that says “Looks like you don’t have anything live in Spotify (or we haven’t detected it yet),” check back in 24-48 hours or so. If you need to get verified before your first release goes live, let us know, and we can send over your Spotify artist URI, so you can verify directly with Spotify the old fashioned way. Enjoy!

Stores sometimes group artists together who have the same (or similar) names, or create a new artist page instead of using your existing page. We can help! Please visit https://www.distrokid.com/fixer, where we’ll walk you through getting things fixed up!

Yes! DistroKid is the first distributor to help artists get their releases uploaded to TikTok! TikTok is brand-spanking-new to DistroKid, so it’s still in beta. We’ll have more info about how it all works in weeks to come, but here’s what we know so far:You can opt into distribution to TikTok in top section of the upload form, along with other stores and streaming services. Or, to add previously uploaded music to new stores, simply click “Add to more stores” on your album dashboard page. Once you have clicked this, you will be prompted with a list of stores that your music is not on from previous distribution. Select the stores you wish to add for distribution, and click “add.”Releases should go live and be searchable in the app within 1-3 weeks of being submitted via DistroKid.Your music can earn money when it’s included in a video by a TikTok user.TikTok is not a music service where users can stream full-length music on-demand. Users can embed song clips into their videos.

Synchronized Global Release (SGR) allows everyone with a Musician Plus or Label plan to choose a custom release time in Spotify. If you want, you can even release your music simultaneously in every country – at the exact same time! Keep in mind, if you choose 12:00 AM EST, it’ll still be the day before in a handful of countries. For example: Spotify shows the date of earliest time zone your release will go live in, so it might look like it’s being released early, but it’s just being released at the time your requested around the world at the same time! To check various time zones around the world, something like this website may come in handy.

Spotify’s Canvas feature allows artists to further their listeners’ experience by creating their own looping visuals in the “Now Playingâ€_x009d_ view – the most viewed location in the Spotify mobile app. Canvas is currently only available to a beta group by invitation-only through Spotify for Artists, but you can request access from Spotify directly by following the steps below:Visit https://spotifyresearch.typeform.com/to/kPKC3KEnter your Artist URIEnter your nameEnter the email address connected to your Spotify for Artists account.Submit

Yes! At this time, TikTok, Apple Music and iTunes allow you to request a specific start time for audio previews. For new releases, on the upload form you can select which portion of your track users hear when previewing your release. Simply select “When the good part starts” on the upload form to specify which part of the track you want available for previews. If your release is already in stores, no worries! You can head to your album page, click on the “Edit Release” button, and then send a request to stores to specify which portion of that existing track needs to be included in the preview as well.

Twitch has a music service called Soundtrack by Twitch, which gives artists the ability to potentially get their music played to twitch streams. DistroKid makes it easy to get your music into this service. You can find more details about this service in Twitch’s FAQ, here:https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/soundtrack To send your music to Twitch, just select “Soundtrack by Twitch” on the DistroKid upload form. You don’t need a Twitch account to do this. To add previous releases to Twitch:Sign into DistroKidGo to your album pageClick your album (or single)Click “Add to more stores”Select “Twitch” If you’d previously added your release to our Store Maximizer album extra, we’ll add it for you, automatically. Also! If you have a Twitch channel, you can link that channel to your music. That way, Twitch will link to your Twitch channel (and your Spotify page) whenever your music is streamed. To do this, visit: http://distrokid.com/twitch-connect. Please note: Soundtrack by Twitch is curated by people at Twitch. We’ll submit all releases that opt into Twitch, but can’t guarantee your music will be selected for Soundtrack playlists or stations. We’ll try to keep this page up-to-date as more announcements are made about this service. Stay tuned!

DistroKid makes it easy to get your lyrics into iTunes and Apple Music. Visit the lyrics dashboard in your DistroKid account by:Sign into DistroKid → Click the “More” menu → Click “Lyrics” Please ensure your lyrics comply with the guidelines belowApple music guidelinesMusixMatch guidelines Once you submit lyrics, it takes around 2-3 business days for them to go live in stores LikeApple MusicInstagram/FacebookMusixMatchLyricFind,etc.Learn more about where your lyrics are distributed.

