Updated October 2026. Last year I told you to go with TuneCore or DistroKid. A lot has changed since then, so I’m changing my answer.
Here’s how most artists pick a distributor. They google “cheapest music distributor,” grab whatever costs the least, upload, and never think about it again. The problem is that in 2026 the price is basically the same everywhere. Most of the big subscription services are somewhere between $20 and $30 a year.
What’s not the same is what happens on the bad day. Your card expires. A fraud flag hits your song. A label files a claim on your beat. That’s when you find out which distributor you actually picked. I made a video walking through all of it. Watch it below, or keep reading for the full breakdown.
The Short Answer: My Picks for 2026
- Best overall: TooLost. $19.99 a year, you keep 100% while you’re subscribed, and if you stop paying your music stays up and you keep 85%.
- Runner-up: Symphonic. $29.99 a year, keep 100%, and a lot of reviewers say they actually reach a real human for support.
- If you never want to pay again: RouteNote Free. $0, they keep 15%, and there’s no subscription to lapse.
Not sponsored. Nobody paid me to say any of this, and there are no distributor affiliate links on this page. Here’s how I got there.
The 3 Questions to Ask Any Distributor
Before you upload a single song, ask these three questions. Each one knocks a few options off the list.
- What happens to my music if I stop paying?
- How much of the money do I actually keep?
- Is my music actually safe there?
Question 1: What Happens to My Music If I Stop Paying?
This is the bad day most of you will actually hit. Maybe your card expires, maybe you take a year off from releasing. Nobody asks this question when they sign up, and it’s the one that matters most, because you’re not paying for one year. You’re paying for the life of your catalog. There are basically three answers.
Answer 1: Your music comes down, or your money gets stuck
- TuneCore: if your renewal fails, you get a grace period, and after 42 days your releases come down from every store.
- DistroKid: says it may remove your music if you stop paying, unless you bought an add-on called Leave a Legacy for that release. That’s an extra one-time fee, per release.
- UnitedMasters: takes your releases down when your paid plan ends. You get a year to resubscribe and bring them back.
- Ditto (basic plan): the sneaky one. Your releases are “at risk of removal,” and you can’t withdraw your royalties until you pay again. So your money is just sitting there.
Answer 2: Your music stays up, but they take a bigger cut
- TooLost: stop paying, your music stays in stores, and you keep 85% instead of 100%.
- Amuse: your music stays up, and they take 25%.
- LANDR: your music stays up, and they start taking a cut.
Answer 3: Pay once, or pay nothing, and it stays
- CD Baby: $9.99 per single, one time, and it stays up. But they keep 9% of your streaming money for good.
- RouteNote Free: zero dollars, they keep 15%, and there’s nothing to stop paying.
Think about that for a second. If you drop a single every month, five years from now you’ve got 60 songs out. Do you want all 60 of those depending on one credit card not expiring?
Before You Upload
Distribution is the very last step
If the mix and master aren’t right, it doesn’t matter where you upload it. I mix and master every song myself.
Question 2: Is “Keep 100%” Really 100%?
Okay, so let’s say you pick one where your music stays up. Next question: how much of the money do you actually keep? Almost every distributor says “keep 100% of your royalties.” For regular streaming money, that’s mostly true. But read the fine print.
| The fine print | Who |
|---|---|
| 20% of social income (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook) | DistroKid (through its Social Media Pack), TuneCore |
| 30% of social income | CD Baby |
| $1.12 every time you withdraw to a US bank account | DistroKid |
| $100 per track fee in its basic plan terms if they take your content down, plus 120 days’ notice to cancel | Symphonic |
None of that is a deal breaker by itself. But “100%” is a marketing line, not the whole story. And honestly, fees are the small stuff. The bigger risk is your song getting pulled altogether.
Question 3: Is My Music Actually Safe There?
This is where the beat you’re on really matters. If you make hip-hop or R&B, a lot of you are rapping or singing over leased beats. Totally normal. But here’s what you need to know.
