Whether you’re an artist or a record label trying to decide if a DistroKid Ultimate plan is right for you, I’ve thoroughly researched this topic and put my findings here to help you out.
DistroKid Ultimate (previously called ‘Label’) plans allow you to release unlimited song and album uploads for 5 to 100 artists to over 100 stores and streaming services while keeping 100% of your earnings and letting you easily split royalty payments.
There are 5 different tiers of DistroKid Ultimate plans that cost between $79.99USD and $1,199.99USD and allow you to release 5 to 100 artists depending on which tier you choose.
DistroKid Ultimate plans are perfect for anyone that wants to release music for other artists, releases music themselves under a lot of different artist names, or wants to releases lots of collaborations with other artists.
To learn more about DistroKid Ultimate music distribution plans, including how much they cost, what features you get, and if they are right for you, simply keep on reading, my friend. 🙂
P.S. To get a DistroKid Ultimate plan for the lowest possible price, make sure you learn about the DistroKid discount before signing up.
How Much Is A Ultimate Account On DistroKid?
Whether you are an actual record label, want to release music under multiple artist names, or just want to be prepared for the future, one of DistroKid’s Ultimate plans may be the perfect fit for you.
DistroKid Ultimate plans cost between $79.99USD and $1,199.99USD and allow you to release unlimited song and album uploads for 5 to 100 artists. Label plans let you keep 100% of your earnings, split royalty payments easily, and upload to over 100 stores & streaming services.
In total, there are 5 tiers available when it comes to DistroKid Ultimate plans with the only difference being the price and the number of artists that you can release music for.
The number of artists ranges from 5 all the way up to 100:
| Plan Name | Price | # of Artists |
|---|---|---|
| Ultimate 5 | $79.99 USD | 5 |
| Ultimate 10 | $139.99 USD | 10 |
| Ultimate 20 | $239.99 USD | 20 |
| Ultimate 50 | $599.99 USD | 50 |
| Ultimate 100 | $1,199.99 USD | 100 |
It is also important to note that DistroKid refers to the # of artists as “Artist Slots” and a single Artist Slot is taken up in your account whenever you submit a release with a unique artist name attached to the song.
For each song you submit, 1 artist slot is taken up for each main artist, primary artist, featured artist, and/or remixer on the song.
Why this is important is because if you want to release a collaboration with another artist, that will take up 2 slots (or 1 artist slot per collaborator).
If you want to release a remix, attaching the remixer’s artist name to the track will take up an additional artist slot.
Adding songwriter credits or anything behind the scenes is fine, it is when you add a public-facing artist name that an Artist Slot is taken up in your account.
Here is an example of DistroKid Artist Slots work:
| Song Submitted | Artist Slots Taken |
|---|---|
| Song by Artist A | 1 |
| Song by Artist A, Artist B | 2 |
| Song by Artist A (Artist B Remix) | 2 |
| Song by Artist A, Artist B (Artist C Remix) | 3 |
This means that you may want to consider a Ultimate plan if you are a label or have multiple artist names or aliases.
But this also means you may want to consider the Label plan if you want to release multiple collaborations with multiple different artists or do multiple remixes.
Choose A DistroKid Ultimate Plan If…
Any of the DistroKid Ultimate plans may be right for you if you:
- Are a label (duh hehe)
- Release music under a lot of different artist names
- Need to release music for other artists
- Want to do lots of collaborations with lots of other artists
If any of those resonate with you, then one of these higher-tier DistroKid plans will be perfect for you.
Basically, if you need those extra artist slots for any reason, a Ultimate plan might be for you. 🙂
How Do DistroKid Ultimate Plans Compare To The Musician And Musician Plus Plans?
The main difference between DistroKid plans is that the basic Musician plan has unlimited song uploads for 1 artist, the Musicians Plus plan gives you unlimited uploads for 2 artists, and the Ultimate plans give you unlimited uploads for 5 – 100 artists.
However, another key difference is that the Plus and Ultimate plans allow you to customize your release by setting a specific release date while the basic Musician plan does not.
Here is a full breakdown of all of the DistroKid plans available to you:
| Plan | Price | Artists |
|---|---|---|
| Musician | $19.99 USD | 1 |
| Musician Plus | $35.99 USD | 2 |
| Ultimate 5 | $79.99 USD | 5 |
| Ultimate 10 | $139.99 USD | 10 |
| Ultimate 20 | $239.99 USD | 20 |
| Ultimate 50 | $599.99 USD | 50 |
| Ultimate 100 | $1,199.99 USD | 100 |
Each DistroKid plan includes the following features:
- Unlimited song and album uploads
- Upload to over 100 stores (including Spotify, Apple Music & iTunes)
- Keep 100% of your earnings
- Instantly verified (blue checkmark) Spotify artist profile
- Access to Spotify For Artists
In addition to this, DistroKid also offers several (completely optional) paid features that you can apply per release.
Personally, I never use these paid features since I find that what you naturally get is all that is needed to properly get your music distributed.
However, to learn more about pricing, plans, and DistroKid’s optional paid features check out my full article called DistroKid Pricing Explained. 🙂
How To Get A DistroKid Ultimate Plan For The Lowest Price
To sign up for a DistroKid Ultiamte plan for the lowest possible price, you are going to want to know about the DistroKid discount.
Click the link above to learn more (including a full walkthrough), but here is a spoiler for you:
The best discount that DistroKid offers is 7% off your first year with DistroKid: to save 7% off with DistroKid click here.
DistroKid uses “VIP Links”, like the one above, to automatically apply the discount for you. Other than these special links, DistroKid doesn’t have any discount codes, coupon codes, or sales available.
Can I Create A Label With DistroKid?