Plain lyrics are just the plain text of your lyrics. Synced lyrics are lyrics that are timed to your music. On platforms that support synced lyrics, like Apple Music and Instagram, your fans will see your lyrics scroll in time with your song for the best sing along / Instagram story experience.

Synced lyrics are only available to:Artists with Musician Plus or Label accounts.Songs with approved plain lyrics. So if you just uploaded some plain lyrics, just hang on while we review your lyrics. It should only take a day or so for lyrics to be reviewed. The first step is to upload plain text lyrics at www.distrokid.com/lyrics. Once approved, you can then sync your lyrics to you songs. For more information about where lyrics will be delivered, click here.

DistroKid sends your lyrics toApple MusicMusixMatchInstagram/FacebookLyricFindGoogle Search Resultsand more Only synced lyrics will be sent to Instagram/Facebook. For examples of how lyrics will be displayed in Apple Music, please see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204459. Note: It may take up to 3 weeks for your lyrics to show up on Instagram and other platforms. Delays are rare, but they do happen, and are often out of our control. We recommend checking this FAQ in regard to release dates, particularly the “Noteâ€_x009d_ section.

Streaming services have pretty specific requirements for submitting your lyrics:Do not include the vocalist’s nameDo not include extra text (ex: “intro”, “chorus”, social media links, etc.)Repeated lines must be written out. Don’t write “Chorus 2x” etc.Begin each line with a capital letterDo not use punctuation at the end of a lineDo not include blank lines except between verses or chorusAvoid entering excessively long lines. One sentence per lineDon’t censor explict words unless the words are dropped/bleeped in the audio recordingExample: Don’t enter “F***”, unless the word was dropped or bleeped The most common reasons that stores reject lyrics are:No line breaks between sections (verse/chorus/bridge/etc.)Too many line breaks (unnecessary spaces between each line)Too many grammar/spelling/capitalization errors For a complete list of store requirements, visit Musixmatch guidelines and Apple guidelines.

When uploading a clean and explicit version of the same song, mark the Explicit track as Explicit, but list the Clean version without the Explicit tag and specify that it’s a “radio edit” on the upload form.Please also format the song title as “Song Title (Radio Edit)” if it’s a single. If you’re uploading the clean version of an entire album, format the album title as “Album Title (Radio Edit)”.

Many artists use profanity in their music. This is a situation where music should be labeled as explicit. This Wikipedia article explains more about Parental Advisory labeling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_Advisory It’s also worth noting that there are a handful of countries that will not accept albums with explicit content.

Yes! You can list up to 3 primary artists per release. Your release will show up on each artists’ pages, in stores & streaming services. To specify a collaboration, just use a ampersand (“&”) in your artist name. DistroKid will automatically detect this, and ask you if it’s a band name, or a collaboration. Select collaboration. Example below: Please note: collaborations take up an artist slot, even if one of the artists is already being used on your account. If you need more artist slots, you can upgrade your account.

How do collaborations work on DistroKid?

DistroKid makes it easy to add collaborators to individual tracks. If someone has bought the entire album (versus buying or streaming an individual track), we’ll automatically calculate a pro-rata split. Sample: Let’s say you’re owed 50% of one song, then you would receive 25% of the total dollar amount from that sale.

Can you have multiple artists on DistroKid?

Yes, Musician Plus and Label plan users are eligible for the NCS music copyright free feature.

How do you add a collaborator on DistroKid?

If you have collaborators, make sure that they are on your account. If not, they will get an email with a discount code which can be used when signing up to become your partner for ten dollars.

What does it mean to collaborate with other artists?

Music collaborations are when two creatives come together to make something. It usually creates a better product than either could do alone, because it combines their skills and knowledge.

Our genre list is comprised of all genres accepted by all outlets we distribute to. If you don’t see the genre you want, don’t worry! Just select the genre that most closely describes your music. If/when we add more genres, you’ll see them on the upload form.

