Distrokid, Tunecore, Cdbaby: Prices, Costs & Hidden Fees

Distrokid’s Yearly Plans Price

Distrokid has 3 plans and no free plan:

• Musician: $24.99 per year
• Musician Plus: $39.99 per year
• Ultimate: $89.99+ per year (for labels)

Local Currency

You will pay the dollar amount and it will be converted to your local currency with added conversion costs (and taxes if applicable).

Distrokid plans overview (old prices screenshot)

• Distrokid’s Musician plan offers you an unlimited amount of uploads (singles and albums) for $24.99 per year.
• Distrokid’s Musician Plus plan offers you additional features at the cost of doubling its price, $39.99 per year.
• Distrokid’s Ultimate plan is for labels, you get a bigger discount the more artists you register, a total of 100 artists can be registered this way.

$24.99 per year is Distrokid’s pricing for its basic plan without any additional features. Everything on top of that will be covered in the hidden fees part below.

Distrokid’s Flat Costs

The yearly flat $24.99 doesn’t change, you pay it once and you are free to release as much singles and albums as you wish for the next 12 months.

Example

You release an album and pay the $24.99 for the yearly plan. You paid a total of $24.99 so far. Now, you release a second album, you already paid for the year, so you will have to pay $0. The total you paid is still $24.99, and so on.

This is how unlimited releases for a flat fee work.

Distrokid’s Hidden Fees

Distrokid wont take a percentage cut off your music sales or streaming, you will keep 100%, except for YouTube where they take a 20% cut.

Publishing Administration

Distrokid does not provide a publishing service, meaning they can’t act as your publishing administration.

Now, doesn’t $24.99 per year for unlimited releases without taking a cut sound a little bit too good to be true?

Welcome, to the pay-per-feature business model:

• $0.99 per song per year to be on extra discovery platforms that can identify your song (like Shazam).
• $7.95 per album per year to be added to new stores that they get a partnership with, after your release.
• You don’t get in the YouTube Content ID for free, $4.95 per single or $14.95 per album, per year. On top of that they take a 20% cut of your YouTube Ad revenue.
• 20% fee on YouTube Creator Music sync licensing (more info in the next section).
• Many other costly features available on their official page, I kept my list short and relevant.

Example 1

You release your first album and want it in the YouTube CID and in new stores. You will have to pay $24.99 + $14.95 + $7.95 = $47.89 per year.

Example 2

You paid $47.89, now you release your second album and you also want it in the YouTube CID and in new stores. You already paid the yearly plan, so you will have to pay $14.95 + $7.95 = $22.9. The total yearly amount that both your albums will cost you is now: $47.89 + $22.9 = $70.79 per year.

If you don’t want any extra features, then $24.99 per year is what you will have to pay.

Distrokid YouTube Content ID

To monetize your music on YouTube you will have to pay for the Distrokid extra called YouTube Content ID (or be YouTube partnered and take care of your own monetization).

Like I said in the hidden fees part, it’s $4.95 per single or $14.95 per album, per year. Plus a 20% cut of your YouTube Ad revenue.

Channel & Video Whitelisting

Distrokid lets you whitelist YouTube channels and specific videos. This removes all audio claims from the channels or videos that you add the link of in their allowlist.

YouTube Creator Music

If you add the yearly payed feature for the YouTube CID to your release, then you can also add the new Distrokid YouTube Creator Music feature at no extra cost.

It basically comes with it, at least they didn’t make it an X extra payed feature.

Also, since Distrokid does not have a publishing administration, this allows them to do some syncs through YouTube.

Sync License Pricing

Distrokid did even disclose the license prices that are based on the buyer’s YouTube channel subscribers (YPP needed, license usage is per video):

• 1k to 100k subs: $9.99 per license
• 100k to 500k subs: $24.99 per license
• 500k to 5m subs: $39.99 per license
• 5m+ subs: $74.99 per license

Distrokid will take a 20% fee on the YouTube Creator Music sync license price.

Tunecore’s Free Music Distribution Plan

Tunecore no longer has a free plan as of May 2025.

Tunecore offers you a free plan which will deliver your music to socials platforms only:

Update: They removed the free YouTube CID and Facebook. They also added a 3 track limit.

• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Tiktok

They will collect a fee of 20% of what you earn on all platforms.

Tunecore’s Yearly Plans

Tunecore has 3 different yearly plans with different features you can choose from, the first 2 are aimed at independent artists, while the last one is for labels:

• Rising Artist $22.99 per year
• Breakout Artist $39.99 per year
• Professional $49.99 per year + $14.99 per artist

Local Currency

In the top navigation menu of their webpage you can choose your country and see prices in your local currency.

