Digital Distribution Compared: DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby, Amuse, and EmuBands
By Written by Peter McVeigh
Getting your music onto Spotify, Apple Music, and everywhere else requires a distributor. That much most people know. What fewer people have thought through is which distributor is actually right for them, and why the differences matter more than most articles on the subject will tell you. I've used several of these services over the years. I'm going to tell you what each one costs, what you actually get, and where I've personally ended up - not because I've a deal with anyone, but because I think honest recommendations from someone who has done this are more useful than a roundup written by someone who has never pressed release on anything. The prices below are current as of 2026 but do check each platform directly before committing, as these things change.
The Most Important Question First: Subscription or Pay Per Release?
Before comparing specific platforms, you need to understand the fundamental model difference, because it'll shape which service makes sense for you.
Subscription model means you pay annually, and in exchange you can release unlimited music. Your music stays live for as long as you keep paying. If you stop paying, your releases typically come down (unless you pay a conversion fee to make them permanent). DistroKid, TuneCore, and Amuse all use this model.
Pay per release means you pay a one-time fee per release, and your music stays live forever with no further cost. CD Baby and EmuBands offer this. EmuBands also offers a subscription option if you release frequently enough to make it worth it.
Which is better for you depends almost entirely on how many releases you put out per year and how long you want them to stay live.
If you release two or three times a year and you want those releases to accumulate permanently in your catalogue, pay-per-release is usually the better deal over time. If you're releasing constantly - several singles a month, multiple projects - an unlimited subscription quickly becomes the cheaper option. Run the maths on your own release pace before you decide.
DistroKid
What it costs: Starting at $24.99 per year (approximately £20) for the Musician plan, which covers one artist and includes unlimited uploads. Musician Plus is $44.99 per year for two artists, adding custom release dates, daily stats, and pre-orders. The Ultimate plan is $89.99 per year and covers up to 100 artists with advanced analytics and the ability to replace song audio after release.
What you actually get: DistroKid is fast. Genuinely fast - they were the first distributor to make speed a real selling point, and they've maintained it. You upload, and your music is live on platforms typically within 24 to 48 hours, sometimes less. They distribute to all the major DSPs: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Tidal, TikTok, YouTube Music, and more. You keep 100% of your royalties. Royalty splits between collaborators are included.
The catch: It's subscription only. Your music comes down if you stop paying. There is no permanent option without a conversion fee. If you've been on DistroKid for five years and you decide to leave or can no longer afford the subscription, you face a choice between paying to keep everything up or watching your catalogue disappear. For artists who are building a back catalogue, that's a real risk to think about.
Support has historically been a mixed bag with DistroKid - they're a large operation and the customer experience reflects that. Better in recent years, but not personal.
Best for: Artists releasing frequently who want speed and are happy committing to an annual subscription.
TuneCore
What it costs: Three unlimited plans: Rising Artist at $24.99 per year, Breakout Artist at $44.99 per year, and Professional at $54.99 per year. They also offer pay-per-release - but critically, this isn't truly pay-once: singles are $24.99 and albums are $44.99, but these fees recur annually. You pay every year to keep each individual release live. That's an important distinction.
What you actually get: TuneCore has been around since 2006 and has the infrastructure to match - 150+ digital stores, solid reporting, royalty splits, YouTube Content ID on the Professional plan. Their analytics are decent. They've built a proper ecosystem of artist tools around the core distribution service.
The Breakout and Professional plans include daily trend reports and custom metadata options that are genuinely useful if you want more control over how your releases are presented.
The catch: The per-release annual fee model - if you've built up a catalogue on pay-per-release TuneCore and you've ten releases, you're paying for all ten every single year. That cost adds up fast. Many artists have been caught out by this years in, finding themselves committed to ongoing fees for music they released years ago. Read the terms carefully before using the pay-per-release option.
Customer service response times are tied to your plan tier: three business days on Rising, two on Breakout, one on Professional. That's worth knowing before you've an urgent issue.
Best for: Artists who want a well-established, feature-rich platform and are committing to a subscription rather than the per-release model.
CD Baby
What it costs: $9.99 for a single, $14.99 for an album - one-time fees with no annual charge. Your music stays live permanently. However, CD Baby takes approximately 9% of your digital royalties. There is no subscription tier option.
What you actually get: CD Baby is the oldest of the services on this list - founded in 1998, and they've paid out over a billion dollars to independent artists since then. That longevity matters. They know how to get music onto platforms and how to handle edge cases. Physical distribution and CD manufacturing are available through them, which none of the other platforms on this list offer. Their DIY Musician blog is one of the better resources for independent artists.
The one-time fee is genuine: you pay once and your music is there indefinitely. No annual renewal, no subscription risk.
The catch: That 9% royalty cut. It sounds small, but over time and at scale it becomes meaningful. If a release earns £500 in digital royalties, CD Baby takes £45 of it. That's the trade-off for the low upfront cost and the permanent placement. Whether it's the right trade depends on how successful your releases are - for most independent artists at the early stage, 9% of small royalties is less painful than ongoing subscription costs. For artists with more established catalogues and higher earnings, it starts to sting.
Best for: Artists who want a permanent home for their music with no ongoing cost commitment, especially if they'ren't yet generating significant royalty income.
Amuse
What it costs: Artist plan at $23.99 per year for one artist with unlimited releases. Artist Plus at $39.99 per year for two artists, adding hi-res audio, fan email collection, and free royalty splits. Professional at $59.99 per year for three or more artists, adding custom label name and priority 24-hour support.