The maximum size that DistroKid will accept is 250MB. If you have a track that’s larger than that, consider converting it to FLAC format before uploading to DistroKid. FLAC is a beautiful, lossless format (same audio quality as WAV) but the files are relatively small. DistroKid has no limitation to the length in minutes that a track can be. However, albums cannot contain songs where the average track length is less than 60 seconds.

Audio files should be WAV, MP3, AIFF, CDDA, M4A, Windows Media (WMA), or FLAC. If you’re sending a WAV, we accept up to 24-bit, 96 kHz, or less. 16-bit, 44.1 kHz WAV is typical but pretty much anything works.

Yes. As long as it’s your music and you’re legally allowed to sell it, blah blah blah. For “language,” choose whatever language your music speaks to you in. Figuratively speaking. Or… whatever language you like.

Good news! Streaming services are starting to give credit where it’s due. That means, among other things, showing who wrote every song. Typically, songwriters are listed using real names–not stage names or rapper names or band names. Don’t worry if you use a stage name–your real name won’t be displayed prominently. But it will be displayed when a listener views the “credits” of a song. For example, see the 2 Chainz the song “Bigger Than You (feat. Drake & Quavo)” on Spotify (here). As you would expect, the artist names are listed as:2 ChainzDrakeQuavo However, if you look at the credits for that song on Spotify (here’s how), you’ll notice those artists’ real names are listed as songwriters. Their real names are, respectively:Tauheed EppsAubrey GrahamQuavious Marshall See screenshot from Spotify, below.

Album artwork needs to be JPGs, with RGB color. Usually you don’t have to think about this — every digital camera and photo retouching program (like Photoshop) defaults to RGB. So you’re all good. However, sometimes for whatever reason, you may have saved artwork in the CMYK or Grayscale color space, and DistroKid gives you an error. If this is happening to you, re-save your artwork in RGB format. If you use Photoshop, click here to see how. If you don’t have Photoshop, uploading and re-saving your file with the Pixlr editor will automatically convert it to RGB.

The minimum requirement for album art is 1000×1000 pixels. Ideally, album art should be a perfectly square jpeg, 3000×3000 pixels. If your artwork is smaller, or rectangular, we’ll automatically fix it for you–but there’s a risk that our fixed version won’t look exactly as you intended. Please also make sure your artwork is in the RGB colorspace. More info here. Stores will reject artwork that containsA website address (URL)Twitter nameThe terms ‘Exclusive’ or ‘Limited Edition’Any image that’s blurry, pixelated, rotated, or poor qualityUnlicensed/stock photographyPricesStore logos (such as iTunes or Spotify)NudityGross stuffReferences to physical media (example: “CD” or “Compact Disc”) Also, please do not use the same artwork for multiple albums. Duplicate album art may be rejected.

If you already officially released your album, even as a physical release, please specify the original release date at the top of the upload form. This includes different versions of a previously released album (remastered, re-issue, deluxe, etc.) If you rerecorded the album, however, then it does not count as previously released.

Stores don’t accept song titles that contain:Too much extra informationStrange things in parenthesisOdd punctuationDates or yearsPrimary artists listed also as featured artistsURLs, contact information, social media names, or store names.”Official” within artist names Here are examples of song titles that look incorrect:Track 1 – Stairway to HeavenBillie Jean (performed by Michael Jackson)”Sad But True” by MetallicaBeyonce – Crazy In Love ft. Jay-ZMoney For Nothing 1984Honey I’m Good (122 BPM)Forgot About Dre (Hip Hop)I’m High (Drake Type Beat) Here are examples of those same song titles that look correct:Stairway to HeavenBillie JeanSad But TrueCrazy In Love (feat. Jay-Z)Money For NothingHoney I’m GoodForgot About DreI’m High

You can use our super slick and secret tool to lock your capitalization in the way you like it. Please click here to see where to do that. Please note that stores don’t love this, and may default to standard capitalization, per their style guides. If stores do not allow non-standard capitalization, we will not be able to request edits.

Please consult a mastering engineer for tips about mastering your tracks. Once you have your masters ready to go, upload away!

