music · DistroKid
You’re creating on DistroKid, which means…
The contract on DistroKid's terms page is not the one that carries your distribution deal — it points at that one in a single sentence and never reproduces it. What this page does settle is a transferable licence to everything you upload, running to DistroKid and to every other user, and a $100 ceiling on anything that goes wrong.
What they own
Nothing you upload. The clause is blunt: “Between you and DistroKid, DistroKid does not claim any ownership rights with respect to your User Content.” The company describes its own role as “a passive conduit” for whatever you send through it.
What you own
Your recordings and your copyright. The licence you grant here is “non-exclusive”, so nothing in this document stops you putting the same music somewhere else. What this document does not contain is your distribution deal: it names “the DistroKid Distribution Agreement” in one sentence, at a different address, and never sets out a word of it. This reading covers the document on the terms page and asserts nothing about that one.
What you don’t
Any of the money terms, and any real recourse. This contract sets no royalty rate, no split and no percentage — the words royalty, revenue and percent are not in it. What it does say is that fees “will be determined by DistroKid in its sole discretion and may be subject to change without notice to you”, and that DistroKid can “terminate these Terms, your Account, and your access to the Services at any time without notice”. Its liability to you “IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE IS LIMITED TO $100”.
What they can do with it
Copy it, reproduce it, publicly perform it, stream it, reformat it, translate it, excerpt it “(in whole or in part)”, re-post it and distribute it — “for any purpose on or in connection with the Services”, on a licence that is “fully paid” and “transferable”. And not only DistroKid: the same licence goes “to other users of the Services” at the same moment.
The clauses
The other contract, pointed at
DistroKid Terms of Service — opening section, and Privacy. As of September 1, 2024. ↗
Your use of DistroKid's distribution services, if applicable, is separately governed by the DistroKid Distribution Agreement, and any of its attachments or addendum, located here (https://www.distrokid.com/agreement).
… please refer to the Services privacy policy … which shall supplement and be incorporated into these Terms by reference.
Pointed at, not pulled in
This sentence does not bind you to the other contract. It says your distribution “is separately governed by” a different agreement — a statement about where that agreement applies, not an act of incorporation. There is no promise to be bound by it here, and no line of it is reproduced.
What incorporation looks like here
The document does pull one thing in, in the words lawyers use for it: the Privacy Policy “shall supplement and be incorporated into these Terms by reference.” That treatment is applied to one document, and it is not the Distribution Agreement. The closing paragraph then names what you actually signed — “These Terms and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and us” — with no third document in the sentence.
What these Terms cover
The website, the apps, and the services named inside “Services”: Slaps, DistroVid, Hyperfollow, Instant Share and Mixea. That list is where the split stops being clean — DistroVid is defined here as “DistroKid's music video distribution service”, so a distribution service sits inside the contract that carves “DistroKid's distribution services” out.
Not read here
The Distribution Agreement, “and any of its attachments or addendum”, is named in a single sentence of these Terms and never returned to in them — it appears once more on the page only as a link in the footer. Nothing in this reading says what it contains, because nothing in this document does. If you distribute through DistroKid, that is the contract to go and find.
The grant
DistroKid Terms of Service — User Content and Activity. ↗
You agree that, through our Services and at your direction, we are only acting as a passive conduit for your online distribution, storage, publication and/or other exploitation of your User Content. Between you and DistroKid, DistroKid does not claim any ownership rights with respect to your User Content. By uploading, publishing, modifying, displaying or otherwise submitting User Content to any part of the Services (excluding Direct Messages and/or content uploaded through Instant Share), you automatically grant … to us, as well as to other users of the Services, a non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license to use, copy, reproduce, publicly perform, publicly display, communicate to the public, stream, listen to, make available, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part), transmit, re-post and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Services.
This one does cover music
User Content is defined in this document to include “audio recordings, musical compositions” among the things users submit. The licence below is not confined to comments and profile pages — what you upload to these Services is inside it.
Two words that aren’t here
The words perpetual and irrevocable appear zero times in this document. That is unusual for a platform licence and it is worth knowing. What replaces them is silence: the clause names no end point at all.
