DistroKid Review 2026: The Best Music Distribution for Beginners?

my biggest issue with them is lack of support - my experience with them is similar but are you sure support is the same as I cannot get?

Thank you for this video

Screw distrokid. I signed up with them, put some songs out, but after a month, I had some issues. I reached out and their support didn't respond for over a week. When I asked them how things were not working, they stated some BS, and decided not to upload any more of my songs. To hell with them.

hi. My subscription allows 2 artist album. I have already uploaded one. So if i upload another album by the same artist, will it count as 2 or still 1 artist?

Distrokid is an unreliable service. Their support never responds, and Distrobot doesn’t create tickets or connect you with a real person. If something goes wrong, you’re basically stuck - no one will reply.
I’ve earned money through the platform, but I’m having issues with payouts, and I can’t resolve them because I can’t reach their team. The bot just keeps sending me in circles without any real help.

I can’t see my money they say they don’t recognize something like password or phone number etc over and over again it’s a dead end when it comes to my money but always says I have money

DISTROKID SET A TRAP AND I FELL FOR IT – THIS IS NOT OKAY





I am absolutely furious right now, and I need to warn every single musician thinking about using DistroKid.



I'm on the Basic Plan. I still have 9 MONTHS LEFT that I already paid for. Today, I was curious about upgrading, so I clicked the "Upgrade" button just to SEE what the other plans cost. You know, like EVERY OTHER WEBSITE ON EARTH lets you do.



BIG MISTAKE.



As soon as I clicked that button, DistroKid IMMEDIATELY LOCKED ME OUT. I cannot upload any new music. Nothing. My account is frozen hostage.



I contacted support thinking, "Okay, this must be a glitch. They'll fix it." Nope. The agent flat-out told me: once you click Upgrade, your account is switched. You cannot upload again UNLESS you pay for the full upgrade cost right now. There is NO WAY to go back to your old plan. No "cancel." No "proceed to payment" confirmation. No "are you sure?" pop-up. ONE CLICK and you're trapped.



This is predatory. This is a trap.



Every single reputable online store has a shopping cart. They have a checkout button. They have a cancel order option. DistroKid has NONE of that. One click and they demand money, holding your own account hostage until you pay.



I still have 9 months of service I PAID FOR. They took my money, and now they're blocking me from using it because I was curious about their pricing? That is NOT how you treat customers. That is how you set a trap.



If you are on a plan you're happy with, DO NOT CLICK ANYTHING. Do not explore upgrades. Do not look at pricing. One wrong click and your account is dead until you pay up.



I am taking my music elsewhere after this. DistroKid just lost a customer forever.

I signed up with DK before I knew their logo was a vampire sperm.

Sir, it's been 20 days and none of my songs are being released. There are no issues, it's showing processing, and the release date has also passed. Please reply 🙏 (I use distrokid)

Kindly do a video on this Distrokid Social Media pack issue because a lot of artist would want to know about this before getting into Distrokid. They are currently paywalling the YouTube Shorts library by forcing you to buy their "Social Media Pack," which bundles Shorts access with Content ID. This totally ruins marketing for both AI artists and 100% human musicians. If you use AI to make music, buying this pack activates Content ID, which will falsely strike other videos and get your DK account banned. If you make 100% human music but refuse to pay the extra yearly fee, your tracks simply won't appear in the Shorts "Add Music" tool. Having random viewers use your song in their Shorts is the biggest way to grow and go viral right now. How can fans use your audio if DistroKid literally hides it from them? Other distributors add your music to Shorts for free, but DK is holding this essential viral marketing tool hostage just to squeeze more money out of us.

I appreciate you for doing this with clarity and demonstration. Would love to hear your thoughts on Distrokid's sale in the last few days and if that changes things for new musicians. :-)

Thanks for the info! Subscribed :)

Shill.

Does all of this work in africa

Lots of great ideas! Thank you for the info!

