New to DistroKid? Wondering about the do's and don'ts of digital distribution? We have the answers!
Every DistroKid artist has access to Spotify for Artists, which means that every artist also has access to uploading a Canvas to accompany their music!
We've made a new tool to help artists unlock the ability to create gorgeous and unique Canvas submissions for Spotify, called Spotify Canvas Generator. This tool is completely free for all DistroKid artists!
Here's a quick video on how to use this tool for your work! You can also find detailed instructions on how it works below.
To get started, you can head to our Canvas generator in our "Goodies" menu. You'll find the tool under the "Enhance your music" drop down.
Once there, pick a keyword or two, and you'll see thousands of free to use videos for your own personalized Canvas.
Once you've selected the Canvas you want to use, you can crop both the image size and the duration of the clip using our sliding scaling tools, to create a truly unique Canvas for your work!
Once you've downloaded your Canvas, head to your Spotify for Artists account to upload that Canvas onto your track! For more information on how to upload a Canvas on Spotify for Artists, check out Spotify's support center regarding Canvas submissions here.
DistroKid is well-known for being the world's fastest & easiest way to get your music into streaming services & collect 100% of earnings.
But DistroKid members also have access to a ton of (mostly free! 
) tools & services that we think you'll love!
Sign into to DistroKid and click "Goodies" at the top of the screen - and read more below.
Promote Yourself
Special Access
Enhance Your Music
Helpful When Needed
Get Heard Now
Protect Your Music
DistroKid is always churning out fun & useful new features for DistroKid members, so be sure to check the "Goodies" menu often!
Go to articleDistroKid is a digital music distribution service that musicians use to put music into online stores & streaming services. These include iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon, Deezer, Tidal, and many more.
DistroKid collects earnings & payments, and sends 100% of these earnings to artists, minus banking fees/applicable taxes.
Some of the many benefits you’ll find at DistroKid:
DistroKid offers multiple plans, ranging from a singles artist/band plan, to Ultimate plans for up to 100 artists.
For information about DistroKid's optional Album Extras, please check out the FAQ article here.
DistroKid also offers a ton of (mostly free! ) tools & services that we think you'll love! Sign into to DistroKid and click "Goodies" at the top of the screen - and read more here.
You can specify for your music to appear in any or all of the following services:
If there's another streaming service you really want to be in, let us know and we'll look into adding it!
Welcome! You won't be disappointed.
It's easy to switch to DistroKid. Here's how:
DistroKid is fast so there's a chance that your albums appear in streaming services twice, before your old distributor takes them down. This brief overlap is okay.
Important: Make sure to use the exact same metadata (song titles, album title, ISRCs, etc.) and audio files you used with your old distributor. That way, services (especially Spotify) will try to ensure that you don't lose play counts or playlists that you're on. We can't guarantee this because it's out of our hands -- but that's generally how it works. Note that you may lose reviews in iTunes and Amazon.
Some of the many benefits you’ll find at DistroKid:
More info on using your own ISRC codes.
How long does it take releases to go live via DistroKid?
It can take several days for albums to be reviewed, approved, and sent to streaming services. If it's important that your album go live on a specific date, click here to read about release dates. Otherwise, by default, your release should go live once ingested by streaming services according to the rough schedule below.
Holiday Season: During the holiday season, if you have a particular release date in mind, Apple has provided a delivery time frame which you can view below:
| Release Date | Delivery Deadline |
|---|---|
| November 25, 2022 | November 11, 2022 |
| December 2, 2022 | November 18, 2022 |
| December 9, 2022 | December 2, 2022 |
| December 16, 2022 | December 9, 2022 |
| December 23, 2022 | December 9, 2022 |
| December 30, 2022 | December 16, 2022 |
| January 6, 2023 | December 23, 2022 |
Note: Delays are rare, but they do happen, and are typically outside of DistroKid's direct control.
Pandora has their own in-house review process to curate content, so we are not able to provide too much info in regards to how long it might take releases to be added to Pandora stations (if they are). To be included in Pandora Premium (Pandora's rad streaming service), please read THIS.
Bonus: For many streaming services (iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and more) we'll detect the moment your album goes live, and send you an email with the link!
Please note: Securing cover song licenses can take up to 14 business days. Releases with cover songs will be submitted as soon as the license is approved by Harry Fox Agency (who handles our cover licenses).
Most uploads appear worldwide in every country that the different streaming services 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 streaming services 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/Ultimate 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.
