DistroKid launches DistroKid Publishing with Kobalt: 80% of royalties for a one-time 75 dollar fee

DistroKid has switched on DistroKid Publishing, a publishing administration service built on Kobalt's systems. It was previewed on the DistroKid blog in early October and went live on 11 November, according to Music Business Worldwide, Hypebot and Billboard.

The terms are simple. Songwriters keep 80% of the publishing royalties the service collects, pay a one-time setup fee of 75 dollars and are not locked in: they can cancel or move their administration later. Kobalt, which Billboard notes was acquired by Primary Wave in July, supplies the collection and registration infrastructure. The launch also comes shortly after CVC Capital Partners agreed to take a majority stake in DistroKid.

Not everyone can sign up straight away. Writers need at least one release distributed through DistroKid and more than 50 dollars in streaming revenue over the past year, and eligibility is rolling out gradually. A company representative told Billboard that covers, mash-ups, remixes and fully AI-generated tracks are excluded, because the service is built for original compositions.

For electronic producers, that last point matters. A lot of club output is remixes and edits, and those will not count here. Original tracks are a different story: many independent techno and house producers have never registered their compositions with a publisher or collecting society at all, which means mechanical and performance income from streams and broadcasts can go uncollected. A low cost administrator connected to the distributor you already use removes some of that friction.

For writers in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe, it is worth checking how the service sits alongside your own society membership, such as BumaStemra, before you sign. Administration deals and direct society memberships can overlap, and the details differ by country. The Music Network reported that it has asked DistroKid, Kobalt and APRA AMCOS how the service works with existing rights arrangements in Australia, which shows these questions are still being worked out market by market.

The bigger picture is that distributors are moving into publishing. Fees, revenue shares and exit terms differ, so compare the offer against what you would collect through your society and any existing admin deal before moving your catalogue.