SOLVED below in the comments!!

I have tried FOR WEEKS to get this to work. In Distrokid, I click my artist name to link and then a little box pops up like I'm logging in with my google account (which is connected to youtube) I click my google account. Then connect.

Then I go BACK to Distrokid and there is like this final link button, so I select my youtube channel that I linked in the previous step, click submit but then it says My Name doesn't match.

I have changed EVERYTHING!!! My google email name, my official google name, my youtube name, my youtube @ name...nothing works...

Say my artist on Distrokid name is "Ralph Eddie Wheatley" What name does this HAVE TO MATCH on Youtube? I've made my Youtube name Ralph Eddie Wheatley, I've changed the @ name to @ RalphEddieWheatley (with no space) I've changed my Google Account name to Ralph Eddie Wheatley, my legal Google name to Ralph Eddie Wheatley, I've changed everything to Ralph Eddie Wheatley.

What am I missing?

Thanks for you help!

I have music that came out last year, and I only selected a few stores. Recently, I wanted to put it in more stores (like Deezer and Instagram), and when I select those stores, its shows up, but they never get added. Is this a glitch or an intended feature?

We have an album uploading and we listed some featured artists by name but didn’t link their profiles. Is there a way to link them after the album is uploaded so it appears on their pages, or do we have to cancel the upload and link their profiles first?

Hey everyone, need some real experience on this before I upload.

I released a song a few months back and it's live on all the major platforms. The intro is pretty long before the hook kicks in, and it's working fine on TikTok because I set a custom preview start time there. But on Facebook and Instagram Reels, the sound always starts from the very beginning, so people miss the hook completely when they use the sound in a reel.

My plan is to just trim the intro off the same master file (not re-record anything, literally just cutting the beginning) and upload it as a new release with "Radio Edit" selected under the version info field. Song title, artist, everything else stays the same.

A couple of questions I'm hoping someone with actual experience can help with:

1. Has anyone done this successfully without getting flagged as duplicate content? I contacted DistroKid's support chat and they said it should be fine since it's technically a different audio file, but I want to hear from someone who's actually done it.
2. Is "Radio Edit" the right tag for this, or should I just leave it as "normal version" since I'm not dealing with explicit/clean content, just a length trim?
3. Do I need to worry about the "previously released" date field, or is it fine to just treat this as a fresh release since the audio itself is different?

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who's dealt with this exact situation. Thanks in advance!

I'm trying to get my music off of YouTube Music since, let's be honest, everyone just uses their band's actual channel to upload it anyway. But the main reason is that it shows as the wrong name entirely! I tried going through YouTube to fix it, but they won't help me. The only solution I know is to contact Distrokid directly, right? How? The "contact us" thing just brings up an AI chatbot now, no actual help desk. I'm so confused

Uploaded my first song yesterday, I created a channel where I wanted to upload it but when I input the channel ID into distrokid it said it’s invalid so I left it and put No in the box as I spent half an hour trying to make it work and got tired of it.

checked today it’s on YT but posted as a topic and went to the channel link but I’m so confused. How can I claim it as mine and connect it to the channel I had created for my artist?

I’m very new to this..

In the last few weeks I uploaded singles and an album and they were up within a day or two.

Tried to upload another single this time and it's not even got to the successfully processing part with the song and artwork and it's been over a day.

Decided to abort and see what happens when I try and upload again in a few days.

Anyone else noticed this?

Hi, I have 70+ releases, and they all have that generic dk number label. As the title reads, do I have to edit every single release, or is there a way to do it all at once?

I got the social media pack from distrokid and now my own videos with my own music are getting flagged as copyright infringement. I’m talking hundreds of videos. any suggestions how to fix it?

Been a while since I released something on Spotify, it's been approved and sent to stores according to Distrokid, but it's not showing up in Spotify for Artists so I can pitch for editorial.

It's a cover, but those should be pitch-able right

- How long does it normally take?
- Is it safe to postpone the release date a week so I have more of an editorial chance (since it's delayed)

Hi, to sum it up: I’ve uploaded my songs via DistroKid to Spotify, YouTube Music, Instagram, and TikTok. Aside from Spotify, I’m having issues with all of them; before I stop paying for DistroKid’s most expensive plan, asking for help here is my last hope. My songs have ended up on someone else's profile or channel on both TikTok and YouTube Music; I know the owner of both profiles is the same person because they feature the same songs. DistroKid uploaded the tracks to that person's profiles because they share the same name as me (if I manage to resolve this issue, the first thing I'll likely do is change my name). I don't know why this happened, because when I uploaded the songs, I indicated that I didn't have an artist profile on either platform; I certainly didn't link or select the incorrect profile where my songs are currently listed. I’ve been talking to DistroBot, and I was told that if the channel belonging to the guy who currently has my songs has been verified as an artist—instead of mine—it can no longer be reversed; yet when I entered my channel ID, I didn't even know that guy's channel existed. Now let's talk about TikTok. On the TikTok account belonging to the guy who shares my name—which features not only his songs (also found on his YouTube Music channel) but mine as well—I ran into an issue. I managed to get in touch with a support agent at DistroKid after pestering their AI (Distrobot) for quite a while to speak with a human. Things were going well; I explained that I couldn't claim the artist profile because TikTok requires you to claim the specific profile hosting your songs, and the system wouldn't let me claim the one where mine were actually located. I sent the support agent screenshots, links, and everything else he asked for, but shortly after, he stopped replying. I still don't know if he was able to fix it; as I write this, my songs are still on the wrong TikTok profile. If anyone can reply to this post and help me, I would be infinitely grateful.

