How much it really costs to start your own music distribution company | Kinjari Blog ![](https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=1772224890303752&ev=PageView&noscript=1) [ ![Kinjari logo](/imgs/logo.png) ](https://www.kinjari.com) [For Artists](https://www.kinjari.com/music-distribution) [For Labels](https://www.kinjari.com/music-distribution-for-independent-labels) [For Distributors](https://www.kinjari.com/music-distribution-api) Features [ All Features ](https://www.kinjari.com/features) [ Biolinks ](https://www.kinjari.com/biolinks) [ YouTube ContentID ](https://www.kinjari.com/youtube-contentid) [ Release Calendar ](https://www.kinjari.com/release-calendar) [ File Manager ](https://www.kinjari.com/file-manager) [ Revenue Splits ](https://www.kinjari.com/features/revenue-splits) [ Artist Tools ](https://www.kinjari.com/artist-tools) [Blog](https://www.kinjari.com/blog) [FAQ](https://www.kinjari.com/faq) [Sign In](https://app.kinjari.com/login) [Get Started](https://app.kinjari.com/register) ![Kinjari logo](/imgs/logo.png) [ Home ](https://www.kinjari.com) [ For Artists ](https://www.kinjari.com/music-distribution) [ For Labels ](https://www.kinjari.com/music-distribution-for-independent-labels) [ For Distributors ](https://www.kinjari.com/music-distribution-api) Features [ All Features ](https://www.kinjari.com/features) [ Biolinks ](https://www.kinjari.com/biolinks) [ YouTube ContentID ](https://www.kinjari.com/youtube-contentid) [ Release Calendar ](https://www.kinjari.com/release-calendar) [ File Manager ](https://www.kinjari.com/file-manager) [ Revenue Splits ](https://www.kinjari.com/features/revenue-splits) [ Artist Tools ](https://www.kinjari.com/artist-tools) [ Blog ](https://www.kinjari.com/blog) [ FAQ ](https://www.kinjari.com/faq) [ Sign In ](https://app.kinjari.com/login) [ Get Started ](https://app.kinjari.com/register) Fri, Oct 2, 2026 How much it really costs to start your own music distribution company ===================================================================== The real cost of starting a music distributor on bought infrastructure: $199/mo for the first 2,000 tracks, progressive catalogue bands, 10% of net DSP revenue, and the opex founders forget. On this page - [ What you are actually paying for ](#what-you-are-actually-paying-for) - [ The two charges that make up platform cost ](#the-two-charges-that-make-up-platform-cost) - [ Monthly catalogue bands ](#monthly-catalogue-bands) - [ Platform fees at common catalogue sizes ](#platform-fees-at-common-catalogue-sizes) - [ Three catalogue sketches with the full arithmetic ](#three-catalogue-sketches-with-the-full-arithmetic) - [ Early roster under 2,000 tracks ](#early-roster-under-2000-tracks) - [ Mid-size catalogue at 10,000 tracks ](#mid-size-catalogue-at-10000-tracks) - [ Larger operation at 50,000 tracks ](#larger-operation-at-50000-tracks) - [ What the monthly fee includes ](#what-the-monthly-fee-includes) - [ Costs founders forget when they only model $199 ](#costs-founders-forget-when-they-only-model-199) - [ How to model your margin ](#how-to-model-your-margin) - [ Who this suits, and who should build instead ](#who-this-suits-and-who-should-build-instead) - [ What the platform does not decide for you ](#what-the-platform-does-not-decide-for-you) - [ Frequently asked questions ](#frequently-asked-questions) - [ Does the monthly fee include human release review? ](#does-the-monthly-fee-include-human-release-review) - [ Can I set my own prices for artists and labels? ](#can-i-set-my-own-prices-for-artists-and-labels) - [ Do I need my own store deals to start? ](#do-i-need-my-own-store-deals-to-start) - [ Can I start without a finished customer product? ](#can-i-start-without-a-finished-customer-product) - [ Is the base plan only for existing distributors? ](#is-the-base-plan-only-for-existing-distributors) - [ Where do I create an account? ](#where-do-i-create-an-account) - [ Start with the catalogue you have ](#start-with-the-catalogue-you-have) **Starting a music distribution company on bought infrastructure usually costs $199 a month for the first 2,000 distributed tracks, plus 10% of net DSP revenue, plus your own operating costs on top.