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It's totally fine to use royalty free samples from sample library services such as Splice, Sounds, LoopCloud etc. It is also fine to use royalty free samples that are included as default sample libraries in your DAW.
Please note: if you use royalty free samples, your music will be ineligible for the YouTube Content ID Album Extra.
Unless you have permission from all concerned parties, it is not possible to upload songs with uncleared samples.
You are welcome to upload remixes of your own work. However, if your remix is of another artist's song, or contains any part of another artist's original music, streaming services require permission from the original artist.
...You do not need to credit yourself as a remixer. You can simply add "Remix" as version information. Here's how you do that on the upload form:
Under the Add "version" info to song title? section, list the appropriate version information. In this case, we can select "Other" and just write "Remix"
Under the section that says Song title preview: you should see something like this:
YourSongTitle (Remix)
...You will only need to add a collaborator with the "Remixer" role, no need to worry about adding version info. Here's how you do that on the upload form:
Under the Add featured artist to song title section, please indicate "Yes" and select the role of the artist. In this case "Remixer." Please then enter the Remixing artist's name in the box next to the artist role.
Check out this article for a breakdown on artist roles!
Under the section that says Song title preview: you should see something like this:
YourSongTitle (RemixingArtist Remix)
...You must have permission from the artist to do so.
If you have permission from the original artist to upload your remix of their song, you will need to list the original artist's name in the "Artist/band name" section of the upload form. Note that this will use an additional artist slot. If you need more artist slots you can upgrade here.
At the track level, you will need to add your artist name with the "Remixer" role. Here's how you do that on the upload form:
Under the Add featured artist to song title section, please indicate "Yes" and select the role of the artist. In this case "Remixer." Please then enter the Remixing artists name (in this case your artist name) in the box next to the artist role.
Check out this article for a breakdown on artist roles!
Under the section that says Song title preview: you should see something like this:
OriginalSongTitle (YourArtistName Remix)
In the Songwriter section, do not select cover song -- Remixes are not covers.
Yes, with some exceptions.
Some examples of songs that may be licensed:
Some examples of songs that may NOT be licensed:
DistroKid charges a fee of $12 per year, renewed annually, to manage each cover song for you. We will:
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.
DistroKid will obtain the required compulsory mechanical license for you. We'll automatically deduct the legally-mandated fee (9.1 cents or 1.75 cents per minute of playing time or fraction
thereof, whichever is larger) from your earnings and pay it to the original songwriter. You'll get 100% of the rest. You don't have to do anything else.
You must purchase a DistroKid cover license each and every time you upload a cover song to DistroKid. For example, if you upload the same cover song twice, you need to select the “Cover Song” option both times, essentially buying two licenses. That’s how our system knows to deduct the songwriter’s share of earnings from your earnings (for both uploads of that song, in this example). Furthermore, DistroKid licenses apply only to content directly distributed by DistroKid, and cannot be used for any purposes outside of DistroKid.
It is your responsibility to ensure that your song would be covered under the compulsory mechanical license.
We are not lawyers and can't help with legal advice. But please note that U.S. copyright law does not permit derivative works such as original-language translations of copyrighted lyrics. Under U.S. copyright law, cover (aka "compulsory") licenses only provide coverage if the main elements of the song, original lyrics & melody, remain fundamentally unaltered within the new sound recording. This is a copyright thing and affects all distributors, not just DistroKid.
For more information about uploading arrangements of works in the public domain, please check out the FAQ article here.
Please don't include the original artist's name in the track title. For example,
GOOD TRACK TITLE
Enter Sandman
BAD TRACK TITLE
Enter Sandman (originally performed by Metallica)
Enter Sandman by Metallica
For more information about purchasing cover song licenses through DistroKid, please see this article.
Please note: Securing cover song licenses can take up to 14 business days. Releases with cover songs will be submitted as soon as the license is approved by our third-party licensing service.
Check out this quick video for more information!
Go to articleNo, sorry.
Sound-a-likes--or cover versions, or tribute songs that sound verrry similar to the original--aren’t accepted by streaming services.
Streaming services 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 services may reject it.
DistroVid is a Music Video distribution service provided by DistroKid!
Click here to check it out!
As a DistroVid artist, you can upload an unlimited amount of music videos, and keep 100% of your earnings from your videos.
Artists who upload music videos via DistroVid will have videos distributed to Apple Music, Vevo, Amazon Music and Tidal.
In addition to those services, artists also have the option to distribute to the DistroVid Gallery, an upcoming collection of all music videos submitted to DistroVid.