No. Unfortunately, we’re unable to move songs between DistroKid accounts. However, we are happy to redirect earnings from one DistroKid account to another. To do this, use DistroKid’s “Teams” feature to redirect 100% (or any percent of) earnings from the chosen track(s), to the new DistroKid account. This ensures that metadata, stats, playlist placements, ISRCs, and everything else remains unchanged.

You have the option of sending your music to Shazam, on the upload page. Shazam isn’t listed under the stores for distribution, as it doesn’t sell or stream music, but instead, identifies your music.

Ya sure can!Sign into DistroKidClick the “More” menu in the upper rightClick “Credits & Liner Notes” Your credits will be delivered to all stores who currently accept them. If it’s your first time adding credits, the system will first ask you to list a songwriter. Because songwriters are important, and every song should have one.

If you need to remove your release from stores, please keep in mind that it takes the same amount of time for releases to be pulled from stores, as it does for releases to land in stores. Generally speaking, those times are:iTunes – Anywhere from same-day, to a week.Amazon – About 5-7 daysGoogle Play – About a day.Spotify – Usually a week or so.Beats Music, Deezer – About 1-2 weeks.YouTube Music – About 1-3 days.YouTube Money (Content ID) – about 4 weeks.TIDAL – About a week.

If you want to remove stores, you can do this: Delete from all stores.Immediately after Step 1, re-upload your album–but choose only the stores you want Because stores take the same amount of time to delete albums as they do insert new albums, you’ll have minimal overlap; your old release will be deleted around the same time your new one is inserted. If you have a bit of overlap (where multiple versions of the same song are in stores at the same time), it doesn’t cause any accounting problems or otherwise. If it’s totally not possible for you to delete & re-upload, just drop us a line and let us know which stores you want to remove. Note that this method may take a little longer (up to 2 weeks).

No. The new version of your release will have different links. Stores generate new links for each separate release when they process your uploads from DistroKid.

Yes! “iTunes Instant Gratification” allows your fans to download a track from your pre-order release (instantly!), before its release date. To set this up:Upload your album to DistroKidSet a release date in the future, and enable pre-order (how-to)After your album is uploaded and live in iTunes, contact us to let us know which track(s) you’d like available for “Instant Gratification” Enjoy!

You sure can! To add previously uploaded music to new stores, simply click “Add to more stores” on your album dashboard page. Once you have clicked this, you will be prompted with a list of stores that your music is not on from previous distribution. Feel free to select the stores you wish for distribution, and click “add.”

You know it! Just head to the album on your DistroKid dash, and scroll down to “Add Features”. Woot!

No. Due to how the stores pay, and other complexities, we do not support the same audio recording to be uploaded by more than one DistroKid user. If a song has changed ownership and you’re interested in routing a song’s earnings from one DistroKid account to another, we can do that. Check out our Teams feature. With Teams, you reroute earnings to anyoneâ_x0081_ – while keeping stats, playlist adds, Spotify followers, ISRCs, and all other metadata unchanged.

Yes! This is free for all DistroKid members and is provided to help artists with their online marketing objectives. To add a Facebook pixel:Sign into DistroKidVisit your HyperFollow page (make sure you’re signed in)Click “Customize” at the topClick “Edit this page”Click “Got an ad or analytics pixel?” Done! All visits will be tracked via your Facebook pixel. There are some custom events as well (using Facebook’s “trackCustom” function). The events are:clickSpotifyPresave – Fires when someone clicks your Spotify pre-save linkspotifyPresaveSuccess – When someone successfully pre-saves your releaseclick[store] (ex: “clickSpotify” or “clickApple Music” – When someone clicks one of the streaming service links to listen to your musicclickOut – When someone clicks any of the main links on your HyperFollow page. This will fire in addition to click[store] (which shows which specific link they clicked)clickSocial – When someone clicks any of the social media links on your HyperFollow pageaudioPlay – When someone click the play button to listen to your audio previewaudioPause – When someone clicks the pause button to stop your audio previewaudioSkipForward – If your release has multiple tracks, someone skipped to the next trackaudioSkipBack – If your release has multiple tracks, someone skipped to the previous trackshowFullImage – Someone clicked your album artwork to show the full-sized image Hope this is helpful!