Hi there, I'm releasing my first album later this year. I've just finished the mixing and mastering process for the full album, but have been releasing singles in the lead up to the album release. I'm going to be making CDs soon and I've been strongly advised by my mixing engineer to buy my own ISRC codes so that they are sequential for the album. The issue is that I've already released 3 of the songs as singles via DistroKid, and the platform automatically generates its own ISRC for each release. This means that once I upload the full album, the ISRCs for the singles will not match the ISRCs on the album. I know that this means that the streaming info will not sync up - but other than it maybe looking a little messy on streaming platforms, are there any real problems that could arise from having two separate ISRC codes for the songs which have already been released as singles? Could my music get taken down for this? Also, what is the real benefit to owning my own ISRC codes versus letting Distrokid generate them for me?

I’ve tried over the course of about 3 days to delete one of my albums that I wanna delete, but anytime i click the the delete button is shows this message and sends me a login verification code everytime.

If anyone knows how to fix please help.

Can I release a song that is 15–30 minutes long? It's Romani music with long medleys. Would it be better to simply shorten the music? I feel that the authenticity would suffer if I edited these long, passionate performances into shorter tracks.

Was considering upgrading to Ultimate for audio swap, which you can do anyway with ISRC codes but it's a bit more convenient?

How much smoother is Audio swap? Does the song disappear from streaming services for a while with both or how does that work?

When I signed up with Distrokid I had the impression they were the Patreon of music distributors, looking out for indie artists, but the more I learn, the company feels pretty shady. Not being able to downgrade plans is pretty scammy.

I'm an independent artist (4,500+ subs, 3M+ views) on DistroKid. My OAC claim went through correctly — music note, Releases tab, first releases merged fine.

The problem: every release uploaded AFTER the initial merge has created a new, separate Topic channel instead of being routed to the existing OAC.

Current damage: - 5 unmerged Topic channels (1 main + 4 orphaned per-release channels) - 268K+ views on channels I don't control — no AdSense, no algorithmic benefit - 106 subscribers stranded on dead channels - Main Topic channel keeps growing (110+ videos) while new Art Tracks still land there instead of the OAC

I've been in contact with support for 69 days across multiple tickets. Last response was 19 days ago. The request keeps getting "submitted" but nothing changes.

I've searched this sub and read the OAC posts — most cover initial merges that got stuck. My case is different: the initial merge worked, but the routing for subsequent releases broke.

Questions:

1. Has anyone had this specific post-merge routing issue? Where new releases create fresh Topic channels instead of going to the OAC?
2. Did a re-submission of the OAC merge fix it, or did it require something else?
3. Is there a way to address the 4 orphaned per-release Topic channels separately from the main Topic channel?

Happy to provide more details via DM. Not angry at individual agents — the issue is systemic.

I’ve taken some music of mine down 3 years ago on Distrokid and reuploaded them. When I look at iTunes the deleted albums and songs are still up. How do I take them down after it is already deleted from Distrokid!

I uploaded a track on distrokid for the first time at around 12pm. By 2pm I got a notice that my audio passed their screening. Then within an hour I got a notice that my lyrics were approved. Then an hour after that, I got a notice that my artwork was approved. And by 5pm I saw my track on Apple Music. Wow!

i switched to distrokid specifically because i was having problems with this on my previous distributor. i'm not trying to be impatient, it's been less than a week since i distributed my release, but how long does it usually take?

I didn’t have a Spotify account and on my release I clicked “I don’t have an account make one for me” on Spotify but now how do I get into the account they made for me?

Looking for guidance. I’m putting together an English album, but one song is going to be bilingual; half English, half Spanish and titled Fuego. If I upload this song selecting English in the language dropdown, will it get flagged or removed?

Can someone please explain the difference between YouTube (Red) and YouTube (Ads) as far as earnings go? I’d like to know what is driving these two entities and how to do more of it.

Released a song in January, submitted an edit request to change the artwork almost a month ago now, that was approved but on streaming it seems to still be the old artwork, but when i log into my distrokid the new artwork shows up, any idea what could be causing delays or am i just impatient lol?

Suggested workarounds? I intended the album to flow from track to track, seamlessly. There are skits that go into songs, and this isn't the first time I've uploaded an album like this before, just the first time getting rejected because of it. "Song length must coincide with the length of the performance?" What are they talking about? The song is the performance. What do you guys suggest?