DistroKid is a service by an independent digital music distribution service, founded in 2013 by American entrepreneur Philip J. "Pud" Kaplan. DistroKid principally offers musicians and other rights-holders the opportunity to distribute and sell or stream their music through

online retailers Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of ...

such as iTunes/

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple ...

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

Pandora In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek: , derived from , ''pān'', i.e. "all" and , ''dōron'', i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hes ...

Amazon Music Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights ma ...

YouTube Music YouTube Music is a music streaming service developed by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google. It provides a tailored interface for the service, oriented towards music streaming, allowing users to browse through songs and music videos on YouTube bas ...

, Tidal,

Deezer Deezer is a French online music streaming service. It allows users to listen to music content from record labels, as well as podcasts on various devices online or offline. Created in Paris, Deezer currently has 90 million licensed tracks in i ...

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbrella brand for iHear ...

and others.

History

DistroKid was developed in 2012 by

Philip J. Kaplan Philip J. "Pud" Kaplan (born October 30, 1975) is an American entrepreneur and computer programmer who has founded several Internet companies. He created the Fucked Company website in May 2000 and wrote the corresponding book ''F'd Companies' ...

and launched in mid 2013. It began as a side-feature of Kaplan's music

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...

, Fandalism, and was split out into its own company in 2015. In July 2015, a DistroKid release by musical act

Jack & Jack Jack & Jack are an American pop-rap duo from Omaha, Nebraska, consisting of Jack Johnson and Jack Gilinsky, based in Los Angeles, California. After success via the social media app Vine, the duo turned to careers as musicians. Their 2014 single " ...

went to number one worldwide on the iTunes charts. This was particularly notable because DistroKid does not take a commission or royalties, making this the first time a number-one charting artist was able to keep 100% of their earnings. In May 2016, DistroKid launched a feature called "Teams" that makes it possible for royalties to be automatically sent to collaborators and shareholders. Since then DistroKid has made several other developments including partnering with

to support cross-platform uploads for Spotify artists who upload directly or have direct licensing deals with the company and an investment from

Silversmith Capital Partners A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary great ...

. The company launched an initiative in 2021, allowing record labels to mine its data in search of new artists. It receives a finder's fee from record labels for each new artist signed by labels who discover the artist through its platform. The first label to take part in the initiative was

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

References

Distribution companies of the United States Internet properties established in 2013 Entertainment companies established in 2013 American companies established in 2013 {{Music-company-stub