By Bo Valpeters, Co-Founder of Audora
Most artists pick a distributor the way they pick a phone plan: compare the price on the front page and click. Distribution is closer to a lease than a purchase, though. Your music sits on someone else's account for years, and the terms that matter most only show up when something changes: you stop paying, you want to leave, or a store pulls a track.
Here are the seven things worth checking first. None of them depend on which distributor you choose.
1. What happens to your music if you stop paying
Some distributors charge a yearly fee per artist, some charge per release, and some take a share of your royalties. Each model has a different failure mode. With a yearly fee, a lapsed card can mean your whole catalog comes down from the stores. With a per-release fee, releases usually stay up, but every new one costs extra. Find the sentence in the terms that says what happens on non-payment, and read it before you upload anything.
2. Who owns your ISRCs and UPCs
Every recording has an ISRC, and every release has a UPC. Your stream counts, playlist placements and chart history hang on those codes. If a distributor assigns them, ask whether you can take them with you when you leave. Keeping your ISRCs is what lets a song keep its streams and playlist spots when it moves.
3. How leaving actually works
Ask how a switch works in practice: will they release your catalog to another distributor, how long does a takedown take, and do they charge for it? The safe order is always the same: deliver the release through the new distributor with the same ISRCs and UPC, wait until it is live everywhere, and only then take the old one down. A distributor that makes this hard is telling you something.
4. Who you can reach when something breaks
A misattributed track, a release that went live on the wrong date, or a profile merged with another artist of the same name. These happen to everyone eventually. Check whether you can reach a person, how long replies take, and whether support differs between price tiers.
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5. How the money reaches you
Look past the headline split. Check the payout threshold and what happens to balances below it, withdrawal fees and currency conversion, how far royalty statements lag behind streams, and whether you can split payments with co-writers and producers automatically or have to pay them yourself.
6. What else you are agreeing to
Read the term and exclusivity sections. Some services enroll your music in YouTube Content ID, publishing administration or sync licensing by default. Those can be useful, but they can also cause claims on your own videos, or tie up rights you meant to keep. Know which of them are on, and how to turn them off.
7. What happens to your release after release day
Distribution gets your song onto the stores. It does not get anyone to listen. Check which tools come with it, such as pre-save links, playlist pitching, release pages and stats, and which you will need to find, and pay for, elsewhere.
The short version
Before you upload, find three sentences in the terms: what happens if you stop paying, what happens to your codes if you leave, and what you are opting into by default. If you cannot find them, ask. Any distributor worth signing with will answer in writing.
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Bo Valpeters is the Co-Founder and CTO of Audora, a label for independent artists that handles distribution, release planning and promotion while the artist keeps their rights. He writes about the practical side of releasing music, including a comparison of DistroKid alternatives.