One notable feature: Amuse explicitly states that if you downgrade or cancel, your music stays live without additional fees. That's a meaningful differentiator from DistroKid.
What you actually get: Amuse was built mobile-first and has a genuinely clean interface. Their 24-hour delivery claim is one of the fastest in the industry. They distribute to all major DSPs including TikTok and Instagram. The royalty advance feature - where eligible artists can access future royalties early - is available on all plans, though eligibility depends on your earnings.
YouTube Content ID has a 15% fee on the base Artist plan, which is worth knowing if you've a lot of YouTube activity. It's free on Artist Plus and Professional.
The catch: Amuse is a younger company than the others, founded in 2015, and the platform has had some growing pains. Their catalogue of stores is solid but slightly narrower than the most established players at the higher tier.
Best for: Artists who want a modern, mobile-friendly experience and the security of knowing their music stays live if they ever need to cancel or step down a plan.
EmuBands - My Recommendation
What it costs: EmuBands runs on a tiered model with both pay-per-release and subscription options.
Pay-per-release: £15 for a single, £30 for a bundle (2-20 tracks). These are permanent, one-time fees. Your music stays live forever with no further cost.
Subscription plans (for account features, not distribution): - Basic: Free - 1 artist, pay per release as above - Plus: £30 per year - 2-5 artists, adds chart registration, pre-saves, compilation releases, custom label name - Pro: £60 per year - 6+ artists, adds hi-res audio, live chat, playlist pitching, personal account manager, royalty splitting - Premium: £90 per year - unlimited releases included, all Pro features
They keep 0% of your royalties on all plans. 100%.
What you actually get: EmuBands has been running since 2005 out of Edinburgh, and they're a member of AIM (Association of Independent Music), the SMIA (Scottish Music Industry Association), and Merlin. Those memberships mean something - they're a proper industry operator, not a startup.
I'm going to be straight with you about why I use them. It'sn't because they're the flashiest or the cheapest in every scenario. It's because when I've had a question or a problem, I've emailed them and a real person has responded. That sounds like a low bar but in this industry it'sn't. I've used TuneCore and CD Baby both, and the experience of dealing with a small, responsive company versus a larger operation is genuinely different.
The pay-per-release model suits how I work: I don't release constantly, so I'm not churning out enough releases to make a subscription essential. I pay once, my music goes up, it stays up, I move on. No subscription to manage, no renewal to forget about, no risk of my catalogue disappearing because I missed a payment during a busy period.
The other thing that matters to me is that they pick up the phone (or the email). They respond. For independent artists who aren't signed to anything and don't have a team around them, having a distributor who will actually engage with your specific issue is worth real money.
The catch: EmuBands is smaller and less well-known than DistroKid or TuneCore. Their marketing is quieter. Some features - like advanced analytics dashboards - are less slick than the US-based platforms. If you're looking for the most polished interface or the most comprehensive data visualisation, there are flashier options.
Best for: Artists who want a permanent home for their music with no ongoing cost, want to keep 100% of royalties, and value responsive human support over corporate infrastructure. Artists releasing at a moderate pace. UK and Ireland-based artists in particular.
Visit them at www.emubands.com
What Actually Matters When You Are Choosing
Here is the honest summary. The differences between these platforms on the basic function - getting your music onto Spotify and Apple Music - are minimal. They all do it. They all do it reasonably well. Where they differ is in cost structure, longevity, support, and what happens at the edges.
Think about your release pace. One or two releases a year? Pay-per-release is almost certainly cheaper over time. Multiple releases a month? A subscription makes more sense.
Think about your catalogue. If you're building a body of work that you want to stay live indefinitely, pay-per-release gives you certainty. Subscription models carry the risk of your music coming down if your circumstances change.
Think about royalties. If you're keeping 100%, that's better than paying less upfront but giving away 9%. But if 9% of small royalties is less than an annual subscription fee, the maths may still favour the per-release model with a royalty cut.
Think about support. If you're a solo independent artist with no team, getting a response from a real person when something goes wrong isn't a nice-to-have. It's essential.
Think about where the company is. UK and Irish artists dealing with UK and EU-specific issues are often better served by a UK-based distributor who understands the local landscape, chart registration requirements, and PRS/PPL relationships.
The Bottom Line
There is no single right answer. The right distributor is the one that fits your release pace, your catalogue strategy, and your appetite for ongoing costs.
A quick summary of what each platform offers:
DistroKid - subscription from ~£20/year, unlimited releases, 100% royalties, music comes down if you cancel without converting.
TuneCore - subscription from $24.99/year or per-release with annual recurring fees, 100% royalties, 150+ stores.
CD Baby - $9.99 single / $14.99 album one-time, music stays live permanently, takes ~9% of royalties.
Amuse - subscription from $23.99/year, unlimited releases, 100% royalties (except YouTube ID on basic), music stays live if you cancel.
EmuBands - £15 single / £30 bundle one-time (or subscription from £90/year for unlimited), music stays live permanently, 100% royalties. My personal choice.
What I can tell you is that I've settled on EmuBands because it suits my pace, they keep 100% of my royalties, the music stays live indefinitely without me having to think about it, and they answer emails. I've no brand deal with them. I've just used them and found them genuinely good to work with. Your situation might be different.
What I'd say to anyone starting out: don't overthink the platform. Pick one, understand the terms, and get your music out. The difference between a good distributor and the best distributor is far smaller than the difference between distributing and not distributing.
The music needs to be out there. Everything else is detail.
Peter McVeigh is the founder of Music Manager Resource.