You can create a record label by using DistroKid as your label’s music distribution and accounting service. DistroKid Label plans let you upload unlimited songs for 5 – 100 artists to stores, keep 100% of your earnings, and split royalty payments easily.
When submitting music with DistroKid, you can attach your record label name to your releases for no additional cost whether it is the same label name for each release or multiple different label names or imprints.
Labels that release music with DistroKid get to keep 100% of their earnings (minus standard banking and taxing fees) and can view and export earnings reports for individual artists or all put together.
In addition to this, labels can use DistroKid Splits (formerly called Teams) to automatically split earnings as a flat fee and/or a percentage from their releases to other DistroKid users.
You are able to change split amounts or remove collaborators at any time and DistroKid will keep a history log of all of the royalty splits that have occurred for a song so that you can keep track of things.
To learn more about DistroKid royalty splits, check out my full article called DistroKid Teams: Royalty Splits & Invite Codes Explained.
How To Choose A Music Distributor For Your Record Label
When choosing the right music distributor for getting your artist’s music on Spotify and all other stores and streaming services, there are really only 2 things that really matter:
- Being able to release unlimited songs
- Not having to pay a percentage of your music’s income
Today, established and emerging artists alike live and die by their streaming numbers.
Streaming numbers, and most specifically Spotify streaming numbers, are the sign of an artist’s success in 2022.
Spotify has straight-up told everyone that to succeed on their platform, you simply need to release more music and do it frequently.
Beyond being able to release as many songs as you want and not giving away any income your music makes, there are a few other things you might want to consider when making your choice:
- Distributor reputation
- Delivery speed
- The ability to set custom release dates
- Customer service
For more on this, check out my Music Distribution Buyer’s Guide.
However, at the end of the day, you will be in good hands as long as you pick a music distributor that is on Spotify’s preferred music distributors list.
…so what is Spotify’s preferred music distributors list, you ask?
Spotify’s Preferred Music Distributors For Labels
Spotify has a list of their preferred and recommended distributors on a section on their website called the “Provider Directory”.
These distributors are vetted by Spotify and are constantly re-evaluated to make sure that they continue to be great options for artists and labels.
All of the listed providers and distributors are “Approved by Spotify” and have been chosen because they provide high-quality metadata, enact anti-infringement measures, and generally meet best practices in the music industry.
Because DistroKid is actually at the top of Spotify’s preferred music distributor list and checks off all the boxes I mentioned in the previous section…
It is clear that DistroKid is a strong option for labels or artists that want to distribute their music properly and safely.
However, if you’d like to learn more about Spotify’s preferred partners and the best distributor for artists in 2022, check out my full article called Spotify’s Preferred Music Distributors. 🙂
Does DistroKid Collect All Royalties For Labels?
When your artist’s music is streamed, you are owed 2 different types of royalties: mater recording royalties and music publishing royalties.
DistroKid only collects the money owed from your music’s sales on stores and streams from streaming services. These types of royalties are called master recording royalties.
At the time of writing this, DistroKid does not offer music publishing services to collect music publishing royalties and instead recommends SongTrust for music publishing.
With that said, the truth is that master recording royalties are significantly higher than music publishing royalties.
However, you should know that by not registering with a Performance Rights Organization (ie: BMI or ASCAP) or a music publisher like SongTrust, you may be leaving money on the table by not collecting songwriting and performance royalties.
To learn more about all of this, check out these articles for more information:
Does DistroKid Copyright Your Music For You?
DistroKid does not copyright your music for you or register your songs for copyright, DistroKid simply distributes your music. DistroKid also does not register your music with any publishers or performance rights organizations.
The truth is that by simply recording your music, you have completed the first step of copyright protection and may have all of the protection you need to get started releasing music.
To learn more about music copyright and how copyright works with DistroKid, check out my article called Does DistroKid Copyright Your Music For You?. 🙂
DistroKid Alternatives
If you would like to do some shopping around before selecting DistroKid as your music distributor, I’d highly recommend that.
It’s always good to be informed!
Although I think DistroKid is awesome and definitely recommend it, I also did a bunch of research before selecting them (that is how I’m able to write all these articles hehe).
Below are some alternatives to DistroKid that I have researched and written about. I do my best to make it an unbiased shootout of what each company offers on their websites (but sometimes my DistroKid fanboy shows quite a bit).
- DistroKid vs TuneCore
- DistroKid vs CdBaby
- DistroKid vs UnitedMasters
- DistroKid vs Ditto
- DistroKid vs Amuse
- DistroKid vs SoundCloud
- DistroKid vs Landr
P.S. I’ll be sure to update this section with more comparisons and alternatives as I research and write about them. 🙂
P.P.S. If you also want to learn about music publishing and make sure that you are not leaving any money on the table with your music distribution setup, I’d recommend checking out these 2 articles:
Is DistroKid Considered A Record Label?
DistroKid is not considered a record label. However, 100s of record labels use DistroKid for fast & easy music distribution and royalty accounting.
When submitting music with DistroKid, you can attach your record label name to your releases for no additional cost whether it is the same label name for each release or multiple different label names or imprints.
Labels that release music with DistroKid get to keep 100% of their earnings (minus standard banking and taxing fees) and can view and export earnings reports for individual artists or all put together.
Do I Need A Label For DistroKid?
You do not need a record label in order to get your music on Spotify and other streaming services by using DistroKid.
DistroKid is a great music distributor for artists of all sizes because, for a small annual fee, you get fast unlimited song uploads while getting to keep 100% of your income.
The truth is that several record labels out there today are basically taking a cut of your earnings just so that they can get your music distributed in the exact same way that you can do yourself by signing up for DistroKid.
