Find your music distributor in 30 seconds.
Tell us your monthly streams and how often you release. We'll show you the one distributor that pays you the most — and which ones are quietly taking a cut.
At 50K streams/month, your annual streaming income is roughly $2,400. The math then comes down to two things: what the distributor charges, and what cut they take of every stream.
Ditto Music charges $19/yr with zero commission on your streams. That leaves you $2,381 at the end of the year.
Budget-conscious frequent releasers — and cheapest yearly unlimited.
Picking Ditto Music over AWAL at your stream volume saves you $341/year — or $1,705 over five years if your streams stay flat. If they grow, the gap grows with them.
The math, sources, and assumptions.
The data behind this tool: distributor pricing, verified
Last updated:
As of August 2026, unlimited-release music distribution starts at $19 to $24.99 per year: Ditto Starter at $19, UnitedMasters DEBUT+ at $19.99, Amuse Artist at $23.99, and DistroKid and TuneCore both at $24.99 with 100 percent streaming royalties. CD Baby charges one-time fees with a permanent 9 percent commission, and AWAL takes 15 percent on its selective Core tier. The verified reference table the tool computes with is below.
| Distributor | Entry plan | Plan structure | Streaming split | The gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DistroKid | Musician $24.99/yr (unlimited releases) | Annual subscription; Musician Plus $44.99, Ultimate $89.99 | 100 percent | Music comes down if you stop paying unless you buy the one-time Leave a Legacy option per release. |
| TuneCore | Rising Artist $24.99/yr (unlimited) | Annual subscription; Breakout $44.99, Professional $54.99 | 100 percent streaming | 20 percent commission on social platform royalties; publishing admin takes 20 percent plus a $75 per-songwriter setup fee. |
| CD Baby | Single $9.99 / album $14.99 (one-time) | One-time per release, music stays up | 91 percent (9 percent commission, permanent) | CDB Boost publishing add-on is $39.99 one-time per release; the old Pro Publishing tier was discontinued in 2023. |
| Ditto Music | Starter $19/yr (1 artist) | Annual subscription; Pro $59, Labels $109 | 100 percent streaming | Publishing and sync royalties on Pro and Labels plans carry a 15 percent commission. |
| AWAL | Free to distribute (selective, apply only) | Commission tiers | 85 percent on Core (15 percent commission) | AWAL+ takes 20 to 30 percent for added services; the higher tier buys services, not a better split. |
| Amuse | Artist $23.99/yr | Annual subscription; Artist Plus $39.99, Professional $59.99 | 100 percent streaming | The old free tier no longer exists; YouTube Content ID revenue carries a flat 15 percent fee. |
| UnitedMasters | DEBUT+ $19.99/yr | Annual subscription; SELECT $59.99, PARTNER invite-only | 100 percent streaming | The old free 10 percent-commission tier is gone; brand-deal placement depends on platform approval. |
Methodology
Worked examples
An artist with 50,000 monthly streams releasing 6 singles a year, on DistroKid Musician.
Annual streaming income roughly 600,000 streams at $0.004 equals $2,400. Minus the $24.99 plan fee, take-home is about $2,375 with 100 percent of royalties kept.
The same artist on CD Baby, paying one-time fees.
Six singles at $9.99 equals $59.94 once, but the permanent 9 percent commission costs about $216 per year at this volume. Take-home is roughly $2,124, and the gap vs flat-fee widens as streams grow.
A low-volume artist with 2,000 monthly streams who released 2 singles once and is not planning new releases.
Annual income is roughly $96. CD Baby's $19.98 was paid a single time, and its 9 percent commission costs about $8.64 per year, versus $24.99 every year on a subscription plan. From year two onward the one-time model wins at this volume, which is why pay-once distributors suit sparse catalogs.
Prices verified August 20, 2026 against each distributor's own pricing page where reachable; DistroKid and AWAL block automated checks, so their figures are corroborated across multiple independent sources and stated as of August 2026. Distributors change pricing often; the full 10-platform comparison with scenario math lives in the Chartlex distribution guide.
Changelog
- 2026-08-20All seven distributors re-verified against their own pricing pages: DistroKid to $24.99 Musician, TuneCore to its unlimited annual plans, CD Baby to $9.99/$14.99 one-time with CDB Boost, Amuse and UnitedMasters moved off their retired free tiers, AWAL corrected to tiered commissions. Reference table published on this page.
- 2026-05-03Prior review of comparison engine math and copy.