DistroKid pricing explained: plans, extras and fees

DistroKid pricing in 2026: the short answer

DistroKid pricing starts at $24.99/yr for the Musician plan, which covers unlimited releases under one artist or band name and keeps 0% of your store royalties. Two higher plans, Musician Plus and Ultimate, add more artist names and extra features. On top of any plan, DistroKid sells optional album extras charged per release, such as the Social Media Pack for YouTube Content ID and Leave a Legacy, which keeps a release in stores if you stop paying. A solo artist who skips the extras pays the plan price and nothing else. These are US prices from DistroKid’s pricing page and help center, checked Sep 24, 2026.

Three things decide what you’ll actually pay, and none of them is how many songs you upload:

1. How many artist names you release under. One name fits Musician. A second name pushes you up a plan.
2. Which extras you add, and to how many releases. Extras bill per release, so they grow with your catalog while the plan price doesn’t.
3. Who you split money with. A collaborator without a DistroKid subscription costs someone a yearly fee.

If you’re one person releasing under one name, with no producer on a split and no plans for YouTube money, stop reading here. Your bill is the plan price.

Since the plan you need comes down to artist names, start with the plans.

DistroKid plans: Musician, Musician Plus and Ultimate

DistroKid has three plans, and the main difference between them is how many artist names you can release under. Musician covers one artist or band for $24.99/yr. Musician Plus covers two names and adds synced lyrics on Apple Music, daily streaming stats, a custom label name, and custom release and preorder dates. Ultimate starts at five artist names and adds advanced analytics, a playlist contact search, the option to replace a song’s audio after release, and 1,000 GB of file sharing. Every plan includes unlimited uploads and keeps 0% of store royalties. All three are billed yearly, even though the pricing page also shows a monthly figure.

Here’s the full list from DistroKid’s pricing page, as of Sep 24, 2026:

Ultimate is built for managers and small labels. DistroKid’s help center describes Ultimate plans for up to 100 artists, and the $89.99 figure is the entry point, so check the price for your artist count at checkout.

Most people reading this will end up on Musician, so here’s what that plan actually includes.

The DistroKid Musician plan: what’s included

The DistroKid Musician plan is DistroKid’s entry subscription: $24.99/yr for unlimited song uploads under one artist or band name. It includes lyrics, royalty splits for collaborators, the mobile app and the free promo tools every plan gets, such as HyperFollow links. DistroKid keeps 0% of your store royalties on it. The Musician plan doesn’t include YouTube Content ID or any protection for your releases if the subscription lapses. Both are sold as album extras, per release. The one hard limit is the artist name: releasing under a second name needs a bigger plan.

“Unlimited” means what it says. Ten singles cost the same as one, and an album costs the same as a single. That’s the whole appeal if you release often.

The name limit catches people in bands. If your band is on the plan and you start a solo project under your own name, that’s a second artist, and it won’t fit. DistroKid handles this with artist slots, and Musician has one.

What’s missing matters more than what’s included. Musician on its own doesn’t earn you anything from people using your song in YouTube or Instagram videos, and it doesn’t keep your songs up if you stop paying. Whether you need either one is covered further down.

The bigger question is whether Musician is enough for you, or whether the upgrade is worth it.

Is the Musician plan on DistroKid enough?

TheDebutRoom’s view is that the Musician plan on DistroKid is enough for almost every solo artist, and that only two reasons justify upgrading to Musician Plus: a second artist name, or needing to set your own release and preorder dates. The other Musician Plus features are nice to have but don’t change what you earn. Daily streaming stats let you check numbers more often. A custom label name matters if you run a label. Synced lyrics show up on Apple Music, which is worth something only if your listeners are there. Upgrading to a plan you don’t use costs you the price difference every year you keep it, so start on Musician and move up when one of the two reasons applies.

Go through the Musician Plus list against your own plans:

• You release under two names (a band and a solo project, or a real name and an alias). Upgrade. That’s what the plan is for.
• You want to pick your release day and run a preorder. Check this one closely. DistroKid’s pricing page lists customizable release and preorder dates as a Musician Plus feature, so if you plan pitches around a fixed date, it matters.
• You want daily stats. You’ll check them, feel something, and nothing will change. Weekly numbers are fine for planning.
• You want your own label name on releases. Only if there’s an actual label, or you plan to release other artists.

Here’s the honest worry behind most upgrades: that the cheaper plan is somehow second-class and your songs won’t get the same treatment. Nothing on DistroKid’s pricing page suggests that. Every plan lists the same unlimited uploads and the same 0% cut.

The plan is only half the bill. The other half is extras, charged per release.

DistroKid price for album extras

Album extras are optional add-ons that DistroKid charges per release, on top of whichever plan you’re on. The Social Media Pack collects money when your song is used in videos on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, including YouTube Content ID, and bills every year per release. Leave a Legacy keeps a release in stores if your subscription lapses or you cancel. Discovery Pack adds a release to music recognition databases such as Shazam and Gracenote. Store Maximizer sends a release to new stores as DistroKid adds them. You can add extras at upload or later from the release page. Because each extra is per release, the cost grows with your catalog, not with your plan. The source is DistroKid’s help center page on album extras, checked Sep 24, 2026.