Each plan gives you unlimited singles and albums uploads per year after you pay it once. As an independent artist, choosing Breakout over Rising is up to you, here are the additional features you’d get:

• Store automator (your music will be release to all new stores that they get a partnership with, after your initial release).
• Daily trends reports (daily analytics of Spotify, Amazon and Apple). You can also see this with your verified artist channels on those platforms.
• Cover art creator (as the name suggests, you can create or edit album cover art with this tool).

Tip

If you only care about big platforms, you will be completely fine with the Rising Artist plan priced at $22.99 per year.

Claim your Spotify for Artist page, your Amazon for Artist page and your Apple for Artist page to have access to all analytics without having to pay double the price.

$22.99 per year is Tunecore’s pricing for their cheapest plan.

Tunecore’s Flat Costs

The new Tunecore flat costs are very interesting for independent music artists. You can release as much music as you wish for the next 12 months.

Example

You release your first album, choose the Rising Artist plan and pay $22.99. You paid a total of $22.99. Now, you release a second album. Since you already paid the yearly plan, you will have to pay $0 extra.

An unlimited amount of releases for $22.99 per year.

Tunecore’s Hidden Fees

Do you expect it to be really bad here? Surprisingly, it’s not.

Tunecore’s new free and flat-fee yearly plans introduced a 20% fee on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok revenues.

There are no additional fees on top of that, you’ll keep 100% from all sales and music streaming on other platforms.

In December 2023, Tunecore announced that they will take an extra 20% cut of what your songs generate in their Tunecore Accelerator program (more information about this in the “Spotify Discovery Mode” section later at the bottom of the article).

Publishing Administration

If you want Tunecore to also be your publishing administration, there is a one time registration fee of $75 and they will keep 15% of your publishing royalties. You can then opt-in for sync licensing and Tunecore will take a 50% sync commission.

Extra Paid Features (optional)

Some additional hidden fees come in the form of extra features (optional):

• Apple Music Dolby Atmos is $16.99 per track.
• BeatPort is an extra store for $7.99 per month billed annually.

A $15 fee to setup an iTunes pre-order.

Tunecore YouTube Content ID

Tunecore’s YouTube CID is a free feature in paid plans. Using it will allow Tunecore to monetize your music on YouTube.

As of August 2024, just don’t except your new tracks to actually enter it anymore. Read my changelog.

Channel Whitelisting

Tunecore lets you whitelist your whole YouTube channel by linking it to your Tunecore account. You can choose whenever you want to opt-in or opt-out. But, you cannot whitelist specific videos.

YouTube Creator Music

Tunecore now has an option to send your music to the new YouTube partnered program library (only people part of the YPP can license your music).

Tunecore YouTube Creator Music seems to be part of the new free feature called Tunecore Accelerator. But, to opt-in your catalog, you’ll have to sign-up for their publishing administration first (see the section above).

Sync Licensing

Tunecore takes a 50% fee on the YouTube Creator Music sync licenses that people buy. They didn’t disclose their prices but you can refer to the previous Distrokid ones for a close approximate.

Cdbaby’s Single And Album Prices

Cdbaby has not switched to unlimited releases, unlike Distrokid and Tunecore. Additionally, Cdbaby does not offer a free plan.

This is Cdbaby’s pricing per single and per album:

• Single $9.99
• Pro Single $49.99
• Album $14.99
• Pro Album $49.99
• CDB Boost $39.99, on top of the initial $9.99 price

CDB Boost is the new name for the Pro Publishing, it’s still the same price: $9.99 + $39.99 = $49.98.

The change from Pro Publishing to CDB Boost is both a cover-up for removing features of standard releases and an attempt of driving some new sales (more in “Publishing Administration” and “Cdbaby’s Hidden Fees” below).

Local Currency

You will pay in $USD. The UK price in £ and EU price in € will be converted by your bank/PayPal with conversion fees.

Publishing Administration

Adding CDB Boost makes Cdbaby your publishing administration, they will register your songs to performing rights organizations like BMI or ASCAP and global royalty collections. It is something you can register on your own.

Also since August 2023 the digital performance royalties (the ones from radios like Pandora) you get from SoundExchange are now no longer part of new standard releases. But you can also just register to SoundExchange yourself.

If you pay for an album you also have the choice to use CD or vinyl manufacturers (not included in the price).

$9.99 per release is Cdbaby’s pricing for singles and $14.99 for albums (was also $9.99 for a while) if you don’t add CDB Boost.

Cdbaby’s Flat Costs

The good thing about Cdbaby’s pay-per-release system is that you pay once and you are done. No yearly payement, only a one time payement.

Example

You release an album, you pay $14.99 and that’s it. You release a second album, you pay the same amount again.

Now, while this is the only direct payement that you will have to make, Cdbaby’s fees and hidden fees are hitting hard.

Here they come.

Cdbaby’s Hidden Fees

The UPC barcode is now permanently free since the promotion ended on February 14, 2023. They used to sell it for $5 per single and $20 per album (which was a significant hidden fee).

