This is a comparative overview of three of the top digital distributors and how they compare in 2023 – 2024. We’ll be comparing Distrokid’s Musician plan, Tunecore’s Rising Artist plan, and Amuse’s Boost plan. With each distributor offering multiple tiers, we sought to find the most relevant and cross compatible.
| Distrokid 7% Discount | Tunecore 20% Discount | Amuse | |
| Price | $25 Annually | Boost | ||
| Percentage | Keep 100% | Keep 100% | Keep 100% |
| Releases | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Stores | Limited | Unlimited | Limited |
| New Stores | +Store Maximizer: $8 per release annually | +Store Automator: Free but has to be added manually for each release | Unspecified |
| Release Date | No | Yes | Yes |
| Transaction Fees | 2.9% $1 Cap per withdrawal | 2.9% 25¢ Cap per withdrawal | 2.9% per withdrawal Uncapped |
| Payment Threshold | $1 | None | $10 |
| Artists | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Content ID | $5 Per single $14 Per album Annually + 20% | 20% | 15% |
| Whitelisting | No | Yes | No |
| Split Pay | Requires a $10 annual Subscription for collaborators | Requires an $8 annual subscription for collaborators | Free |
| UPC | Free, can’t bring your own | Free, can’t bring your own | Free, can’t bring your own |
| ISRC | Free, Bring your own | Free, Bring your own | Free, Bring your own |
| Influence | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | ⭐️ |
| Stability | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | ⭐️⭐️ |
| Cancel | Removed from stores | Removed from stores | Removed from stores |
| Taxes | 30% Tax Treaty | 30% Tax Treaty | Not subject |
| Custom Label Name | No | No | No |
| Direct Deals | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Red Flags | Yes | None | None |
Price
Each of these distributors has different pricing tiers but these are the most comparable and affordable. You can check individual distributor breakdowns to learn more about each. Tunecore has the cheapest offering out of the three options at $15 $20 annually. The winner? Tunecore.
Stores
While all three distributors get your music into what most would consider the important stores, Tunecore gets your music into the most. If you look at the list of stores, you’ll see what’s missing. The whole point of digital distribution is, distribution. You want your music anywhere there’s an opportunity for discovery and monetization. I get revenue from stores like Soundtrack Your Brand which, based on my personal knowledge, I would never imagine earning anything from. Bottom line, a small inventory of stores should be a major drawback to a digital distributor. The winner? Tunecore.
New stores
There are always new stores being added to services. TikTok might be the most recent significant store addition. Nobody wants to keep up with this stuff where they have to track which new stores have been added and manually add those stores to each release. Both Tunecore and Amuse allow your music to be automatically added to new stores for free, they just go about it differently. For Tunecore, going by the release I recently set up, at this tier you have to manually add Store Automator to your release. So, for every Tunecore release, you have to make sure you have the box for Store Automator checked.
Amuse doesn’t declare whether it distributes your releases to new stores automatically. My thoughts on that is, if it’s not in writing, it’s not included. Distrokid charges an annual fee of $8 per release, per year which is a lot. We’re talking $8 for every song you distribute, charged every year, per song. 3 songs would have you paying an additional $24 per year just for Store Maximizer. It’s like you’re paying for two unlimited accounts. The winner? Tunecore.
Release Date
Distrokid is the only distributor on this list that restricts you from having a release date at this tier. Depending on the type of artist and release, release dates can be critical. They allow you to rally support and build momentum to make a big splash when your project drops. Ideally, you want a release date. Tunecore and Amuse give you one while Distrokid doesn’t. The winner? Everybody but Distrokid.
Additional Primary Artists
Both Amuse and Tunecore restrict you to a single Primary artist on the tiers we’re comparing, while Distrokid restricts you to two. You cannot add an additional Primary artist under Tunecore’s Rising artist plan. You must upgrade to the Professional plan and pay an additional $15 annually per Primary artist. Not only are you restricted from releasing music for more than one artist, but you cannot put multiple artists on the same release as Primary artist with Tunecore. Two primary artists on the same release would trigger an upgrade and an additional per artist annual fee.
Amuse allows you to add up to three Primary artists to the same release but requires a Pro plan for you to distribution releases for more than one Primary artist. For example, if I collaborated with an artist named XYZ, it would be free to distributed a release with me and XYZ as Primary artists. However, I’d need a Pro plan if I wanted to release a song that listed XYZ as the sole Primary artist.
Distrokid also allows you to add additional Primary artists to a single release, but requires an upgrade to distribute releases for multiple Primary artists. When it comes to additional Primary artists Distrokid and Amuse beat Tunecore.
Content ID
Only Amuse allows you to keep 100% of your Content ID revenue but they likely do not have direct deals. The lack of direct deals results in third party fees that cut into your revenue share which means you don’t get 100%. For example, the third party provider Revealator deducts 15% prior to sending payments to distributors that use their service. If you’re using a company that uses Revealator, you’d get 100% of what your distributor was paid minus their 15%. Amuse won’t disclose whether they use third-party providers which means you don’t know the associated fees if they in fact use one of these companies. Their refusal to state whether they do or don’t implies that they do.
Distrokid is the most expensive option on the list when it comes to Content ID because it charges a fee per release annually plus a percentage for the service. You’re charged $5 per single or $14 per album annually plus 20% of your revenue for Content ID with Distrokid. If you add the cost of Content ID to the cost of Store Maximizer, it’s a total cost of $66 annually for 3 releases. This $66 fee would be in addition to their $23 annual fee for distribution.
Tunecore has direct deals and charges no upfront fees but take 20% of revenue which makes out better than Distrokid. Due to not knowing the nature of Amuse’s deals, we don’t know how much you actually get to keep. There’s more transparency with Tunecore so that’s who I’d say is the winner here.
