The four digital distributors that dominate the UK independent release market operate on materially different commercial terms, which matter more than most artists realise when they sign up. Distribution decisions made in a hurry, at the start of an artist’s career, compound over decades. This piece compares DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby and DistroVid on the terms that actually affect UK earnings, rights and workflow.
The distributor’s real function
All four platforms perform essentially the same primary function: they take a master recording, add metadata, and deliver it to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Deezer, Napster, Anghami and around 100 other digital service providers globally. They collect royalties from those services, take a defined fee or share, and remit the balance to the artist. The differences lie in the pricing model, the treatment of royalties, publishing collection, rights retention, and the tools around the core distribution service.
DistroKid: the annual-fee model
DistroKid uses a subscription pricing model. The base “Musician” plan is roughly £22.99 a year for unlimited singles and albums under one artist name. The “Musician Plus” plan around £39.89 a year allows two artist names. Higher tiers add more artist slots. Crucially, DistroKid takes 0% of streaming royalties (you pay the annual fee and keep everything the DSPs pay). The trade-off is that if you stop paying the annual fee, your music is taken down from services, unless you have opted into DistroKid’s Leave a Legacy feature or paid a one-off retention fee. DistroKid does not collect publishing or mechanical royalties; you handle those separately through PRS/MCPS or an equivalent. Payouts are direct-deposit and reasonably quick.
TuneCore: annual fee plus publishing services
TuneCore also uses an annual-fee model (roughly £24.99 a year for unlimited singles, £39.99 a year for albums, though pricing tiers have changed periodically). Like DistroKid, TuneCore takes 0% of streaming royalties on the base plan. Unlike DistroKid, TuneCore offers a publishing administration service (TuneCore Publishing) that will register your works globally and collect mechanical and performance royalties. This is a separate service with its own cost and revenue share and is worth understanding as a distinct decision from the distribution one. TuneCore is owned by Believe (the French independent music group) and the corporate parent’s editorial strength has been increasing.
CD Baby: the per-release plus 9% model
CD Baby operates a different pricing structure. Rather than an annual subscription, CD Baby charges a one-off fee per release (roughly £8 per single, £27 per album on the Standard plan) and takes a 9% cut of streaming royalties. This differs from DistroKid and TuneCore in two important ways: your music stays live indefinitely (there is no annual fee to keep it available) and the ongoing 9% is a permanent cost. For artists releasing many singles, the CD Baby per-release fees add up quickly but the no-annual-renewal aspect can suit artists with older catalogue they want to keep online without continuous payments. CD Baby also offers publishing administration through Songtrust and has physical distribution options for CDs and vinyl.
DistroVid: the video-focused alternative
DistroVid, launched by DistroKid’s parent company, is specifically aimed at distributing music videos and video content to YouTube Music, Vevo and adjacent video-first platforms. Pricing is broadly similar to DistroKid’s model. For UK artists whose release strategy includes video content, DistroVid handles a specific workflow that DistroKid alone does not cover for video-first distribution. Most artists will only need DistroVid alongside another distributor if video releases are a significant part of the strategy.
The revenue models compared over five years
The break-even analysis between subscription and per-release-with-cut models depends heavily on release frequency and streaming volume. An artist releasing four singles a year with modest streaming (£50 a year of royalties total) will spend £22.99 on DistroKid annually and keep £50; on CD Baby they will spend £32 up front plus £4.50 in cuts over the year and keep £45.50. Over five years those numbers become £115 total DistroKid cost with £250 kept vs £160 CD Baby cost plus £22.50 in cuts with £227.50 kept. As streaming income rises, the CD Baby percentage cut becomes progressively more expensive. As release frequency rises, the DistroKid unlimited model gets progressively more efficient.
Rights, ownership and control
None of these distributors take any ownership of the master recording. You retain 100% of your master rights and can withdraw and move distributor at will (subject to the practical delay of new distribution being processed). Publishing rights are handled separately regardless of distributor choice. Neither the distributor nor the DSP has any exclusive rights; the same track can be moved between distributors, though the DSP account histories (stream counts, playlist placements) stay with the DSP not the distributor.
What UK artists specifically need to think about
UK-specific considerations: all four distributors handle GBP payouts, though bank transfer fees and exchange rate handling vary. All four register recordings with the ISRC system, though DistroKid and TuneCore will assign ISRCs automatically if you don’t have your own, which can complicate later moves between distributors (you should use your own ISRCs, not the distributor’s, wherever possible; see the ISRC piece elsewhere in this hub). Withholding tax on US streaming income affects all distributor payouts; the W-8BEN form process is essentially the same across platforms. All four support UK VAT reporting where applicable.
Playlist pitching and marketing tools
DistroKid offers direct Spotify for Artists integration and a pitch-to-editorial tool for new releases (through Spotify’s own submission system, which any distributor can support). TuneCore has a somewhat more developed marketing tool suite. CD Baby offers Show.co and marketing add-ons. None of these are substitutes for the actual marketing work of building an audience, but the workflow integrations differ enough to matter for artists managing multiple releases.
Support and admin
DistroKid’s customer service is genuinely poor by industry consensus: response times are slow, email-only, and dispute resolution is minimal. CD Baby’s support is materially better. TuneCore sits in between. DistroVid inherits DistroKid’s support model. For most artists this only matters when something goes wrong (delivery failures, royalty disputes, content ID issues), at which point the difference between the platforms is substantial.
The signal from major labels and Merlin
The three biggest independent-artist-focused distributors are all commercially significant enough to have direct relationships with the major DSPs and with Merlin, the rights agency that represents independent labels in DSP negotiations. This matters because it means take-down disputes, content ID mistakes and royalty query resolution can be escalated by the distributor. Smaller or newer distributors often lack these relationships and the artist bears the friction directly.
Which to pick
Working guidance: if you are releasing more than three tracks a year and expect modest streaming income, DistroKid is cheapest. If you want built-in publishing administration and have global sync ambitions, TuneCore Publishing is worth the extra cost. If you have back-catalogue you want to keep permanently online without annual fees, CD Baby’s one-off model suits. If video is central to your release strategy, DistroVid alongside your audio distributor covers that workflow. And if you are on a major label deal, a P&D deal with an independent label, or working with an established indie, these decisions may not be yours to make anyway.
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