DistroKid vs. TuneCore vs. CD Baby: what each costs a year

DistroKid, TuneCore and CD Baby all deliver your music to Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and the other major services. Where they differ is in how you pay. DistroKid and TuneCore charge a yearly subscription that covers as many releases as you like. CD Baby charges once for each release and keeps a share of what it earns.

This guide sets the three side by side on what each costs a year, what each keeps and what the price covers. Audora is the fourth column, so you can see a different model next to them.

DistroKid vs. TuneCore vs. CD Baby at a glance

Sources: DistroKid's pricing page, TuneCore's pricing page and CD Baby's cost page, each read on November 11, 2026. The promotion row comes from DistroKid's free tools page, TuneCore's Accelerator page and CD Baby's promotion page. Audora's own prices are on our pricing page.

What each one costs a year

The yearly plans cost the same however much you release. CD Baby's cost follows the number of releases. These rows use each provider's entry price.

Two things sit outside the table. DistroKid's and TuneCore's fees continue for as long as you want the music in the stores, so a catalog that stays up for 10 years costs 10 yearly fees. CD Baby's fee ends at the release, and its 9% continues: on $1,000 of streaming revenue that's $90, and on $10,000 it's $900.

To see what your own streams might earn before anyone's cut, try the Spotify royalty calculator.

DistroKid: a yearly fee, then the extras

DistroKid sells three plans, all billed yearly: Musician at $24.99, Musician Plus at $44.99 and Ultimate from $89.99. Every plan includes unlimited uploads, royalty splits and its free promo tools. DistroKid's plan comparison puts a release date you choose, a pre-order date, your own label name and daily stats on Musician Plus and Ultimate. If you plan a release around a date, the working price is $44.99.

On top of the plan come the Album Extras, priced per release:

• Social Media Pack, for YouTube and TikTok matches: $4.95 a single or $14.95 an album each year, plus 20% of the ad revenue.
• Store Maximizer, which sends a release to stores DistroKid adds later: $7.95 an album each year.
• Discovery Pack, which registers a release with Gracenote, Luminate and other databases: $0.99 a song each year.
• Leave a Legacy: $29 a single or $49 an album, paid once.

Leave a Legacy matters because of what DistroKid's help center says about not renewing: your music is removed from the services, unless a release has that extra. Our guide to DistroKid's pricing has a calculator for your own catalog, and leaving DistroKid covers the exit.

TuneCore: three plans and a 20% social fee

TuneCore's Unlimited plans are Rising Artist at $24.99 a year, Breakout Artist at $44.99 and Professional at $54.99. All three cover unlimited releases, a release date you choose, revenue splits and YouTube Content ID. Breakout Artist adds Store Automator and Cover Art Creator. Professional adds a custom label name and more than one artist, at $14.99 a year for each extra artist.

TuneCore keeps none of your store royalties on these plans. Its pricing page lists a 20% fee on what you earn from TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

The older pay-per-release option is still sold. TuneCore's help center, on what TuneCore costs, lists $24.99 a year for a single, and $44.99 for an album's first year, then $56.49 each following year.

Either way, the yearly payment keeps the music up. TuneCore says an Unlimited plan that isn't renewed gets email reminders for 35 days, and after 42 days the releases are taken down from all stores. If you cancel the renewal yourself, the music comes down the day the plan expires. Our guide to TuneCore's cost per year runs the numbers for a growing catalog.

CD Baby: pay once, share 9%

CD Baby charges $9.99 to release a single and $14.99 to release an album, with no subscription and no yearly fee. Its cost page says it keeps 9% of your digital distribution revenue and pays you the other 91%. The fee includes YouTube Content ID, a free UPC and ISRCs, and its marketing tools.

CDB Boost is an add-on at $39.99 a release. It registers your songs with The MLC for mechanical royalties and your recordings with SoundExchange, and it makes the release available for sync licensing.

The model suits a catalog that grows slowly. A release you paid for once stays in the stores with nothing to renew, and the 9% is the cost of that for as long as it earns. Our Audora vs. CD Baby comparison goes further into the model and who owns CD Baby now.

The work around the release

A distribution fee gets a finished release into the stores. The release still has to be made: a cover that meets the stores' rules, a bio, a pitch and the weeks of posts that tell people it's out. Each of the three offers tools for parts of that, and which distributors also promote your release goes through them one by one.

When you compare prices, add what that work costs you. How much it costs to release a song prices each line, from cover art to the posting hours.

Where Audora fits

Audora is built around the release from start to finish. One monthly plan covers the delivery and the work around it:

• The presentation. Cover art made to the stores' spec and a bio in three lengths, yours to use with full commercial rights.
• A pitch with every release. Every release goes out with a pitch for the people who market it to the stores, written from your answers about the song.
• The campaign. Posts written in your voice for the weeks around release day, published when you approve them. TikTok, YouTube, Instagram (Stories included) and Facebook Pages post automatically, and nothing goes out until you approve it. Stories carry no link sticker, so your release link goes in your bio.
• Your royalties. We take nothing from your royalties on any plan. If you cancel and we keep your music distributed, we recover only our distribution costs from what it earns. Everything above that is still paid to you.

Distribution is on the paid plans and runs through The Orchard, the distribution network the major labels use. The exact steps for your release are in your account, each dated from the release day you pick, and Audora keeps adjusting them as it learns what works best for its artists. What every track gets shows the full release, and the prices are on our pricing page.

Which one fits you

• DistroKid if you release often and plan to stay subscribed.
• TuneCore if you release often and want a release date you choose on the $24.99 plan.
• CD Baby if you release now and then and would rather share 9% than pay every year.
• Audora if you want help with the cover, the pitch and the posts in the same place as the delivery.

If you're moving from one to another, the order matters. How to switch music distributors has the steps.