How to Upload a Split Ep on Distro Kid

Today is a large day. As you guys know, I've tested all the music streaming distribution sites and have consistently ranked CDBaby as the best one, specifically for up-and-coming artists.

I finally got around to testing out Distrokid and have been using it for the concluding three months (on three releases) and in this mail will share with you lot the pros and cons of Distrokid.

Will DistroKid knock CD Babe off its music distribution throne? Let'due south become into the adept, bad and ugly…

Bad Things Almost DistroKid: Bad and Ugly

There really ain't another way to put it: It'southward definitely the ugliest of the bunch.

The vibe I get from the site is it it'south a i-man operation and that one human being is either purposefully making the site look bad (to make u.s.a. think he'south passing on the savings to us) or just completely ignoring basic design principles.

For example, this is the upload page:

Yikes! Now here's what happens when you click "Team".

I promise you're sitting down for this.

Are y'all still alive? I know, I know, everything is merely plain bad.

It's so bad, I almost didn't desire to sign up but then I saw that Derrik Sivers the founder of CD Baby, is recommending the site.

And since I appreciate Derrik'due south fashion of thinking, I was like "ah what the heck! Permit's give this a shot!".

I wish DistroKid either doubles down on bad design or just does the spider web two.0 style that's been in faddy for the final 10 years (*cough* just copy Tunecore).

This half-donkey chore, makes me experience similar they're going to run to the Caymans with my $48 in streaming revenue!

Upselling Me into Oblivion

I know trying to upsell your customers is the snazzy thing to practise in eCommerce, only it'due south not cool and doesn't feel human.

Especially when all your customers are musicians: our whole matter is trying to feel more human!

I mean, every song nosotros make is trying to bring some god damn humanity into this cold wired world, and y'all're doing this to me:

This doesn't make me feel more homo! Can't you lot just include this for free? And what happens when Distrokid dies?

Song Landing Page

It's nice that they provide this characteristic and if you don't know what it is, it's just a landing folio that has links to all the streaming services your song is on (Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Deezer, etc).

But it looks then ugly, there's no manner any artist should be sharing that with their fans. In fact, anytime I find a new artist and come across their link in bio is to Distrokid, I brace myself.

At that place's too a little button at the peak that says "Talk to me", which fans are supposed to use to message the artist. This is a useless distraction as it takes away from the users' flow (to listen to the song!).

For independent artists, the song landing folio, I like the well-nigh is the one from ToneDen.

It'southward the one with the link which will ordinarily get-go with fanlink.to.

It's free to apply and looks much better than the ane Distrokid provides.

The Thing Nigh Almanac Fees

This isn't a bad affair only could be a bad affair if you lot make information technology a bad thing: why are you making it a bad thing?

For artists who release one vocal every 10 years, paying an annual fee is not a expert idea (patently) and you'll want to stick with CDBaby.

Just for the rest of us who churn out songs weekly, Distrokid's interests marshal non only with our interests but also with Spotify'southward.

You see at that place is reason to believe that Spotify's algorithm rewards musicians who release music on a consistent and frequent basis.

This is why I recommend every artist, from major to mini, drop a song once a month (at the very to the lowest degree) and you'll encounter in the next paragraph how Distrokid makes this economical.

The Good Things About DistroKid!

While the design of the site makes me feel like they don't give a hoot almost me, the actual services Distrokid offers tells me they are legit and 100% for independent musicians.

Let'south get-go with the biggest benefit: pricing.

And this is something you better exist sitting down for.

For only $20 a yr, you tin upload UNLIMITED songs to Spotify, Apple tree Music, and the whole streaming services cartel.

$20 a yr!

Upload as many songs as you can brand!

With CDBaby and Tunecore, they ordinarily charge well-nigh $x per song. I don't get how they're going to compete with this, cause pretty websites own't going to cut it.

Oh, and did I mention yous keep 100% of your royalties.

I know this is sounding like an infomercial correct now. Just in my CD Infant vs Tunecore review, you can see exactly how much royalties they snip away from you lot.

And it's a lot higher than 0%.

We musicians should treat our royalties similar quondam men treat their backyard: go your damn self off my lawn!

Another thing Distrokid doesn't charge is for the UPC code, they just give information technology to you for free, which has always felt like a scam the other sites charged for.

Tik Tok Integration

Another do good, which I assume CD Baby et all, volition do is uploading your songs to TikTok.

If you oasis't heard of TikTok or don't care, download the app and put 100% of your social media content creation into it (specially if you lot are a musician) because at that place'southward a good chance yous'll go viral on your third post.

For me, I wanted my songs to get on TikTok so I could do empty-headed videos to them and Distrokid is the but i offer that service (and if others are they're non credible).

Distribution Speed

With CD Baby, it would take ii weeks to get a song on Spotify and with Distrokid, my songs were getting on within 1-three days. This isn't necessarily a good affair anymore, as to get on Spotify's playlists they recommend submitting the vocal two weeks before release.

I'd recommend submitting it even earlier, which means setting your release date 3 to 4 weeks in accelerate.

Withdrawing Earnings (Update: 2021)

Since I wrote this commodity, some people in the comments take mentioned they have had problem withdrawing their earnings and I found that a petty troubling. So what did I do? I withdrew my earnings from Distrokid to go an idea of the process. I had over $2000 USD to withdraw from Distrokid and information technology transferred without any problems. I likewise live in Canada then had to fill out the necessary forms (W8) and Distrokid and their payment partner Tipalti made it piece of cake to do so.

The just thing that is a little frustrating and this isn't a knock confronting Distrokid only one against the streaming services, is why does it take and then long to calculate and send our royalties? In well-nigh cases, information technology'south at least a ii-month wait. Don't computers do all the accounting? Why are you sitting on our money for months? LOL. Only I digress.

Bonus Tips

Now information technology should be pretty clear I recommend Distrokid over CD Baby, so here are some bonus tips to help you make the transition.

1) Go the $19.99 programme, instead of the cheaper $nine.99 plan, because yous can't choose your release date.

This is important for three reasons (and yep I fabricated all these mistakes, and so you lot don't accept to):

(A) You accept no idea when your music will exist released on all streaming sites as each streaming service has dissimilar processing times. So if you lot tell your fans your vocal will be out Friday, information technology might non be out on Apple Music until the following Monday.

(B) You won't be able to submit to Spotify's playlist as Spotify'due south editors won't have fourth dimension to review information technology. And you at least want to effort to become on a Spotify playlist, even though the chances are 0.02%.

(C) You can't set up your tape label name, and so on your release it'll say something ugly similar "Distrokid 1872047202".

two) If you lot've institute anything I've said today helpful, use my VIP LINK to sign upward for Distrokid. You'll go 7% off your membership and I'll get a small commission from Distrokid.

Have you made the switch to Distrokid? Let me know in the comments what your experience has been with them.

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Source: https://www.adgmastering.com/distrokid-review/

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