Here’s what each one costs and when it’s worth it:

• Social Media Pack. $4.95 per single or $14.95 per album, every year, and DistroKid keeps 20% of what it collects. Before you buy it, read DistroKid’s Content ID eligibility rules. A song with leased beats, loops or sample pack sounds doesn’t qualify, and paying for it anyway is the most common way people waste money here. Our page on whether DistroKid allows samples covers that trap.
• Leave a Legacy. Bought per release. It doesn’t replace your yearly fee while you’re subscribed. It’s insurance for the day you stop.
• Discovery Pack. Gets a release into recognition databases, including the Gracenote data many car stereos use.
• Store Maximizer. Sends a release to stores DistroKid adds later without you re-uploading. Skip it unless you care about the smallest stores.
• Cover song license. Not an album extra, but it’s billed per song: $12/yr per cover song, with the songwriter’s mechanical royalty taken from sales on top.

The multiplying is what surprises people. One single on the Social Media Pack is pocket change. Twenty singles is twenty yearly charges, each renewing on its own.

Extras cover your releases. Other charges depend on who you work with and what you do beyond uploading.

DistroKid cost for collaborators, publishing and mastering

Beyond the plan and album extras, DistroKid charges for three optional services: covering a collaborator in Splits, DistroKid Publishing and Mixea mastering. A collaborator without a DistroKid subscription can’t withdraw their Splits share until someone pays, either you covering them for a yearly fee or them signing up with a 50% discount on their first year. DistroKid Publishing collects songwriting royalties and only accepts artists with 5 to 50 songs distributed through DistroKid. Mixea is DistroKid’s automated mastering, with the first track free, then a yearly subscription or a fee per track at upload. None of the three is required to release music. The terms come from DistroKid’s help center pages on Splits, Publishing and Mixea.

Splits. When you add someone who isn’t on DistroKid, the Splits page gives you two choices: pay $10 a year so they can collect without a subscription, or let them buy their own at half price for the first year. Picture a producer on 30% of one single who doesn’t want a DistroKid account. If that single earns a few dollars a year, $10 a year to pay them is more than their share. Talk about who covers the fee before release, not after.

DistroKid Publishing. It registers your songs with a performing rights organization and collection societies and pays into the same account. You need 5 to 50 songs out through DistroKid to qualify, so it’s not a first-single decision.

Mixea mastering. Your first mastered track is free, then it’s $99/yr for unlimited mastering. Without the subscription you can still pay per track at upload. If you release a single every couple of months, compare the per-track fee against the subscription before you pick.

With every piece priced, you can add it up for your own situation.

How much is DistroKid per year, really?

For a solo artist who skips every extra, DistroKid costs $24.99/yr whether you release one song or twenty, so the price per song drops the more you release. TheDebutRoom works out distributor costs over two years for the number of songs you actually plan to put out, because a yearly fee and per-release extras only compare fairly once that count is known. On DistroKid, three things push the total above the plan price: a Social Media Pack on each release you want monetized on YouTube and social video, Leave a Legacy on each release you want kept up for good, and a yearly fee for any collaborator you cover in Splits.

Three common setups, using DistroKid’s prices as of Sep 24, 2026:

1. Solo, six singles over two years, all built on sample packs. Two years of $24.99/yr and nothing else. The songs don’t qualify for Content ID, so the Social Media Pack would be money for nothing.
2. Solo, six singles over two years, every sound your own. Two years of the plan, plus a Social Media Pack at $4.95 per single for each year each single stays opted in. By year two that’s six yearly charges on top of the plan.
3. Duo with a producer on every song. If you release under two names, Musician Plus. If the producer won’t subscribe, add the $10 yearly Splits fee to cover them.

Two smaller things affect your cash, not your bill. You can’t pay DistroKid charges from your DistroKid earnings, so the renewal always hits a card. And you need $6 in your account before you can withdraw.

If the numbers don’t sit right, see how the price compares in our DistroKid vs TuneCore comparison (TuneCore includes Content ID in its plans) or in our roundup of the best music distribution services.

The last cost question is what happens when you stop paying.

What happens if you stop paying DistroKid

If you stop paying DistroKid, DistroKid gives you notice and then removes your releases from stores and streaming services, unless a release has the Leave a Legacy extra. You keep access to your account and still receive any earnings owed to you. If music comes down because a card failed, DistroKid restores the releases automatically once you update the card. Leave a Legacy has to be added to each release you want to protect, and it doesn’t replace the yearly fee while your subscription is active. Any release without it depends on the subscription staying paid. This is DistroKid’s policy as stated on its help center, checked Sep 24, 2026.

This is the cost people don’t think about until a card expires. The song your friends saved, the playlist spot it took months to get, all tied to one yearly charge. DistroKid’s page on a lapsed fee promises notice first, so it won’t vanish overnight, but it can go.

Think three years ahead. If you’ll keep releasing, the subscription renews and none of this comes up. If you might slow down, pick the few songs you’d want online no matter what and add Leave a Legacy to just those. Paying for it on every release is rarely worth it.

And if you only ever plan to release one or two songs, a yearly plan may not be the right shape at all. Our distribution hub covers the pay-once options.