Formatting Details
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What Audio File Formats Can I Upload?
Audio files you upload to DistroKid should be WAV, MP3, M4A, FLAC, AIFF, or Windows Media (WMA). If you're sending a WAV, 16-bit, 44.1 kHz WAV is typical, but pretty much any sp...
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What Are the Requirements for Album Artwork?
Album artwork should be in the .jpg file format. The minimum size requirement for album art is 1000x1000 pixels. Ideally, album art should be perfectly square, and 3000x3000 pix...
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Uploading a Song/Album/Artist name in All Capital or Lowercase Letters
It's possible to enter the capitalization/stylization that you want for your artist name and all album and release titles. Please note that some streaming services don't love no...
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Understanding Artist Roles
Artist roles are identifiers you can use to indicate to services what role a given artist played in the creation or performance of a given release. These roles can be indicated ...
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Adding a Featured Artist to a Track
It's possible to add a featured artist to track during the upload process under the "Track" section of the upload form, or after upload via an edit request submitted from the al...
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Why Are Lossless Formats Like WAV and FLAC Better Than MP3?
Lossless formats such as WAV and FLAC are better than MP3 because they offer higher quality sound reproduction than MP3. They retain more of the original details and nuances of ...
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Uploading a Collaboration Between Multiple Artists
It is possible to upload collaborations at both the album level and the track level with DistroKid. Album level collaborations are releases in which all tracks are credited to ...
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Opting into Loudness Normalization
DistroKid's upload form includes a checkbox for "Loudness Normalization." When you select this optional album extra, DistroKid will automatically adjust the level and headroom o...
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Release and Track Title Formatting Issues
Streaming services don't accept song titles that contain any of the following: Too much extra information Strange things in parentheses Odd punctuation Dates or years Primary a...
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Uploading a Clean and Explicit Version of the Same Song
It's possible to upload both a clean and explicit version of a song within the same release. To do so, you can utilize the "Explicit lyrics" section of the upload form for an ex...
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Specifying Your Upload as Previously Released
On the DistroKid upload form, you'll see the "Has this single been previously released?" section. Using this section will allow you to deliver your release to services and have ...
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Genre Selection on the Upload Form
When uploading a release to DistroKid, you must choose a primary genre for your release. You may also optionally select a secondary genre. The available selection of genres on t...
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Available Languages for DistroKid Uploads
Under the "Language" section of the DistroKid upload form, you are able to select the language for your release from a list of languages. The list contains all of the languages ...
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Can I Have Songs With Different Languages in the Same Album?
Albums on DistroKid cannot contain songs in different languages. You must use uniform language throughout album/track titles to match the language selected when uploading. To re...
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How Streaming Services Categorize Singles, EPs, and Albums
Most services categorize singles, EPs, and albums based on the number of tracks in the release. Broadly, here is how they are categorized: Singles: Most services consider a rele...
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Marking Music as Explicit
When uploading your music to DistroKid, you will need to indicate whether each track is explicit, or is clean and always has been. Generally, a release must be considered explic...
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What's the Maximum Number of Tracks That Can Be on an Album?
By default, the max number of tracks that can be uploaded for an album is 35. If you have a need for a higher track number limit, please contact our support team.
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How do I upload songs with licensed samples from Tracklib?
Tracklib is a service that helps artists with sample clearances. For more information, see https://www.tracklib.com/howitworks/ Tracklib requires you to add royalty@tracklib.com...
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Why Is My Record Label Name Listed as "123456 Records DK" (Or Some Other Number)?
Your record label may be listed as a number followed by "Records DK" if you don't specify a record label name when uploading to DistroKid (you must have the Musician Plus or Ult...
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Do I Have to Fill Out the Label Field in a Musician Plus or Ultimate Account, When I Upload Music?
If you have a Musician Plus or Ultimate subscription, you can customize the "label" field on all of your uploads. The label field is optional to fill out. If you don't input a l...
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Using a Label Name as an Artist Name
It is not possible to use your label's name as an artist name when uploading music to DistroKid. Streaming services require that you enter your actual artist name in the artist ...
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Can I Specify That Some Songs Are Available as "Album Only?"
No, DistroKid doesn't currently support this.
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Is It Necessary to Embed Metadata Into My Tracks Before Upload?
It is not necessary to embed any metadata like track titles, genre, ISRC, or cover art into your audio files before you upload them to DistroKid. All information that is relevan...
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Mastering Questions
Please consult a mastering engineer for tips about mastering your tracks. We're just a distributor :) Once you have your masters ready to go, upload away!
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Can I Upload Soundtracks?
Yes! There are some formatting guidelines that Soundtrack releases should follow. The Soundtrack genre is for film, TV, game, and theater soundtracks, and does not apply to cove...
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