** The public platform fee is not the whole bill. Quiet months still carry the monthly charge. Strong months raise the revenue share. Support, payments, legal setup and marketing sit outside both. That is the real answer to the title. The rest of this guide separates the platform fee from the revenue share, shows how progressive catalogue bands stack at common sizes, and leaves room for the costs founders forget when they only look at a sticker price. The figures below come from Kinjari's music distribution API, [ARK](/music-distribution-api), checked against the current product page. For the product decision behind the spreadsheet, see [build or buy your music distribution operation](/blog/build-or-buy-music-distribution-platform). What you are actually paying for -------------------------------- From the outside, a music distributor looks like one product. Commercially it has two layers. **The customer product** is what artists and labels buy from you: how they join, what they pay, your branding, release screens, support and statements. You set that price list. Nothing in the platform fee forces you to mirror it. **The distribution operation** is what makes the promise hold after a release goes live: human review, store delivery, status handling, sales matching, statements and payouts. That is the layer bought infrastructure covers. Confuse the two and you either rebuild an upload form and call it a distributor, or you under-price the business because you only modelled the backend fee. The cost of starting the company is both layers. This guide prices the operating layer honestly, then adds the opex you still own. The two charges that make up platform cost ------------------------------------------ Bought distribution infrastructure usually has two commercial lines. Keep them separate when you set what artists or labels pay you. 1. **A monthly platform and catalogue fee.** This starts at $199 and rises with the number of distributed tracks. 2. **A 10% share of net DSP revenue.** That share is deducted from the net amount reported and received for the catalogue. The remaining team balance is then available for withdrawal through Wise. The catalogue fee pays for the operation being available every month: API, operations UI, human review, delivery, matching and statements. The revenue share moves with the money the catalogue actually earns. A quiet month still carries the platform fee. A strong month increases the revenue share without changing the catalogue bands. If you build your own customer pricing as a subscription, a commission, a per-release fee or a mix, treat those ARK lines as inputs. Do not copy them onto your public price list by default. Count distributed tracks the way the platform does: live catalogue volume that sits inside the monthly fee bands. A release with three tracks counts as three tracks once it is distributed, not as one release fee. That is why a label-heavy roster grows the bill faster than a sparse singles catalogue even when both have the same number of customer accounts. Monthly catalogue bands ----------------------- Extra distributed tracks are charged in graduated monthly bands. Crossing into a higher band does not reprice tracks already counted in a lower one. Catalogue bandMonthly rateFirst 2,000 distributed tracksIncluded in $1992,001 to 10,000$0.15 per additional track10,001 to 50,000$0.10 per additional track50,001 to 200,000$0.08 per additional trackAbove 200,000$0.05 per additional trackAt 50,000 tracks you pay the $199 base, $0.15 for tracks 2,001 to 10,000, and $0.10 for tracks 10,001 to 50,000. You do not suddenly pay $0.10 on every track in the catalogue. That is why average cost per track falls as volume grows, even though total monthly cost still rises. Platform fees at common catalogue sizes --------------------------------------- These figures are the platform and catalogue fee only, before the 10% share of net DSP revenue. Distributed tracksCalculationMonthly platform fee**2,000**Base plan**$199****10,000**$199 + 8,000 x $0.15**$1,399****50,000**$199 + 8,000 x $0.15 + 40,000 x $0.10**$5,399****100,000**$199 + 8,000 x $0.15 + 40,000 x $0.10 + 50,000 x $0.08**$9,399**The 10,000-track and 50,000-track totals match the public product page: **$1,399/mo** and **$5,399/mo** before the revenue share. Use the band table above for sizes between those points. A catalogue of 5,000 tracks, for example, is $199 + (3,000 x $0.15) = **$649** a month before the revenue share. Annualised, the base plan is **$2,388** a year before the 10% share. At 10,000 tracks the platform fee alone is **$16,788** a year. At 50,000 it is **$64,788**. Those yearly totals still exclude the revenue share and your own opex, so treat them as the recurring infrastructure floor, not the company budget. Three catalogue sketches with the full arithmetic ------------------------------------------------- The tables above show the platform fee. The sketches below add