Leased beats and YouTube Content ID
YouTube’s own rule says you need exclusive rights to whatever you register in Content ID. A non-exclusive lease doesn’t qualify. Not at DistroKid, not at TuneCore, not anywhere.
So if your song is on a leased beat, leave Content ID off. Otherwise you’re claiming a beat other artists may have licensed too, and if you keep making bad claims, YouTube can take away your Content ID access. Want Content ID? Buy a true exclusive from a producer who never leased that beat.
Some distributors go further. ONErpm’s content rules reject non-exclusive beats outright. So if you’re on leases, cross that one off.
Takedowns
In September, Universal Music Group sued DistroKid. UMG alleges DistroKid let AI slop and infringing tracks onto streaming services. DistroKid disputes it. Since then, some artists have said their human-made songs got pulled too. DistroKid says only a very small number were removed.
TuneCore has its own history here. Their help page says if a track gets flagged for a high percentage of fake streams, they remove it, you can’t put it out anywhere else, and they can close your account.
Fake streams cost you money
Spotify fines distributors per track when it finds flagrant fake streams, and distributors pass that on to you. It’s reportedly around 10 euros per track, per month. So please, don’t buy streams, and don’t pay for guaranteed playlist placement. Spotify literally says those services aren’t legitimate.
Spotify’s 1,000-stream rule
One more Spotify rule that should change how you release. A track needs at least 1,000 streams in the last 12 months before it earns any recording royalties. And when it crosses that line, you don’t get paid for the months before. So ten quiet album cuts might earn you nothing on Spotify. Fewer, stronger singles is the move. If you’re planning a release, my guide on how to release music on Spotify goes deeper.
My Pick for 2026
So let’s put those three questions together. Which one keeps your music up if you stop paying, lets you keep the most, and is a safe place for your songs right now?
Best overall: TooLost
$19.99 a year. You keep 100% of your streaming money while you’re subscribed. If you stop paying, your music stays up and you drop to 85%, so the worst case is mild. Content ID is included, publishing admin is available through their BMG partnership where you keep 85%, collaborators can get their split with a free account, and you can withdraw from as little as three bucks. They also signed the industry’s new anti-fraud pledge in September. DistroKid and TuneCore weren’t on that list when it launched.
Now the honest part. Support is their weak spot. They’re sitting at 3.6 out of 5 on Trustpilot, and the common complaints are chatbots closing tickets and rights checks that ask you to prove you control the music. So if you lease beats, keep every lease PDF. You might need it, and honestly, that’s a good habit no matter where you distribute.
Runner-up: Symphonic
Who shouldn’t pick TooLost? If you need a real human to fix something fast before a release date, go with Symphonic. $29.99 a year, keep 100%, 4.5 on Trustpilot, and a lot of reviewers say they actually reach a real human for support. Just read the terms. That $100 takedown fee and the 120-day cancellation notice are real.
If you never want to pay again: RouteNote Free
Zero dollars, they keep 15%, and there’s no subscription to lapse. The catch is time. Reviews have been taking weeks, sometimes longer, so plan your release at least six to eight weeks out.
If you only release a song or two a year: CD Baby
If you want to pay once, CD Baby still works. Just know you’re giving up 9% for good, and you’re stuck at 16-bit.
So what about DistroKid?
It’s still fast, usually live in a few days, and the tools are good. I’m not telling you to panic and leave. But between the lawsuit and the fact that your catalog depends on staying subscribed, it’s not my default pick anymore.