To upload unlimited videos for 1 artist, DistroVid membership costs $99 per year. Additional artist slots are $49 per year on top of the base subscription.
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Typically, it can take any where from 1-5 days for videos to go live in services once processed and approved.
Note: If it's important that your music video go live on a specific date (in all chosen services at the same time), choose a release date at least four weeks in the future. If you choose a release date less than four weeks in advance, there's a small but non-zero chance your video could still be stuck in a services' review queue (or some other unforeseen delay) when your release date comes around.
Holiday Season: During the holiday season, if you have a particular release date in mind, Apple has provided a delivery time frame which you can view below:
| Release Date | Delivery Deadline |
|---|---|
| November 25, 2022 | November 11, 2022 |
| December 2, 2022 | November 18, 2022 |
| December 9, 2022 | December 2, 2022 |
| December 16, 2022 | December 9, 2022 |
| December 23, 2022 | December 9, 2022 |
| December 30, 2022 | December 16, 2022 |
| January 6, 2023 | December 23, 2022 |
Videos submitted after the delivery deadline per week may not be published in time. This is not something DistroVid can control.
Go to articleIf your video meets these file specifications, our system shouldn't have any issues making sure that each of our store partners can receive your video.
Specifications:
File Type: .mov or .mp4 only
File Size: Up to 50gb
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 or higher
Duration: 30 seconds or longer
Video Encoding: Variable Bit Rate (VBR) only
Frame Rate is one of 23.976, 24, 25, or 30 (so we can distribute your video everywhere!)
Video Scan Type: Progressive only
Audio: 44.1 kHz or higher, Stereo only
While DistroVid doesn't have an "Edit Release" feature at this time (it's in the works!), we are more than happy to help with certain edit requests.
If you need to edit a typo, track title, genre, label name, release date, or preview/thumbnail image, reach out to us here.
Note: We can edit thumbnails, but stores require that the thumbnail must be an image directly from the video. When reaching out to our team regarding thumbnail edits, please include a screenshot of the thumbnail you are prefer to use, as well as the timestamp of where that image appears within your video.
Also, please keep in mind that there are certain things we cannot edit at this time, including replacing video files or editing artist names. In order to replace a video file, or an artist name, you'll need to delete and re-upload the video with correct file and/or artist name.
For more information on how to delete your video, check out this article.
Not yet, though we hope to be able to offer Splits on DistroVid in the near future! At this time, Splits are only available on DistroKid releases.
For now, you'll need to keep paying out your collaborators on DistroVid the old-fashioned way.
Go to articleNot yet! We can't distribute music videos that include cover tracks or interpolations of other songs at this time.
Go to articleHyperFollow 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 on the "Goodies" menu, and then clicking on "Promote yourself".
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
Go to articleYes!
This is free for all DistroKid members and is provided to help artists with their online marketing objectives.
To add a Facebook 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:
Hope this is helpful!
Go to articleYes! There are now quite a few features available on HyperFollow pages, along with the ability to make edits, and new pages completely independent of your releases!
First, to view and edit your HyperFollow pages, you can navigate to https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow or click on "Goodies" in the top right hand corner of your DistroKid account, and then click "Promote Yourself". From there, you can click "HyperFollow" to view your HyperFollow dashboard, which includes all of your releases.
Under the title of each page you will see the view count, and if it is an autogenerated release HyperFollow page, you can see all of the pre-saves, views, and emails you have collected by clicking on the "# presaves" link next to the views counter.
To edit any hyperfollow.com/yourlink or distrokid.com/hyperfollow/yourlink page, you can visit www.distrokid.com/hyperfollow, and click the "Edit" button under the HyperFollow page you'd like to edit.
For any auto-generated release HyperFollow pages, you can also edit those pages directly from the page. Once you're on the HyperFollow page you want to edit, click "Customize" on the upper-right corner of the page to reveal a bunch of options, then click "Edit this page" (this works on mobile, too!):
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
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Sellouts is a collaboration with 10,000 independent music creators to design & mint 10,000 individualized, collectible, carbon-negative NFTs that commemorate the music of each artist.
From November 17th through December 1st, artists were able to join the Sellouts waitlist, and create their own NFT here: https://distrokid.com/sellouts
We've partnered with Nifty Gateway, which is an artist friendly platform that has pledged carbon-negative minting (more info here) for the collection.
All 10,000 Sellouts became available for purchase ($60/ea) on Nifty Gateway via random drawing on December 15th, 2021, and all original 10,000 NFT's sold out the following day!
