Distribution: Getting Your Music Everywhere
Choose the right distributor and get your music on every streaming platform. A practical guide to digital distribution.
Digital distribution is how independent artists get their music onto streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, and hundreds of others. A distributor acts as the middleman between you and the platforms. You upload your track, artwork, and metadata to the distributor, and they deliver it to every major streaming service. Without a distributor, there is no way to get your music onto these platforms independently.
The major independent distributors include DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby, Ditto, AWAL, and Amuse. They differ in pricing, features, and revenue splits. DistroKid charges a flat annual fee and lets you upload unlimited releases. TuneCore charges per release but offers additional services. CD Baby charges a one-time fee per release and takes a small commission. Research the current pricing and features of each before committing, as these change frequently.
Your release metadata matters more than you think. The track title, artist name, genre tags, ISRC codes, and UPC codes are all metadata that platforms use to categorise and recommend your music. Get your artist name consistent across all platforms. Write a compelling track description. Choose genre tags accurately — do not tag your folk song as hip-hop because it has more listeners. Incorrect metadata confuses the algorithms and hurts your discoverability.