The Kid Sold Out.
Distribute With Artists,
Not Private Equity.

In 2021, private equity took DistroKid. In 2025, they raised prices. In July 2026, DistroKid agreed to hand majority control to a bigger PE firm. Guess what happens next.

See the Artist-Owned Alternative

How the kid became a private equity asset.

Every event below is sourced. Click any date's source link to see it for yourself.

2013
DistroKid launches. Founded by Philip Kaplan. Artist-run. Flat $19.99 per year, unlimited uploads.
August 2021
Insight Partners takes majority stake through a recapitalization. Investment values DistroKid at $1.3 billion. First major PE ownership.
May 2023
Quiet price hike. Musician plan jumps from $19.99 to $22.99 (+15%). Musician Plus and Ultimate also up 11 to 13%. Pricing page updated with no direct customer notification.
Source: RouteNote
April 2025
Second quiet price hike. Musician goes from $22.99 to $24.99. Musician Plus $39.99 to $44.99. Total under Insight ownership: +25% on the base plan.
July 2026
DistroKid agrees to hand majority control to CVC Capital Partners. Financial terms not officially disclosed. MBW's January 2026 reporting on the sale process cited a valuation around $2 billion. Deal expected to close Q3 2026. Insight Partners retains a minority stake.

The $24.99 that actually costs $388.

Here's what DistroKid charges an average active artist, using DistroKid's published plan pricing and add-on fees documented by Alera's 2026 breakdown.

Musician Plus plan (annual) $44.99
Leave a Legacy (per single, one-time) $29
Leave a Legacy (per album, one-time) $49
YouTube Content ID (per single, per year) $4.95
YouTube Content ID (per album, per year) $14.95
DistroKid's take of your Content ID revenue 20%
Store Maximizer (per release, per year) $7.95
Shazam and Discovery Pack (per song, per year) $0.99
Cover Song Licensing (per cover, per year) $12
Loudness Normalization (one-time) $2.99
Tidal Master and MQA $8.99
Additional artists beyond plan limit extra per artist
Typical active artist releasing 8 singles + 1 album, Year 1 with standard add-ons $388

Total calculated by Alera's 2026 breakdown. That's roughly 15 times the $24.99 headline price. And that number doesn't include the 20% cut of your YouTube Content ID revenue.

See what a distributor built for artists, not PE, looks like.

Privately owned by artists and operators.
No PE. No hidden fees. No plans to sell.

Meet DistroFlowy

Already on DistroKid?

We'll walk through your DistroKid statements with you and show you where you are wasting money. We'll also do a complimentary royalty review to make sure you are not leaving money on the table.

We surveyed 2,311 indie artists. 62% either aren't registered with a PRO, or don't know if they are. That's real money slipping past them every month.

If a migration makes sense after that, we'll work with you to get it done with no downtime.

Book A Free DitchTheKid Audit

Questions artists ask.

Is DistroFlowy actually independent?

Yes. Privately owned by artists and operators. Not funded by private equity. Not for sale.

Do you distribute to all the major stores?

Yes. Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Deezer, and every other major DSP.

What if I want to switch from DistroKid?

Book a free 15-minute call. We walk you through migration one-on-one. No forms, no support tickets, no waiting.

Who is behind this site?

DistroFlowy, part of Make Our Music, an artist-owned music company. This site exists because artists deserve to know when their distributor changes hands.

Under one PE firm, DistroKid raised prices 25% in four years.

A bigger PE firm just signed a deal to take majority control.
There is no world in which prices go down from here.

Meet DistroFlowy

P.S. This isn't just DistroKid.

The whole "indie" distributor space is consolidating. TuneCore is owned by a publicly traded company. CD Baby is now owned by a major label. See DitchTheCore.com and DitchTheBaby.com for the full picture.

This site was built by DistroFlowy, an artist-owned music distributor. Comparative statements about DistroKid are based on publicly sourced facts and DistroKid's own published pricing.

DistroKid is a trademark of DistroKid, LLC. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by DistroKid.