All of it side by side
| Distributor | Price | If you stop paying | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| TooLost | $19.99/yr | Stays up, you keep 85% | Support is the weak spot |
| Symphonic | $29.99/yr | Check the terms | $100 per track takedown fee, 120 days’ notice |
| RouteNote Free | $0 | Nothing to stop paying, you keep 85% | Reviews can take weeks |
| CD Baby | $9.99 per single, once | Stays up, you keep 91% | 16-bit only, 30% of social income |
| DistroKid | $24.99/yr | May come down unless you paid for Leave a Legacy | 20% of social income, $1.12 per withdrawal |
| TuneCore | Annual plans | Down after 42 days | 20% of social income |
| UnitedMasters | Paid plans | Down when the plan ends, a year to come back | |
| Ditto (basic) | Paid plans | At risk of removal, royalties locked | |
| Amuse | Paid plans | Stays up, you keep 75% | |
| LANDR | From about $24/yr | Stays up, they start taking a cut | Takes WAV files for distribution |
How to Switch Distributors Without Losing Your Streams
If you’re on DistroKid or TuneCore right now and this has you thinking about moving, don’t just delete everything and re-upload. That’s how you lose your play counts and your playlist spots. Here’s the right way to do it.
- Upload the exact same audio and metadata at the new distributor.
- Use your original ISRC codes, the same UPC, and the original release date.
- Wait until the new version is live and matched up with the old one.
- Only then take it down at the old distributor.
Test it on one small release first. And know this: Spotify decides whether your play counts and playlists carry over, not your distributor. Done right, it usually works.
Send Your Distributor the Right Files
As a mixing and mastering engineer, this is the part I see artists get wrong most. Whatever distributor you pick, upload a WAV, not an MP3. MP3 compression dulls the high end, softens transients, and adds artifacts you’ll hear in things like reverb tails. I recommend a 24-bit WAV at the same sample rate you mixed at, so nothing gets converted along the way. The exception is CD Baby, which only takes 16-bit, 44.1 kHz.
The Real Decision Is the Exit Door
That’s really the whole point. In 2026, price isn’t the decision anymore. They all cost about the same. The decision is the exit door: what happens when you stop paying, when you get flagged, or when somebody claims your song.
And the paperwork matters as much as the platform. Keep your lease agreements. Leave Content ID off unless you own the beat outright. And never buy streams.
Music Distribution FAQ
What is the best music distribution service in 2026?
My pick is TooLost: $19.99 a year, you keep 100% while subscribed, and your music stays up at 85% if you stop paying. Symphonic is my runner-up if you want real human support, and RouteNote Free is the pick if you never want to pay a subscription.
Which distributors keep your music up if you stop paying?
TooLost, Amuse and LANDR keep it up but take a bigger cut. CD Baby (one-time fee) and RouteNote Free (no fee) keep it up with nothing to renew. TuneCore and UnitedMasters take releases down, and DistroKid may remove them unless you bought Leave a Legacy for that release.
Can I use Content ID on a leased beat?
No. YouTube requires exclusive rights to anything you register in Content ID, and a non-exclusive lease doesn’t qualify, no matter which distributor you use. Leave it off unless you own the beat outright.
Do you really keep 100% of your royalties?
For regular streaming money, mostly yes. But several distributors take 20% to 30% of social income from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, and some charge withdrawal or takedown fees.
How do I switch distributors without losing my streams?
Upload the exact same audio and metadata at the new distributor with your original ISRC, UPC and release date. Wait until the new version is live and matched, and only then take it down at the old one. Test on one small release first.
Need Your Song Mixed or Mastered Before You Release?
Distribution is the very last step. If the mix and master aren’t right, it doesn’t matter where you upload it. I mix and master every song myself, I’m ranked in the top 1% of mixing and mastering engineers on Muso.ai, and my credits include A$AP Rocky, Kelly Clarkson and Travis Barker. See my mixing and mastering services.
Not sure if your mix is ready? Send it over for a free mix review and I’ll record a short video telling you what’s holding it back.
Sources
Everything above was checked in October 2026. Prices and terms change, so double-check before you sign up: TooLost pricing, DistroKid pricing, DistroKid: if you stop paying, TuneCore: 42-day takedown, TuneCore: fraud removals, CD Baby pricing, Symphonic Starter terms, RouteNote Free, Ditto, Amuse, UnitedMasters, ONErpm content standards, UMG v. DistroKid (MBW), anti-fraud pledge signers (DMN), switching distributors (Ari’s Take).