a realistic revenue share so you can see the combined infrastructure cost for one month. They are not forecasts. Change the revenue assumption and the answer moves. ### Early roster under 2,000 tracks A new platform signs its first labels and reaches 600 distributed tracks. The monthly platform fee is still **$199** because the first 2,000 tracks are included. If the catalogue produces **$4,000** in net DSP revenue that month, the 10% share is **$400**. Combined infrastructure cost: **$199 + $400 = $599**. The remaining **$3,600** sits in the team balance before your own customer deals, payment fees and support costs. At this size you are mostly testing whether the offer, support and release workflow hold together. You do not need a 50,000-track forecast to begin. You do need a price your first customers understand and a support promise you can keep when the first rejection note lands. ### Mid-size catalogue at 10,000 tracks Platform fee: **$1,399** ($199 for the first 2,000, plus $1,200 for the next 8,000 at $0.15). If net DSP revenue is **$25,000**, the 10% share is **$2,500**. Combined infrastructure cost for the month: **$3,899**. Your public pricing does not have to mirror that structure. You might charge artists a monthly subscription, take a percentage, charge labels by catalogue size, or combine those approaches. The infrastructure sits underneath that decision. Your customers buy from you, on the terms you set. This is also the size where the revenue share often exceeds the platform fee. If you only model the $1,399 line and ignore the 10%, your margin sheet will look healthier than the business. ### Larger operation at 50,000 tracks Platform fee: **$5,399** ($199 + $1,200 for tracks 2,001 to 10,000 + $4,000 for tracks 10,001 to 50,000). If net DSP revenue is **$80,000**, the 10% share is **$8,000**. Combined infrastructure cost: **$13,399** for the month. At this size the useful comparison is not the sticker price of a small label account. It is the cost of running the whole distribution operation: catalogue intake, release review, store delivery, status handling, sales matching, statements and payouts. Buying that layer still leaves you responsible for customer pricing, support and the reason anyone chooses your brand. What the monthly fee includes ----------------------------- The $199 plan, and the catalogue bands above it, sit around one commercial package. On the current product page that includes: - the full music distribution API; - the operations UI for authorised team members; - catalogue and release management; - human review before delivery; - delivery through the active store routes; - signed webhooks for approval, rejection, distribution, takedown and related events; - sales matching and monthly team statements; - payout workflow through Wise after the 10% commission is deducted; - the first 2,000 distributed tracks each month. Destinations on the public page include Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, YouTube Content ID, TikTok, Amazon Music, TIDAL, Deezer, SoundCloud, Beatport, Volumo and Meta. You choose what your artists or labels see. For a quick launch, your team can begin in the operations UI. If you already have a product, or want to create one, you can put your own account flow, branding and release screens in front of the API. Labels and artists stay inside your product for the normal journey. They do not need a separate ARK-branded customer dashboard. Costs founders forget when they only model $199 ----------------------------------------------- The $199 base answers the infrastructure question. It is not the full cost of starting a distribution company. Before you publish a price list, leave room for: - **Payment and payout fees.** Wise withdrawals, card processing and currency conversion sit outside the catalogue bands. - **Support time.** Even a focused roster needs someone who can explain a rejection note, a missing store or a statement line. That cost rises with every artist who emails at midnight before a campaign date. - **Legal and company setup.** Contracts with artists or labels, privacy notices and basic company costs still belong to you. - **Marketing and onboarding.** A distribution backend does not find your first ten customers. Niche, community and adjacent services usually do. - **Quiet months.** The platform fee continues when revenue dips. Model at least one soft month in the first year rather than assuming every month looks like your best month. - **Mistakes and exceptions.