Here are all Cdbaby’s fees:

• 9% on all your sales and music streaming
• 30% on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok revenues
• $4 on physical sales (CD or Vinyl)
• 15% of publishing royalties (if you add CDB Boost)
• 40% on sync placements and YouTube Creator sync licenses.

You now need CDB Boost to opt-in syncs. They are no longer part of standard releases after August 8th, 2023. Releases before that date are unchanged.

Only the 9% fee is displayed on their pricing page (you will have to scroll down), while the remaining fees are hidden and are only listed on the previous page that I linked you to.

In a similar way, when the UPC barcode was not free, it was also not prominently displayed.

Legacy Information

Cdbaby and Tunecore were pretty close competitors before the new Tunecore pricing. Cdbaby was better if you had low streams and Tunecore was better if you had a high amount of streams.

Cdbaby YouTube Content ID

Cdbaby’s YouTube monetization option is a free feature that you can opt-in per release (after you pay for your release, of course).

No Channel Whitelisting

Cdbaby doesn’t offer YouTube channel whitelisting. While they did in the past, nowadays they just say that they “can’t” (source: my own emails).

It’s not that they can’t, it’s that they don’t want to. So, on your end you will have to dispute every single video claim, which is very time consuming.

YouTube Creator Music

It was confirmed early 2023 that Cdbaby got an early access to the new YouTube partner library, see their LinkedIn post about Cdbaby YouTube Creator Music.

As of August 2023, the sync is no longer part of standard releases, so CDB Boost is now required for YouTube Creator sync licenses.

Sync Licensing

Unless stated otherwise in the future, Cdbaby takes 40% on YouTube Creator Music sync licensing. Like Tunecore, they didn’t disclose their prices, so you can refer to the previous Distrokid ones to get an idea.

A Realistic Artist Payout

I will be taking some close to real values here, rounding numbers to make it easy to read and understand.

Let’s say that your average payout per stream on streaming platforms is $0.003, that means $3 every 1000 streams.

And your average payout per stream on social platforms is $0.001, that means $1 every 1000 streams.

This is your first year and your first album. You got 100,000 streams on Spotify (example of a streaming platform), making your payout $300.

And you got 100,000 streams on YouTube (example of a social platform), adding $100.

Your total payout is $400, now let’s see what is left after each digital distributor costs and fees:

• You chose Distrokid:
  • Without paying for the YouTube CID: your payout will be $400 minus the yearly $24.99 flat fee and minus the $100 you didn’t get from the YouTube CID because you didn’t opt-in. That makes it $275.01.
  • With the $14.95/year/album YouTube CID: your payout will be $400 minus the yearly $24.99 flat fee, minus the $14.95 added feature and minus the 20% YouTube fee (20% of $100 is $20). That makes it $340.09.
• You chose Tunecore:
  • All your Spotify streams are from the Discovery Mode (20% fee on Tunecore only, more about this in a later section): your payout will be $400 minus the yearly $22.99 for the Rising Artist plan, the 20% Spotify Discovery Mode fee (20% of $300 is $60) and the 20% fee on YouTube. That makes it $297.01.
  • None of your Spotify streams are from the Discovery Mode: same but without the Discovery fee. That makes it $357.01.
  • Extra: Tunecore doesn’t want you in the YouTube CID (their system flags wrongly almost everything). No YouTube money for you. That makes it $217.01 for the first case and $277.01 for the second case.
• You chose Cdbaby: your payout will be $400 minus the $14.99 album cost and 9% + 30% fees. That makes it 400-(14.99+300×0.09+100×0.3) = $328,01.
• A new alternative: LANDR (you kept 100% royalties)
  • You chose LANDR BASIC (no YouTube CID anymore) using my referral link to get 20% off: your payout will be $400 minus the yearly discounted $19.19 and minus the $100 that you don’t get from YouTube, that’s $280.81. Without my referral link, it’s minus $23.99, that’s $276.01.
  • You chose LANDR PRO (includes YouTube CID): your payout will be $400 minus the yearly $35.99 (referral), that’s $364.01. Or minus $44.99 (no referral), that’s $355.01.

LANDR had the YouTube CID part of the BASIC plan for a limited period of time which made it, by far, the best plan. LANDR PRO is still the best one you can get, with its highest possible payout of $364.01.

Even though Tunecore seems to be the second highest payout, having all or no streams on Spotify Discovery is unrealistic. Read Tunecore’s payout as a range: $297.01 to $357.01, and take the middle value as an average: $327.01.

