r/DistroKidHelpDesk

I got the social media pack from distrokid and now my own videos with my own music are getting flagged as copyright infringement. I’m talking hundreds of videos. any suggestions how to fix it?

Hi, I have 70+ releases, and they all have that generic dk number label. As the title reads, do I have to edit every single release, or is there a way to do it all at once?

Been a while since I released something on Spotify, it's been approved and sent to stores according to Distrokid, but it's not showing up in Spotify for Artists so I can pitch for editorial.

It's a cover, but those should be pitch-able right

- How long does it normally take?
- Is it safe to postpone the release date a week so I have more of an editorial chance (since it's delayed)

After reading what I have to say, I sincerely hope that you are smart enough to never use distrokid.
I have been attacked with false copyright claims, which has resulted in frozen assets of up to $45.000, removal of my songs on all platforms which has caused damage to my brand which has over 1 million listeners per month. I have made counter claims on the affected songs, but Distrokids support is probably the most useless support available in the market. Do yourself a favor, find a distributor that cares about their artists and has their artists’ backs in such incidents.

Hi there, I'm releasing my first album later this year. I've just finished the mixing and mastering process for the full album, but have been releasing singles in the lead up to the album release. I'm going to be making CDs soon and I've been strongly advised by my mixing engineer to buy my own ISRC codes so that they are sequential for the album. The issue is that I've already released 3 of the songs as singles via DistroKid, and the platform automatically generates its own ISRC for each release. This means that once I upload the full album, the ISRCs for the singles will not match the ISRCs on the album. I know that this means that the streaming info will not sync up - but other than it maybe looking a little messy on streaming platforms, are there any real problems that could arise from having two separate ISRC codes for the songs which have already been released as singles? Could my music get taken down for this? Also, what is the real benefit to owning my own ISRC codes versus letting Distrokid generate them for me?

Was considering upgrading to Ultimate for audio swap, which you can do anyway with ISRC codes but it's a bit more convenient?

How much smoother is Audio swap? Does the song disappear from streaming services for a while with both or how does that work?

When I signed up with Distrokid I had the impression they were the Patreon of music distributors, looking out for indie artists, but the more I learn, the company feels pretty shady. Not being able to downgrade plans is pretty scammy.

My music project uses non-exclusive leased instrumentals
I haven’t tried to upload to Spotify yet because I’m not done with a song (that I have already paid for and have the license to use)
I noticed someone already uploaded a song using the same instrumental with the content ID setting.

Basically I’m trying to figure out how I will be able to get it uploaded when it’s done.

According to Google I should try and if it gets rejected I respond to the rejection email and send them the license to use the instrumental

Has anyone gone through this, is this accurate, and will it have any impact on my projects Distrokid/spotify/Apple account?

I released a song in February with the social media pack and have consistently been receiving payments from YouTube for Ads, Red, and Content ID categories, but it says that YouTube shorts is still "not yet reported" as far back as February. Does anyone know if YouTube sends payments for shorts at a different timing and/or when I might expect to see it posted?

Can I release a song that is 15–30 minutes long? It's Romani music with long medleys. Would it be better to simply shorten the music? I feel that the authenticity would suffer if I edited these long, passionate performances into shorter tracks.

I uploaded a track on distrokid for the first time at around 12pm. By 2pm I got a notice that my audio passed their screening. Then within an hour I got a notice that my lyrics were approved. Then an hour after that, I got a notice that my artwork was approved. And by 5pm I saw my track on Apple Music. Wow!

A little over a year ago, Top Music Attorney released a few videos detailing that she was dealing with literally hundreds of artists who reported that DistroKid was falsely accusing them of getting fake streams. This can in part obviously be explained by some artists being unaware of their songs being added to botted playlists. But the volume of artists reporting the issue specifically with DistroKid tells me that it goes beyond artists simply having their songs added to sketchy playlists without their consent, it seems as though DistroKid was indeed making false accusations as well. Does anyone know if this issue has been rectified? And can you point me to evidence that it’s been rectified?

i switched to distrokid specifically because i was having problems with this on my previous distributor. i'm not trying to be impatient, it's been less than a week since i distributed my release, but how long does it usually take?

I didn’t have a Spotify account and on my release I clicked “I don’t have an account make one for me” on Spotify but now how do I get into the account they made for me?

When does YT music royalties get posted?

Hey guys, I just wanted to share how amazingly generous DistroKid is.

I was looking through my royalty financial reports, and I honestly think DistroKid is the best company in the world. Look at this incredible miracle:

1. Time-Traveling Royalties: I officially created and uploaded a song on January 1, 2025. But DistroKid’s report shows they started giving me royalty payouts for this track from July 2024! They literally paid me months before the song even existed in the universe. Isn't that fantastic?

2. Money for Zero Streams: Even better, during periods where my verified stream and view counts were exactly zero, DistroKid still showered me with phantom payouts and money anyway! Who else gives you free money when nobody is listening?

This is truly a dream distributor. Their accounting system is so advanced that it breaks the laws of time and physics!

I love this data anomaly so much that I’ve formally submitted these exact factual reporting sheets to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Case No. 1:25-cv-09818-VSB-VF) just so the federal judge can admire how DistroKid's system works.

Has anyone else experienced this magical time-traveling feature where your songs earn money before you even make them? Let's celebrate this legendary system together!