Blog · Releases & distribution
Releasing music without a label: what distributors take and what stays yours
Three pricing models split the distributor market: annual subscription, per-release fee with a cut, direct-to-fan. What they cost, what they pay out — and the questions before the contract.
One service sits between your finished recording and the streaming platforms: the distributor. It delivers the music to the platforms, collects the money and pays it out — and the market splits into three pricing models that differ more than the providers' landing pages suggest. The three providers named below work with bands anywhere; where a collecting society enters, the names are German — GEMA and GVL — and what runs in your own country is yours to check.
The three models
Annual subscription: pay while you stay
A fixed amount, unlimited releases, all earnings stay with you. Example of the model: 23.99 euros a year on a major provider's smallest tier. The question that decides this model: what happens to your releases when you cancel the subscription?
Per release plus a cut: pay once, share forever
A one-time fee per release, after which the provider keeps a share of earnings permanently. Example of the model: 9.99 dollars per single, 14.99 per album, 9 percent of digital revenue — no annual fee, the release stays up. This model only gets expensive once you earn a lot.
Direct-to-fan: your own shop
A shop of your own that complements a distributor: listeners buy directly from you and the platform keeps a share — on the best-known one, 15 percent on digital (10 above 5,000 dollars of sales), 10 percent on physical, plus payment processing. The people who already know you buy here; reaching everyone else remains the distributor's job.
What a distributor does
A distributor is a service with three jobs: deliver, account, pay out. Advances, marketing and guidance are label work — if you want those, you are looking for a label. In return, the usual models leave all rights in songs and recordings with you; the provider gets a licence to deliver them, and its reach ends there. Whether exactly that is in your provider's terms is what you check before signing — it is the most important sentence of the contract.
Where the streaming money lands
The distributor pays you the recording's share of streams and downloads — one part of what your music earns. The writing side — composition and lyrics — is settled separately by the platforms through collecting societies; in Germany that is GEMA. When the recording runs on the radio or in a bar, that money arrives from yet another direction: in Germany, the GVL.
And how the distribution money is divided inside the band, you settle among yourselves — it is on your split sheet, written before the release.
Four questions for every provider
What happens on cancellation?
On the subscription model this is the deciding answer: do the releases stay online after cancellation, or do they vanish? A catalog tied to a subscription is a different decision from one that stays put.
How and from when do payouts run?
From what amount is money paid out, to where, and what does the payout cost? Small sums under a high threshold are effectively frozen.
What costs extra?
Content ID on YouTube, pre-saves, extra shops, cover licences — much of it costs extra. Price your actual needs, item by item, before comparing landing pages.
Are the rights really in the contract?
The sentence "all rights remain with the artist" belongs in the terms, and the advertising alone does not count. Find it — and find how long the provider may keep delivering your recordings after the contract ends.
FAQ: Collecting societies, direct-to-fan and choosing a model
Do we still need the collecting societies?
Yes, both — a distributor replaces no collecting society. It only pays out the platforms' money for the recording. In Germany, GEMA collects for whoever wrote the song and the GVL for everyone on the recording when it is broadcast or publicly played; how your own country divides those rights is a question for its societies. Distributor, writing side, recording side — three separate pots, and you have to register in each yourself.
Is direct-to-fan enough on its own?
For a start it can — the people who know you from shows buy there, and the share is manageable. But a distributor is what puts you on the streaming platforms, where strangers find you — the two complement each other rather than compete.
Which model is right for us?
Calculate with your real numbers, and the providers' examples stay theirs: how many releases do you plan, how much revenue is realistic? A subscription pays off with many releases and little revenue, a revenue-share model with few releases — and switching is possible but laborious with old releases.
Where the release goes
With the release out, the next deadline is yours to pick. Our catalog lists contests, festivals and open calls with deadlines — free, no account.
The short version
A distributor has three jobs: deliver, account, pay out. Three models: annual subscription with full earnings, per-release fee with a permanent cut, direct-to-fan as the complement. Four questions before the contract: cancellation, payouts, extras, rights. And the distributor's money is one pot of three — the collecting societies run beside it, and how you divide among yourselves is on the split sheet.
Provider prices and terms change constantly; all figures come from the official pages named below, as of September 2026. The named providers are examples of their model, never a recommendation.
Sources
- distrokid.com, pricing page (annual subscription model, as of September 2026)
- cdbaby.com, „CD Baby Cost“ (per-release fee plus revenue share model, as of September 2026)
- Bandcamp help, revenue share article (direct-to-fan shares, as of September 2026)
Updated: 2026-09-09
General information, not legal or tax advice. Any figures are examples, not commitments.
Last reviewed: 09.09.2026