To delete an album or single:1. Make sure you’re signed into DistroKid 2. Click the release you want to delete 3. Click “Edit Release” 4. Scroll to bottom, and click “Remove this release from all stores” Once you click the button, it takes stores around the same amount of time to delete a release as it did for them to add it. Expect to wait up to 1-2 weeks to disappear from all stores, sometimes sooner. Spotify takedowns take at least 2 business days.

Yes! You can make edits by visiting your album page, and clicking “Edit Releaseâ€_x009d_. We’ll walk you through everything you can edit from there. Stores typically process these requests within a few days, but please be aware that metadata updates may take up to 1-2 weeks for changes to take place in all stores. Overall, the entire editing process from start to finish can take anywhere from 2-4 weeks, and we’re not able to expedite the process on our end once a request has been submitted to stores. At this time, it is not possible to cancel a request or submit additional edits prior to the previous request being approved. Certain other things such as audio files, track listing, genre, language, Album Extras, and ISRCs cannot be changed via metadata update. To change them, you will need to delete and re-upload a corrected version. Here’s how to delete your release(s) from stores: https://distrokid.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013649193 Note: Stores do not allow an Artist Name to be changed once it has been delivered. You can use your new Artist Name for future releases, but stores require the Artist Name to remain the same on past/existing releases. Stores also do not allow you to upload, delete, and re-upload with different metadata (artist name, titles, etc.), and they are cracking down on this issue. Even if you have deleted a previous version and tried to re-upload with corrections, stores will not allow multiple uploads with conflicting metadata. If you need to remove your release from certain stores, remove it from specific countries, or specify an artist as a remixer, drop us a line and we can assist.

Yes! There are now quite a few features available on HyperFollow pages, along with the ability to make edits. First, to view a HyperFollow page, head on over to the album page from your DistroKid dashboard and scroll down to the HyperFollow section to find the HyperFollow page for that release: Alternatively, you can visit www.distrokid.com/hyperfollow, and click on the release you’d like to view or edit. Going through this way will also let you see additional details about fans who have followed your release! Once you’re on the HyperFollow page you want to edit, click “Menu” on the upper-right corner of the page to reveal a bunch of options, then click “Edit this page” (this works on mobile, too!): From here, you can edit the artist name, release title, or release date (this is handy if, for example, you submitted an edit request for the release after you uploaded). You can also re-order links, add links to stores we haven’t added (including stores we don’t even distribute to), and do some other fun stuff that can be turned on or off at any time:Audio previewsYouTube embedAdd social media links”Holiday cheer” (try it, it’s fun!)Change “Talk to me” button textTurn on/off Spotify pre-saveHide or delete any of your HyperFollow pages Here’s an example of a HyperFollow page with some of the new features:https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/butchersofthefinalfrontier/kh4 If you run into any issues with editing your HyperFollow page, please let us know here: www.distrokid.com/contact

No.

Don’t bother embedding ISRC codes directly into your .wav (or another format) audio files.

If you do, it won’t cause any harm. But it’s a waste of time because stores ignore the data.

If you’re interested in using your own ISRC codes (instead of the free codes DistroKid ISRCs DistroKid will automatically generate for you), that’s easy to do.

DistroKid gives you free DistroKid ISRC codes. They’re automatically generated by DistroKid and displayed to you whenever you upload any song or album.

If you need to have your DistroKid ISRC codes before uploading music, well… there’s a way to do that, but it’s sort of a hack. So we don’t recommend it. But if you must, here’s an option.

It only works if you have Musician Plus or Label accounts.

• • Upload your music. Set the release date for sometime in the future (such as next week).

• • ISRCs are assigned in the final steps before sending a release to stores. Once ISRCs have been assigned, you can see them to the right of track titles on the album pages of your DistroKid dashboard. Write them down or save them somewhere.

