Distribution is the plumbing of the music business. It’s not glamorous, but if it’s broken, nothing else works — your songs simply don’t reach listeners. This overview skips the hype and lays out exactly what song distribution does, what it costs, and how to think about it like a musician running a small business, because that’s what you are.

What Song Distribution Actually Does

A distributor takes your finished audio file and metadata (title, artist name, songwriter credits, release date) and delivers it to streaming and download platforms — Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and 150+ others. It also collects your royalties from those platforms and passes them back to you. That’s the whole job, stripped of marketing language: deliver the file correctly, collect the money, pay it out.

The Real Cost of Getting Music Live

Pricing varies wildly across the industry, and it matters more than most new artists realize. DistroKid charges $44.99/year for unlimited uploads. TuneCore starts at $24.99/year per release plus additional per-cover fees and a 20% commission if you distribute to social platforms. CD Baby charges $9.95 per single up front and then takes a 9% royalty commission forever, on every stream, indefinitely.

Globex Music takes a different approach: releases start at $1, with no annual fee and no recurring subscription tied to your catalog. You pay once per release and your music stays live. For artists releasing frequently — especially those doing cover songs — this pricing structure changes the math significantly over a year of consistent output.

Cover Songs Need Licensing, Not Just Distribution

Here’s where a lot of musicians get tripped up: distributing a cover song legally requires a mechanical license, separate from the distribution deal itself. Without it, your cover can get pulled or blocked after release, wasting the moderation time and momentum you already put into it. Globex Music includes automatic mechanical licensing with every cover song submission, so there’s no separate paperwork, no extra licensing platform to manage, and no guessing whether your release is compliant.

Moderation Speed Is a Business Variable

Every day your release sits in review is a day it’s not earning, not getting playlisted, and not building momentum. Slow moderation isn’t just annoying — it’s a cost. Fast review turnaround means you can release on schedule, promote on schedule, and keep a consistent output calendar instead of building your plans around unpredictable wait times.

Payout Thresholds Matter More Than They Seem

Some services let royalties sit until you hit a high payout minimum. Globex Music pays out starting from $10 USD, which means smaller, more frequent releases — like covers — can actually convert into real, withdrawable income instead of accumulating in limbo for months.

Catalog Stability: The Underrated Factor

Ask what happens to your catalog if you stop paying an annual fee. With subscription-based distributors, missing a renewal can mean your entire catalog gets pulled from every platform — years of releases, gone. A one-time payment per release model avoids that risk entirely: what you release stays live, permanently, without a recurring bill hanging over your back catalog.

Thinking Like a Business Owner

Treat every release as a line item. Ask: What does it cost to get live? How long until it’s actually available to listeners? What licensing is required, and is it handled for me? What’s the payout threshold, and how long until I see that money? When you run the numbers across a full year of releases — especially if you’re putting out covers regularly — low per-release cost, included licensing, fast moderation, and a low payout minimum aren’t nice extras. They’re the difference between distribution that supports your output and distribution that quietly drains it.

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