Transferable
DistroKid can hand this licence to another company — in a sale, or otherwise. The clause does not require your agreement or your notification.
And to other users
You are not only licensing DistroKid. The same sentence grants the same rights to every other user of the Services, which is what makes the sharing features work and what you cannot walk back for anyone who already has it.
Fully paid
“fully paid” is the same idea as royalty-free. Nothing in this clause is owed to you for any of the uses it lists.
The licence that does end
DistroKid Terms of Service — User Content and Activity, Direct Messages and Instant Share. ↗
With respect to the use of Direct Messages and/or Instant Share, for the sole purpose of operating and enabling these portions of the Services, you additionally grant to us a non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license to use, host, store, search, scan and to share at your direction such Direct Messages and/or User Content, until you delete same from the applicable Services or until the Direct Messages and/or User Content are otherwise permanently removed.
An end date, in writing
This grant stops when you delete the file. The main content grant above says nothing about stopping. Same document, two different lifespans — and the shorter one covers your private messages, not your music.
Scan
The list of permitted acts here includes searching and scanning what you send privately. That verb is in this clause and not in the public-content grant above.
Sole purpose
This is narrower than the grant above it. The main grant is “for any purpose on or in connection with the Services”; this one is limited to running the messaging and file-sharing features.
Fees, at their sole discretion
DistroKid Terms of Service — Payments. ↗
We may also charge fees for your access and use of certain features of the Services. All such fees will be determined by DistroKid in its sole discretion and may be subject to change without notice to you. … Any refunds are in Distrokid's sole discretion. If at any time we are unable to charge the relevant fees from the payment method you provided we may suspend your access to the Services.
No number, and no notice
Patreon at least promises notice before a fee rises. This clause promises neither a figure nor a warning: the price can change “without notice to you”.
Refunds are discretionary
There is no refund entitlement in this contract. Whether you get money back is DistroKid's decision, stated as such.
A missed payment cuts access
If the card fails, access to the Services can be suspended — including the pages and links your listeners use.
One hundred dollars
DistroKid Terms of Service — Hold Harmless and Limited Liability. ↗
Your agreement to these Terms shall permanently and wholly bar you from any legal action of any sort towards DistroKid for the use of the Services or any resultant effects of any sort, shape, kind or type, including any statutory and/or tort actions, specifically inclusive of any legal, action of any type, kind, or sort.
… OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY, AND THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF OUR LICENSORS, TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTIES IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE IS LIMITED TO $100.
The only dollar figure
No royalty rate, no fee schedule, no percentage — but a cap. It is the only dollar figure in the contract, and it runs one way: whatever goes wrong, and however much it costs you, the ceiling written here is one hundred dollars.
Permanently and wholly
The sentence above the cap goes further than limiting damages; it says agreeing to the Terms bars legal action against DistroKid altogether. Read what it says, not what a court would make of it.
They can change it, and end it
DistroKid Terms of Service — Modifications, and Miscellaneous. ↗
Any such changes will become effective immediately upon your assent thereto. Continuing use of the Services after changes to the Terms have been posted shall be deemed assent to the changes. If you object to any such changes, your sole recourse will be to cease using the Services.
… These Terms and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and us with respect to your access to and use of the Services. We reserve the right to terminate these Terms, your Account, and your access to the Services at any time without notice. You may delete your Account at any time, for any reason, by following the instructions on the Site or Application.
Assent by silence
You agree to a new version by not leaving. There is no notification requirement in the clause — only posting.
Sole recourse
If you object to a change, the contract offers exactly one option: stop using the service. Nothing else is on the table.
The whole agreement, named
This is the sentence that settles which contracts you signed by using the site: these Terms and the Privacy Policy. The Distribution Agreement is not in it, and the word supersede is nowhere in this document — so nothing here overrides that contract, and nothing here takes it on.
Termination without notice
The account, and the links and pages that hang off it, can be ended at any time without warning. You can leave on the same terms — instantly, for any reason — but you are the only one who has to go looking for the instructions.
Due Dilly reads the paperwork and reports what it says. This is not legal advice.