Are these tools available for all plans?

And what happens after the paid period ends? Distrokid deletes all downloaded releases from all platforms. So it's complete crap.

Hello, thanks for the video. But I have been contacting Distrokid for a while about my payments, only to get Ai responses without help. I use PayPal, but I can withdraw, yet my paypal is showing that it has no issue. This has been going on since 2022. Who do I contact apart from the robotic replies relating the same thing. I keep explaining to a robot and promising that someone will be attending to me within two hours, only to wait forever without anyone attending to you. Who can I contact about this, before I look for a better distributor.

Keep away from Distrokid, it's a huge scam

They change my plan without ask me , I when from 24 to 90 … they are scammers, don’t use it!!

Hello who is the band Dvilhena they have two songs I saw how you provided but I can't find anything else about them anything for information you can share would be appreciated the band has a nice hook

Hello DistroKid Support Team,

I hope you are doing well.

I am writing to ask for your help regarding my recent releases. My last two tracks have been in the yellow “processing” status for several days and have not gone live yet.

All details have been checked carefully:
• The artwork meets all requirements
• Track titles are correct
• Genres are selected correctly
• No errors are shown on my dashboard

However, both of my latest tracks are still showing as “processing” and have not appeared on streaming platforms.

Could you please check if there is any issue with these releases or let me know if anything is required from my side?

Thank you very much for your support.

Can I have an artist YouTube channel with distro kid? With Cdbaby, you can’t that’s why you wanna leave them… other words my Album is not on my personal YouTube channel, but it’s directed to another channel. Which is OK, but I want it in my personal channel so people don’t have to click too many links to find my new album.

Which you take on Cdbaby?

Good video very informative

So, you admit you use AI to create music. Got it.

I thought for the longest time DistroKid was the name of a person 😅

Very useful vid. I just signed up using your link.

Enjoyed your video and used your link, so thank you.

distrokid stole me 700 usd and they only said



Dani (DistroKid)



Oct 14, 2025, 22:46 EDT



Hi,



Hope you are well.



We've been notified by stores and streaming services that one or more of your releases has been rejected due to editorial discretion.



Unfortunately, stores are no longer accepting releases from you via DistroKid. You’ll need to try another distributor for future releases.



Please understand that DistroKid is unable to assist with reversing this and many DistroKid features have also been restricted as a result of this. We have no other information or context, and we are unable to get involved or take sides when this occurs. We’re just the messenger, passing along this info to you in hopes you find it helpful.



We understand that this email is probably frustrating to you, and we regret having to be the messenger of bad news. However, we hope this email is helpful, and we thank you for your understanding.

Excellent video, very informative, thanks!

90%+ Artificial Streams:

The release (and all tracks within it) will be automatically removed from Spotify.

50–90% Artificial Streams:

The artist receives a warning, but the release is not immediately taken down.

this is what happens when a bot creates a playlist and ur songs are on it,, if it is looped with ur and ur buddys are on it,,its GONE,,dont waste ur money,they blame distro,distro blames them,end effect it removed,,DONT do it,,save ur money

Can use PayPal payment to

Thanks. Cant believe how much of your knowledge your passing on in these vids.

I respect what you’re doing, Chris. You’ve helped a lot of artists and I know your heart’s in the right place. But I’ve been in this game for over 25 years, and my experience with DistroKid has been rough. I’ve had songs mysteriously taken down or flagged for reasons that make no sense. They don’t even tell me they’re flagged, but you can tell something’s going on when your music starts growing organically and suddenly things disappear.

The customer service feels robotic and it’s tough to get an actual person to help. I don’t care about keeping 100 percent of the royalties if the distributor can’t protect my catalog or communicate. CD Baby might take a small cut, but that’s a fair trade for real support and peace of mind.

I’m honestly curious how you’ve never run into any issues with millions of plays and playlist placements. Respect for what you’ve built, but my experience with DistroKid has been the total opposite.