LANDR Music Distribution: Prices, Costs and Hidden Fees
Last Revised:
2025-06-27
(YYYY-MM-DD)
Should you choose LANDR as your music distributor?
I’m a music composer using distribution services. In my original article, I’ve talked about Distrokid, Tunecore and Cdbaby; in a follow-up article I’ve added SoundCloud to the table; it is now time for a new competitor: LANDR.
LANDR has now adopted unlimited plans and is offering you to keep 100% of your royalties just like Distrokid.
For an equivalent price to Distrokid, LANDR does pack a lot more features that are paywalled by Distrokid.
In my article, I will provide you with a complete breakdown of LANDR’s music distribution service and I will reintroduce the previous article’s payout comparison that include all distributors.
At the end, I will also show you a short guide on how to join LANDR, with some screenshots, so you don’t get lost with the way they’ve presented their 5 plans.
Changelog
October 2024: Article created.
February 2025: Added an update in section 3.b about switching from another distributor.
June 2025: Social platform monetization has been moved to Pro and Studio plans.
June 2025: Updated payout comparison to align with the main article new values.
Table Of Contents
LANDR For Music Distribution
LANDR Plan Prices
LANDR has 2 music distribution plans, it also has 3 studio plans that include the distribution but they are much more expensive.
- LANDR Distribution Basic
For 23.99$/year, you can release an unlimited amount of songs.
As an indie artist, LANDR Distribution Basic is the best plan for you to start with and still best until you get pretty big on socials (Pro is then required, as of June 2025).
As of June 2025, social platform monetization (i.e. YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram) is no longer part of the Basic Plan. Pro or Studio is now required.
- LANDR Distribution Pro
For 44.99$/year ($89.98 with a 50% discount currently, looks permanent) you get additional features, for an overview you can click the previous link and scroll down their feature table.
Even with the social platforms moved to Pro, the Basic Plan is still the best one to get unless you a have a high presence (i.e. millions of streams) on social platforms.
LANDR Costs
Choosing the basic plan will cost you 23.99$/year, that’s all you will have to pay upfront and as a yearly renew (more about cancelling your subscription in a later section).
You can also get 20% off by using my referral link, which makes it $19.19 for the first year.
LANDR Hidden Fees
LANDR lets you keep 100% royalties on both streaming (e.g. Spotify) and social (e.g. Instagram) platforms.
Exception: every distributor, including Distrokid, takes a default 20% (or more) on YouTube, this does include LANDR also (20%).
If you cancel your subscription, the 100% royalty share turns into a 85/15, that’s a 15% fee (more about this in a later section).
LANDR vs Distrokid vs Tunecore vs CDBaby: Payout Comparison
Same Scenario
“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.”
These are now the simplified final results including LANDR (with YouTube CID) from my main article:
- LANDR PRO with my referral link: $364.01
- LANDR PRO: $355.01
- Distrokid: $342.09
- CdBaby: $333.01
- Tunecore: $327.01
When removing YouTube CID from all distributors, LANDR BASIC is also at top of the competition.
LANDR: A Strong Distrokid Alternative
LANDR letting you keep 100% of your royalties and coming with tons of features that would be expensive to pay for on Distrokid makes it the current best distribution service.
The following built-in features are the most relevant:
- No music takedown if you stop paying (payed feature on Distrokid “leave a legacy”)
- YouTube Content ID (Pro/Studio only, payed feature on Distrokid)
- No commissions on splits if the owner has a LANDR subscription (commission on Distrokid).
Additional Information
Does LANDR takedown your music is you cancel your subscription?
LANDR takes another approach than Distrokid or Tunecore with this, they do no take down your music if you either cancel or not renew your yearly subscription, but they turn the 100% royalty share into a 85/15 one.
This can be advantageous for you if you don’t have enough streams to pay for the subscription.
In the payout comparison above, you do have enough and it would be worse to not pay, 15% of $400 being $60.
How to join LANDR
After you click my referral link you will see a claim button, click it and it will redirect you to the LANDR signup page.
After signing up, LANDR will ask you some questions, you can either complete this information or skip.
The next step is to select “distribution” because you land on the studio plans by default:
Select the first plan “Distribution Basic” here (or “Distribution Pro”).
Basic is completely fine to start with, you really don’t have to bother with the YouTube CID when starting out. You can upgrade to Pro once you have some presence (i.e. a million yearly streams at least) on YouTube.
After that, if you registered through my referral link, you’ll get a 20% off coupon in the checkout (it works on any plan):
Make sure it says “Subscribe to Distribution – Basic Plan” or “Pro Plan”.
If you see a monthly price you have selected a Studio plan by mistake.
LANDR also makes it easy to switch distributors with a tool to export your releases metadata, give it a try.
Update: I have moved my singles from Tunecore to LANDR, the whole process was pretty smooth. LANDR has, by far, the best user interface. When switching distros, a screenshot of your release on your previous one will be required.