Here’s a condensed payout range version:

• LANDR PRO (YT CID): $355.01 (no ref), $364.01 (referral)
• Distrokid (YT CID): $340.09
• CDBaby: $328.01
• Tunecore (YT CID): $297.01 to $357.01 (based on Spotify Discovery amount of streams), average: $327.01
• LANDR BASIC (no YT CID): $276.01 (no ref), $280.81 (referral)
• Distrokid (no YT CID): $275.01
• Tunecore (no YT CID): $217.01 to $277.01, average $247.01

Note: Cdbaby doesn’t have Tunecore’s false flagging issue for the CID, so it’s always included (they did kick the whole classical genre out tho).

Winner of the highest payout with YouTube CID: LANDR

Winner of the highest payout without YT CID: LANDR

Legacy Information

Cdbaby had a limited time offer from August 2022 to February 2023 for $4.99 an album with a free UPC barcode. This didn’t remove the fees which were the biggest issue, but made the payout more inline with their competitors and was an experiment. In the end, for their permanent prices after the promo ended: they kept the UPC free and doubled the previous promo prices.

The Best Music Distributor For You

To summarize what I just said in the payout comparison:

• If you want the highest payout and already have a monetized YouTube channel: go for Distrokid or LANDR (you keep 100% of royalties on both).
• If you don’t have a monetized YouTube channel and want a free YouTube CID service: go for Tunecore.
• If you don’t have a monetized YouTube channel, LANDR is the best choice, better then Tunecore, since the later now makes it impossible to enter the YouTube CID and takes 20% on other socials.
• There is no evolving scenario (meaning: growing artist) where choosing Cdbaby is better then the others. Your per-release payout will just become lower and lower the more you release the same year. If you make $1,000,000 on Spotify, Cdbaby takes 9% which is $90,000; keep this in mind.

For starters: you can go for either Distrokid or LANDR. LANDR packs a lot of features that are paywalled by Distrokid, currently making LANDR a much better choice. Tunecore was good when they switched to unlimited but they kept increasing their price over and over and adding additional hidden fees. Also, don’t waste your earnings, getting drained by Cdbaby’s high fees.

For intermediate/experts: if you have a high presence on social platforms, then Distrokid or LANDR letting you keep 100% of revenue instead of Tunecore 80% will be better for you (your YouTube channel needs to be partnered, because everyone takes 20% on YouTube).

Once you’ve unlocked the “Spotify Discovery Mode” it is also better to switch to Distrokid or LANDR because Tunecore introduced a 20% fee on that and prevents you from picking your tracks (more about that in the next section).

Music Takedown If You Stop Paying

Distrokid and Tunecore will takedown your music from all platforms if you cancel your subscription or if you don’t renew your yearly plan.

Cdbaby will not takedown your music, because you already pay per release and not on a annual basis. You pay once and it’s out there forever.

LANDR will not takedown your music if you stop paying, but instead of keeping 100% of royalties you will keep 85%.

Spotify Discovery Mode

In short, Spotify’s Discovery Mode boosts your selected songs in Radio & Autoplay, and Spotify takes a 30% extra cut of the royalties.

When using either Distrokid, Cdbaby or LANDR, and meeting the eligibility requirements of Spotify’s Discovery Mode, this feature will appear in your Spotify for Artists dashboard.

Most recently with the launch of the Tunecore Accelerator program, Tunecore can now also use this feature, but it wont be through Spotify for Artists.

On Tunecore, if you opted in the Accelerator program, some of your songs will be automatically selected. As of December 2023, Tunecore now takes a 20% cut of what your songs are getting from Spotify’s Discovery Mode.

Important: While Cdbaby, Distrokid and LANDR use the conventional way, Tunecore’s version doesn’t give you any control over the selected tracks. I have also confirmed with my own account that the eligibility on Tunecore for this feature is different: while I had it working on Cdbaby since December 2023, it started on Tunecore in March 2024.

My guess on what happened: Tunecore has a 3-month delay to report those stats, between December 2023 and March 2024 there are 3 months, thus the feature only working since then on Tunecore.

My Personal Take

Updated: I have personally used Cdbaby for my albums before the new Tunecore unlimited plans. I will be switching to Tunecore (I did) for my next ones. Distrokid’s pay-per-feature business model isn’t really attractive. I’ve switched all stuff from Tunecore to LANDR.

Every single or album you release the same year adds up to the gap between Cdbaby and the other 3. The fees don’t make it better in the long run, in fact, they make it way worse.

With Cdbaby fees, the more streams you get, the more you’ll pay. Repeating this: “If you make $1,000,000 on Spotify, Cdbaby takes 9% which is $90,000”.

Just to make things very clear: even IF Cdbaby gave you FREE releases, it would still be BETTER to PAY for Tunecore, Distrokid or LANDR, because of the current FEES.

Tunecore had a very close system, they changed it for a far better one.

And that “better one” was the Distrokid unlimited release system.

LANDR has also adopted it.

January 2023: Added a direct follow-up article about SoundCloud for music distribution.

October 2024: Follow-up article about LANDR for music distribution.