• • Delete your album right away. If you don’t delete it within a few minutes of uploading it, it might get sent to stores. And, in this scenario, it seems you don’t want that.

• • Upload your album again. Choose “already got an ISRC code?” on the upload form. Enter the codes that you saved from step #2.

There you have it.

No, you do not need to provide UPC or ISRC codes to DistroKid.

If you want to specify your own ISRC codes, upgrade to a “Musician Plus” or “Label” account.

If you want to apply for a UPC issued by GS1, please contact your local GS1 office

ISRC codes, yes. UPC codes, no.

DistroKid automatically generates DistroKid UPC and DistroKid ISRC codes for each release, so you don’t have to think about it (or even know what that means).

But if you want to specify your own ISRC codes for some reason, that’s easy to do: Make sure you’re subscribed to DistroKid’s “Musician Plus” or “Label” account. Then click “already got an ISRC code?” on DistroKid’s upload form.

There is no way to specify a custom UPC code.

If you want to apply for a UPC issued by GS1, please contact your local GS1 office.

An ISRC code is a unique code assigned to each song you upload.

DistroKid will automatically generate new DistroKid ISRC codes and associate them with every song you upload. It’s free and automatic and you don’t have to worry about it. If you want to specify your own ISRC code, you can do that if you’ve got a “Musician Plus” or “Label” account.

No.

They are codes that the music industry uses for stuff and things. Sometimes.

DistroKid takes care of these things automatically (generates them, associates them with your music, etc.) so you don’t have to think about it. Focus on your music and leave the technical to us. 

Short version:

Something’s probably wrong with your internet connection. Or the internet in your area.

Longer version:

Transferring large files across the internet is hard. When you visit a website, any data you send goes through dozens of connections before it gets to its destination. If anything goes wrong at any of those points, the connection will fail.

DistroKid makes transferring large files easy. The proprietary technology on DistroKid’s upload form actually creates a direct connection between your browser, and our file host (Amazon S3). This takes DistroKid’s servers (and any points between your computer & ours) out of the equation.

Amazon S3 has servers all over the world. So wherever you’re sitting, you’re probably connected to an Amazon S3 server nearby. This usually makes DistroKid uploads extraordinarily fast and reliable.

If you get an error that says “your socket connection to the server was not read from or written to within the timeout period,” it means that you started transferring a file, but then mid-transfer, the file host received no data from you for at least 20 seconds. Amazon S3 considers that failure and shuts down the connection.

What happened during those 20 seconds? Likely your computer (or your router, or the service in your neighborhood, or somewhere on the internet we don’t control) isn’t consistent. Try waiting and trying again later, or try your upload from another location.

No, sorry.

Sound-a-likes–or cover versions, or tribute songs that sound verrry similar to the original–aren’t accepted by stores.

Stores may also reject cover songs that too-closely mimic the original artist’s name or album art.

Even if the content doesn’t violate laws, it may confuse customers. Which is why stores may reject it.

DistroKid can help with covers. DistroKid cannot help with samples.

What’s the difference?

Sampling

Sampling is when you use the actual recording of another artist’s performance. For example, if you use the 1971 recording of Led Zeppelin’s “When The Levee Breaks” as your drum track. That’s generally not legal unless you have permission from the original artist or owner of the copyright.

Cover Song

A cover song is a song that you performed & recorded yourself, but the music was written by someone else. For example, when your band plays “Smooth Criminal” (written by Michael Jackson). This is totally okay—DistroKid makes it easy and legal to sell cover songs. Just select “Someone else wrote it” in the “Songwriter” section of the DistroKid upload form. You’ll find pricing and more info, there.

Each time you upload a song to DistroKid, you’ll see a checkbox to specify whether you wrote the song (an “original”), or someone else wrote it (a “cover”).

There’s a law in the United States that dictates how earnings from cover songs need to be be shared with the original songwriter. If you’re interested in the details.
The good news is that DistroKid makes it easy to upload covers, such that you never have to think about it. Just click the box on our upload form specifying that it’s a cover song and for a small fee ($12 per cover song, renewed annually, as of this writing). DistroKid will then automatically withdraw the legally required amount from your earnings (usually 9.1 cents per sale in the U.S.) and send it to the original songwriter.

