Onboarding

ONBOARDING

Welcome to onboarding.

This page is for accepted artists — three steps and your official artist is created. If we haven’t talked yet, start here:

STEP 1

Create your DistroKid account

Your DistroKid account is yours: it’s where your tax information goes, and it’s where DistroKid pays your 50% — directly to you. We never handle your accounting, your tax information or your payouts. DistroKid’s Musician plan is $24.99 a year — through our link you get 7% off your first year (about $23).

Signing up for DistroKid through our link gives you your dashboard: where you track how your audio and your artist are performing across every platform we deliver to — Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, all social media, every major streaming service, and international services beyond — over 20 platforms and counting.

DistroKid exists for one reason: so you can track and collect your money, every year.

And as we release new music for your artist, you’ll get an email confirming you are a 50% owner of that audio. Every release, in writing.

WHY DISTROKID

DistroKid Is Your Accountant

The yearly DistroKid fee isn’t paying to use a platform. It’s paying your accountant: DistroKid collects your revenue and shows you your own numbers — what’s working, which platform pays you the most, where your audio reaches — without waiting on a monthly report from anybody.

Your audio is delivered everywhere our distributor delivers: every major streaming service, social platforms, workout machines, TouchTunes jukeboxes — anywhere it plays, it earns, and DistroKid pays you your share.

Measure on the quarter: music money runs about 2–3 months behind your posts. Post for three months with your new audio, then read the first real report — that’s when you’ll see what’s working.

Your part is small: your tax information as an individual — or your company’s EIN if you’re monetizing as a business. That’s the B2B / B2C line, and it’s the only paperwork that’s yours.

What you’re hiring is organization: we create the artist and set everything up correctly from day one, so you can monetize right away — without having to learn the hundred little things that trip people up at the beginning.

STEP 2

Complete your onboarding

The minimum to create your official artist is $99, all-in — that’s $75 onboarding with us plus your first DistroKid year (about $24, 7% off through our link). One number, nothing hidden. It covers the setup of your artist name, your sonic identity, your first release and your royalty account. One fee, once — not a subscription, no recurring charges.

STEP 3

We create your artist

Your official artist name goes live. Your sonic identity — the sound of your artist name — is confirmed with you. Your first release is built around your art as the cover, registered and distributed to all major platforms, with you credited as a featured artist and promoted across our store, blogs and social. Streaming royalties split 50/50 on the back end. Forever.

OWNERSHIP

Who owns what — plain and simple

You keep 100% of your art and your IP. Your character, your logo, your images stay yours — we never own them. We use them, with your permission, for the release you’re earning on.

We keep 100% of the audio. The master recordings and the publishing stay in our name — registered and administered by us, the same way your art stays in yours.

Your 50% is a royalty partnership: a revenue channel attached to your content, running year by year. You collect half of everything the audio earns — without owning the audio, and without managing any of it.

Your first release is an EP — a minimum of five songs — that we build from your brand materials, your logo and your visual art, with the track listing and the SEO done by us and the sound matched to your sonic identity.

One honest note: if you release your own music and want control of your masters, this isn’t your lane — and that’s fine. This is for brands and creators who want a new revenue channel, not another job to manage.