Why I Stopped Using DistroKid (Also Why You Should Reconsider If You Rely Solely on Streaming Services for Music)

2025.10.20

I received this message from DistroKid in my mail earlier (and no, this isn't about comparing different music distributors or streaming platforms, personally I think they're all bad and pretty much the same).

That's basically why. No, it's not just about the price increase, since with inflation, prices for everything, including these web services, are expected to rise steadily over the years. However, I think they have been doing it too often, in fact after checking out my account history they've already raised their fees twice (including this time) within about 3 to 4 years, which means a price increase every 2 years or so. That's too much for me, especially because...

... there is also the topic of why streaming services (for music in this case, though this applies to other kinds of streaming services as well) are bad. To be exact, I should probably call them "subscription services" here, because I think streaming as a technology is very convenient and useful, but not everything in life makes sense to pay for as a service, whether monthly or yearly. I'm fine with buying an album on Bandcamp or other similar platforms (there are tons of those out there actually, more than I expected at first) and then streaming the music if it's not convenient for me to download or transfer the files beforehand. In fact, I do that all the time. But I don't like the idea of paying money to Spotify or whatever, and when I stop paying, I own nothing in the end. (Well, technically, you still don't "own" the music even if you buy it, but you at least have the right to listen to it whenever and wherever you want, even without an online connection.) The industry wants to make everything a service, like electricity or water, but I really dislike that and it just doesn't make sense to me.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I like buying video games so that I can play them whenever I want. I like buying music I love so that I can listen to it whenever I want, without having to continuously pay money to some big tech company that exploits musicians or artists, and end up owning nothing once I stop paying. I like the feeling of knowing that my money goes to the musician I support, not into some CEO's pocket so that they can invest in more stocks and grow their wealth even further, or to someone mass spamming AI-generated music onto streaming platforms just to earn some extra bucks.

I've thought about canceling DistroKid and pulling my music from these (greedy) platforms in the past, but I never actually did so until now. Seeing the price increase was the last straw for me personally. Perhaps not many people will read or even find this short silly article of me venting my thoughts, but on the off chance someone does, I hope it makes you reconsider paying money to subscription services for listening to music (and films or TV shows as well)!

Buy some music on Bandcamp or whatever! There are tons of places where you can find great music, you don't really need AI generating playlists for you, do you? Even CDs are an option! (Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of CDs, but they still exist, right?) One day, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, even Bandcamp, they'll all be gone, but if you buy and download music, save it on your computer, phone or any other device and keep backups, you can listen to it forever, and maybe even pass it down to future generations! (Until aliens or AI completely eradicate humanity, of course.)