And if you already have a license to distribute the cover song? Sorry, but you still must opt into DistroKid’s license anyway. The reason is that we have no way of confirming that the original songwriter is getting paid their legally-required share–unless we’re the ones paying them. Not opting covers into DistroKid’s cover song licensing program can lead to stores taking down your content–or worse–songwriters taking legal action. And nobody wants that.

Yes.

The reason is that we have no way of confirming that the original songwriter is getting paid their legally-required share–unless we’re the ones paying them.

Not opting covers into DistroKid’s cover song licensing program can lead to stores taking down your content–or worse–songwriters taking legal action. And nobody wants that.

Most uploads appear worldwide in every country that the different stores support. If you want to restrict your release to certain countries, you can upload to DistroKid, and then we can submit a metadata update to stores to remove the country/countries that you don’t want to be in. For this to work, it’s best for you to upload at least 10-14 days before a planned release date (Musician Plus/Label plan required).

Some releases may not be distributed to all countries based on language, explicit content, licensing, and other various issues that are outside of DistroKid’s control.

Currently, Saavn only has the non-Indian portion of their catalog available in a handful of countries: India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan. In the rest of the world, only the Indian content is available at this time.

Anghami’s international catalog is only available in the Middle East. In the rest of the world, only the Arabic content is available at this time.

YouTube Music is currently available in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Canada, Norway, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and South Korea, and will be available anywhere YouTube has a subscription music service as new territories are supported. If you’re trying to play YouTube Music Art Track videos from outside of these supported territories, you may see a message that the content is not available.

Yes!

With a Musician Plus or Label plan, you can pre-sell your releases in iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play with DistroKid.

You’ll need to set a release date to at least 5 days in the future (Musician Plus or Label plan required). After you have chosen your release date, you can select whether or not you want to enable iTunes pre-order. Click ‘Yes’, and then enter the pre-order start date.

That’s it! Continue uploading as usual, and your pre-sale request will be sent to iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play when you’re finished.

Pre-sale is not available in other stores at this time.

Yes, if you have a “musician plus” or “label” plan.

If you already have a DistroKid account and want to upgrade, sign in, and click “upgrade.”

You can use a release date from the past, in order to reflect a previously released album or single.

Absolutely with DistroKid! Just make sure it is listed like this:

• • Example with 1 featured artist: Under Pressure (feat. David Bowie)

• • Example with 2 featured artists: Shortie Like Mine (feat. Chris Brown & Johnta Austin)

• • Example with 3 featured artists: Sweetest Girl (feat. Akon, Lil Wayne & Niia)

Adding a featured artist does not require any additional artist slots (that’s good!).

Please note that if you have the same featured artist on all tracks of a multi-track album, stores require that they instead be listed as a Primary artist.

For obvious reasons, you should use an artist/band name that doesn’t already exist in stores. Having several artists with the same name just causes all kinds of confusion. Imagine if there were two Led Zeppelins, or two Dave Matthews (a common name no doubt).

But sometimes this can’t be avoided. Here are the main questions people ask when there’s another artist with the same name as them.

Will I get paid? Or will that guy with the same name as me get paid for my downloads?

You’ll get paid for your downloads at DistroKid. Technologically, artist names are totally independent of sales tracking. So you’re all good and have nothing to worry about.

My albums are being listed alongside the other artists’ albums. So it looks like we’re the same person. Can you separate them?

Stores sometimes group artists together who have the same (or similar) names, or create a new artist page instead of using your existing page. We can help here at DistroKid!

Ideally, if someone already has the name, you should come up with a different name. In the world of actors, for example, no two actors are allowed to have the same name as each other and both belong to SAG (the actors union). That’s why Samuel L. Jackson is Samuel L. Jackson, and not Sam Jackson or Samuel Jackson — those names were taken. If you want to look like a pro, suck it up and come up with a different name if yours is already taken.