Whitelisting
Being in the Youtube Partner Program means you’re going to make more collecting revenue directly than through Content ID. Youtube values first-party content more than third-party content so higher-paying ads run on first-party content than third-party content. Using Content ID, distributors claim your videos as third-party content which means you get lower-paying ads. In addition to lower-paying ads, you also have to split that lower rate with your distributor, earning you even less.
You don’t want Content ID claiming videos from your channel if you’re in the Partner Program. Whitelisting allows you to restrict your channel from the program. All distributors that offer Content ID can Whitelist but some make it easier than others.
Amuse will claim your video and force you to request them to release the claim which is cumbersome. You have to upload your video, wait for their claim, email a response to Youtube to dispute the claim, and wait for Youtube to communicate with Amuse, and for Amuse to respond and release the claim before you can claim your revenue directly. In all of that time, which would be the first week of the video when it’s generating the most traffic, the revenue would be sent to Amuse where you could be losing a percentage of an undisclosed amount.
Distrokid has a similar system with Whitelisting, but instead of having to dispute a claim, you can request videos be Whitelisted. The issue here is that you have to manually request each video and can’t just Whitelist your channel. It’s not the end of the world but it increases your workload.
Tunecore allows you to Whitelist your entire channel where you can rest easy and not have to take any further action. The winner? Tunecore.
Split Pay
Sharing royalties with collaborators is something that’s important to a lot of artists out there and what’s equally important is how collaborators claim their share. Distrokid requires collaborators to have a Distrokid subscription paying a reduced rate of $10 annually to claim their share. Tunecore requires collaborators to have a Tunecore subscription paying a reduced rate of $8 annually to claim their share. Only Amuse allows collaborators to claim their share for free. The winner? Amuse.
UPC
None of these distributors allow you to bring your own UPC codes at the compared tiers. Tunecore allows you to bring your own if you upgrade to the Professional tier. Distrokid and Amuse don’t allow you to bring your own UPC code at any tier.
Influence
Distributors have to negotiate deals with digital service providers like Spotify. Things like their percentage of revenue, access tools, and features are all a part of that negotiation. When it comes to influence over digital service providers, it’s not about having a catalog that drives a lot of streams. Understand that for digital service providers, streams are an expense. They pay for streams, streams don’t earn them money. They make their money from subscribers.
What it comes down to is whether a distributor has a catalog of music, that if removed from these services, would cause their users to use another service. With big names like Papoose and Russ, Tunecore is the clear winner when it comes to influence. Distrokid has quantity but not clout and Amuse has neither. The winner? Tunecore.
Stability
Who wants to get evicted in the dead of the coldest winter? If a distributor shuts down or randomly changes its pricing to something you can’t afford, that’s an eviction. You’re forced to pick up all your music and find another home which can be a really big problem. Particularly if you’ve taken full advantage of the unlimited model and went berserk with releases. You don’t want to be a guinea pig where a distributor is trying to figure things out by testing on you. It also isn’t wise to use a distributor with a poor model where it isn’t likely to be able to sustain itself and will eventually go out of business.
Distrokid has been around a really long time and is incredibly stable. The same can be said about Tunecore. Neither distributor has had a history of changing their pricing much over the years. Amuse, has changed their pricing multiple times as they’ve looked to figure out a more profitable system. They started off completely free allowing artists to keep 100% of their royalties while paying nothing at all. Along the way, they introduced tiers where they restricted what was available for free to drive users to pay more. Who knows what’s next for them. It’s pretty unstable. If security is a major concern for you, your choice is between either Distrokid or Tunecore.
Termination
If you cancel your membership or your card cannot be charged for whatever reason, Amuse will reduce you to their Start tier. Your music will be removed from all the stores exclusive to their higher tiers. Distrokid will remove your music period, there is no other tier. Tunecore will reduce you to their New Artist tier and remove your music from all stores with the exception of Social media platforms. You have the option of having your distribution fees pulled from your royalties with Tunecore. That safeguards against things like death, where as long as your releases generate revenue, it doesn’t matter if your cards can be charged.
All distributors require some form of written notice to truly terminate the agreement. Written notice is only a requirement if there’s exclusivity involved which isn’t relevant to any of these distributors. You’re free to go and come as you please and distribute releases with whatever other service you choose. There’s no need for a written notice other than to revoke the licenses they were granted.
Transaction fees
Payment processors like Paypal charge a fee per transaction to facilitate the service. Some distributors eliminate the fee or limit it, while others leave artists to pay the full amount. The transaction fee is usually about 2.9% which gets more punitive as your revenue grows. It’s something you’d like to avoid or minimize if you can. Tunecore caps transaction fees at 25¢, while Distrokid caps them at $1, and Amuse leaves them uncapped so you’re responsible for paying the full amount. The winner? Tunecore.
Taxes
If you reside in a country without a tax treaty with the United States you’ll be subject to up to a 30% tax withholding when using distributors based in the US. Amuse isn’t a US-based distributor so they’re not subject to the tax. They leave taxes up to you whereas Distrokid and Tunecore will withhold the funds from your balance. The winner? Amuse – if your country doesn’t have a US tax-treaty.
Stores
This is the core job of a digital distributor. The number of places your music is added to matters a lot. Not all stores are really stores. Some of the places distributors get your music into are providers that supply music to businesses like restaurants and retail stores. Bottom line, you want your music everywhere so you want a distributor that can get your music everywhere. We’ve listed all the stores each of these distributors send your music to along with who distributes.
Examining the list of stores, you see Tunecore wins hands down.