If you participated in the collaboration, and want to check the status of your NFT submission, you can visit https://distrokid.com/sellouts/me to see if your submission was chosen.
While we won't be generating or dropping any additional Sellouts NFT's for the time being, stay tuned for more NFT opportunities in the future!
Please note: Nifty Gateway and DistroKid each take a small processing fee from NFT each sale.
Additionally, no intellectual rights to the music come with Sellouts NFT ownership.
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Vizy is a music video generator that musicians can use to get videos to post their music on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and more.
Choose from 20 reactive and engaging templates that grab & keep your listeners' attention.
It's easy! Get started at Vizy.com.
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Each video generated by Vizy costs $8.99 for the first 5 minutes of any given song and 99-cents for each additional minute.
If you buy multiple sizes of one template at once, you'll get a 10% discount.
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To access the music videos you've generated with Vizy, log into your DistroKid account, and visit https://distrokid.com/videos/.
Please note that videos usually take about a day to create. We'll email you when it's done. 🙂
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You'll want to check out our Marcel Generator!
Head to https://distrokid.com/marcel to make your own!
These little videos are pretty cool and fun to share with your friends, but for a more professional look, check out Vizy.com for custom audio reactive visualizer videos for your music. ⚡️👽⚡️
More info on Vizy can be found here.
DistroLock makes it harder for anyone (who's not you) to upload your original music to streaming services.
Here's how it works:
Upload Your Music For Free.
Upload your original songs to DistroLock, or just send us the acoustic fingerprint.
We Secure The Fingerprint.
We note that the audio is "locked" when music services ask. Only you can unlock it.
You're Protected.
We also register your audio with other leading audio detection services.
DistroLock extracts an "acoustic fingerprint," logs it, and then deletes your audio from our servers. If you don't want to upload your music to DistroLock, you can generate fingerprints on your own computer using Chromaprint and just send those.
DistroLock can also register your music with leading public fingerprint databases. Some of these services can detect matches even if the audio has been sped up, pitch-shifted, or otherwise altered. Many music services utilize these services to block unauthorized releases, including YouTube, DistroKid, SoundCloud, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitch, and others.
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DistroLock works best for music that has not yet been distributed. Previously released music may already be in public audio databases, which means it can't be locked by anyone.
The good news: If *you’re* the one who previously distributed it, you already have some protection. That's because responsible stores & distributors may cross-reference their new uploads with public audio databases, and reject unauthorized releases of your music.
Note: Songs with publicly-available audio (generic loops, sounds, and samples) may be rejected by DistroLock. That's because those are sounds everyone is allowed to use - which may trigger positive identifications with other peoples' music.
Hope this helps and thanks for trying DistroLock.
Go to articleSlaps is a music social network for artists and people who love music.
Artists on Slaps usually get quick feedback on their original music.
Check it out.
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You do! DistroKid does not take any ownership or intellectual property rights from artists. You keep 100% ownership.
You must be 18 years of age or older to sign up for DistroKid, per our Distribution Agreement.
If you're younger than that, please have an adult sign up on your behalf.
Go to articleThis is not legal advice, and we are not your lawyer. But... under the present copyright law, which became effective January 1, 1978, a work is automatically protected by copyright when it is created. A work is created when it is “fixed” or embodied in a copy or phonorecord for the first time. Neither registration in the Copyright Office nor publication is required for copyright protection under the law.
There are, however, certain advantages to registration, including the establishment of a public record of the copyright claim. Copyright registration must generally be made before an infringement suit can be brought. Timely registration may also provide a broader range of remedies in an infringement suit.
For more information, visit http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ50.pdf
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Please see our Terms of Service & Distribution Agreement below.
DistroKid is non-exclusive.
If you'd like to distribute some (or all) of your works with a different distributor in addition to, or instead of, DistroKid--you're welcome to do that.
Betcha won't want to though!
DistroKid is constantly working to ensure that our users are only uploading content they have 100% rights to. If someone has uploaded your music/photos/artwork to DistroKid without your permission, please reach out to us here, with a link to the release, and we'll get you in touch with our Claims Department.
If you have received a DMCA Takedown notice from DistroKid, and would like to provide a counterclaim to the initial takedown notice, you can submit your counterclaim here.
If someone has uploaded your intellectual property using a service other than DistroKid, that's unfortunately not something that we can help with. However, you can reach out to each streaming service with a DMCA takedown request. You might need to Google around for each service's process regarding a DMCA Takedown, but here are several links to processes that we're aware of: