How To Switch Music Distributors (Without Losing Streams)

Music distribution is kind of a commodity nowadays. There are dozens of platforms all with different features, and each of them change year over year. Sometimes this means you need to switch music distributors, but how do you do this?

Well it’s actually quite simple, and you can do it without losing any streams in the process. Here’s the quick summary:

• Upload your music on your new music distributor, using the exact same information
• Wait until the new version ‘merges’ on DSPs with the old one
• Pull the release from the original distributor

That’s it! Let me show you the details.

Upload Your Music

The first step is to upload your music to your new music distributor using the exact same information as the first time. But which information? This information:

• Audio files
• Track names / release name
• ISRC codes
• Release date (choose Yes for “Has this single been previously released?”)
• Artist name

Stuff like genre, the audio preview time, label, songwriter information etc can be unique without causing problems. But chances are all of this will be the same as well unless you need to update something, or you’re a record label and you signed a previously released track.

On DistroKid here’s where you put in the ISRC code:

I do know people that have changed the audio file in this process and gotten away with it, but this isn’t officially supposed to work so I don’t recommend altering your audio file. Ideally make sure you’re using the exact same file.

Wait Until It Merges

Wait a few days, this will vary based on your new distributor. You’ll know the new upload worked if you go to the release on Spotify. See how it says “1 more release”?

This means that the release has successfully merged with the old version.

One warning i’ll give you, sometimes for a few hours or a day you might see two copies of your release. Don’t panic, it’s temporary, and most of the time it doesn’t even happen.

Pull The Old Release

Now that your release is merged, you can pull the old version! Personally I would wait another week or something to make sure, and also for other DSPs to ‘catch up’ as Spotify tends to be faster than most others. Here’s how you’d pull the release on DistroKid:

• Go to the release
• Click Edit Release
• Scroll to the bottom and click “Remove this release from all stores”

Sometimes it can take the distributor one or several weeks to pull the old release. For some reason many distributors are slower to remove releases than they are to get them live.

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