DistroKid

I have not been paid my royalties. I have contacted Distrokid many times about this issue. They have been giving me the run around, every reason why they can't pay me. A lot of the money is from Spotify. They claim they can not see that Spotify owes me money but turns around and says they can see that Spotify is holding money. I don't understand how they can see the holding money part but can see that they owe me money doesn't make sense. They said I have to contact Spotify myself. Which I did and Spotify says Distrokid has to contact the Reporting Team at Spotify and they be happy to work with them. I went and told Distrokid this and they said they can't contact Spotify. Saying they can't do a counter claim, I was not asking for a counter claim. I clear stated in many emails that I just wanted them to reach out to the Reporting Team and ask about the withholdings. Distrokid went back and fourth with me to only say they can't do counter claims. I don't understand why they can't reach out to Spotify when they said they could. Also I don't understand why they don't get that I'm not asking for a counter claim. I am owed hundreds of dollars. I would like to be able to clear this up very soon.

I had used Distrokid for nine months as the pricing was very good - a once-a-year payment to upload as much content as you like. It also had more features at the time than some of the other distributors couldn't offer such as instant access to Spotify and Apple Music for artists. But ever since they have been cracking down on 'streaming fraud', they have harshly punished innocent artists who have dared to actually promote themselves and compete in the music industry by wiping their entire discography off of all stores, halting any future releases and worst of all: withholding any future royalties by disabling their Distrokid bank account and setting all past and present royalties to zero. They did this all without warning and with completely no communication until I had to browse past the "we don't actually want to be contacted" Contact page. The only warning I got was for only ONE of my releases for "editorial discretion" when I was preparing my next set of releases all spaced out from each other. This apparently meant that store "didn't want my single at this time". Nothing mentioned about my Distrokid bank being closed and all my future royalties and discography being at risk of being halted and wiped from existence until I had contacted them only to receive a copy-and-paste response. This all conveniently happened when I was close to 1 million monthly streams with them. I have been in many user curators Spotify playlists, have made well-targeted Facebook advertising to first world countries and have even had several Spotify editorial placements with the notable one being on "Lo-Fi Beats". To be called a fraud for getting genuine listeners to my song is absolutely insulting and withholding these royalties that I am absolutely owed for is just straight-up criminal. I had even sent proof straight from my Spotify for Artists account and asked them which of these streams/playlists are 'fraudulent'. No answer. Nothing. Any further attempts at contacting them feel like I'm shouting at a brick wall. Sadly, many people have also been affected by these false accusations of fraud. Take a look at their Twitter and see the people shouting at them that they can't access their royalties. Check the unofficial Reddit help desk and you see people with the exact same problem. This is absolutely two-faced behavior and dissatisfaction is an absolute understatement these people have with Distrokid. Also, Distrokid is blaming stores (namely Spotify) for the takedown of musicians' songs, but when they actually go and contact Spotify, they actually tell you that Distrokid is the one making all the takedown requests, proving that Distrokid is carrying out this shady rogue behavior. You may have a good relationship with Distrokid now, but once you actually start earning money for yourself using their service, they will take it all for themselves in a second and try to wipe your songs from existence all under the guise of 'streaming fraud'. They are actually punishing artists making a genuine attempt at competing in the industry and blaming you for an issue that is next to impossible to avoid. They are turning into another scam music company that everyone should avoid at all costs. I've now come to the conclusion that if you are using Distrokid just now, your music is not safe, your royalties are not safe, and if you rely on it, your livelihood is not safe. It is time to switch distributors before they come after you.