** Wrong metadata, delayed payouts and store rule changes create staff work even when the delivery pipeline itself is bought. One more exception that catches people: catalogue count can fall as well as rise. Removals, takedowns and churned labels reduce distributed tracks, but your customer support load does not always fall at the same speed. Price for the month you have, and keep a buffer for the month you hoped for. Treat the monthly platform fee and the 10% share as fixed inputs. Build your own price so the business still works after those inputs, rather than hoping catalogue growth covers every gap. How to model your margin ------------------------ Start with three numbers you can defend: 1. the number of tracks you expect to have distributed; 2. the net DSP revenue you expect those tracks to generate; 3. the revenue you expect from your own customer plans or commission. Then subtract the monthly platform fee and the 10% revenue share. Leave room for payment fees, support, marketing, quiet months and the cost of mistakes. Do not build a plan that only works if every artist earns more than expected or nobody asks for help. LineWhat to enterA. Distributed tracksYour expected live catalogue countB. Platform feeUse the band table or size table aboveC. Net DSP revenueAmount reported and received for the catalogueD. Revenue share10% of CE. Combined infrastructure costB + DF. Your customer revenueSubscriptions, commissions, release fees, label plansG. Gross margin before own opexF - E (payment and support costs sit outside this)Using the 10,000-track sketch above: platform fee **$1,399**, net DSP revenue **$25,000**, revenue share **$2,500**, combined cost **$3,899**. If your own customers pay you **$8,000** that month, gross margin before internal costs is **$4,101**. Change any of those three inputs and the answer moves. Use the method; do not treat the sketch as a forecast. Now run the same sheet for a soft month. Keep the 10,000-track platform fee at **$1,399**, drop net DSP revenue to **$8,000** (10% share = **$800**), and keep customer revenue at **$8,000**. Combined infrastructure cost falls to **$2,199**, so gross margin before internal costs is **$5,801** if your customer subscriptions hold. If customer revenue also softens to **$4,000**, margin before opex is **$1,801**. That is still workable if support costs are controlled. It fails if you priced as if every month were the strong month. A subscription model usually gives you predictable income from the service itself. A commission model reduces the upfront cost for customers but makes your revenue depend more heavily on catalogue performance. Many distributors combine the two. The infrastructure split (platform fee plus revenue share) is an input to that design, not a template you must copy. Who this suits, and who should build instead -------------------------------------------- Bought infrastructure fits when your advantage sits closer to the customer than to the store pipeline: - you know a genre or local market other distributors serve badly; - you already have artists, labels or creators asking for distribution; - you are adding distribution to a management, education, rights or creator product; - you want to launch before building a specialist operations team; - you need your own branding, plans and customer journey; - you want infrastructure cost that can grow with catalogue size rather than with headcount you do not yet have. Building the whole stack makes more sense when several of these are true: you already have the store relationships that matter, your catalogue volume can support a dedicated delivery and royalty team, the underlying delivery process is itself the competitive advantage, or you need commercial terms an infrastructure provider cannot support. That path also means years of maintenance after the launch months are over. For a fuller scorecard and launch sequence, use the [build-versus-buy guide](/blog/build-or-buy-music-distribution-platform). This article stays on cost. The same pricing works for businesses that already have a platform and client relationships, and for somebody building a new distribution service. If you are starting out, the first 2,000 tracks give you room to sign a focused roster and prove your offer without building the entire delivery and reporting operation first. If you already have customers, the falling catalogue bands make the move easier to model against the size of the business you have today. What the platform does not decide for you ----------------------------------------- Bought infrastructure does not set the price your customers pay, decide which market you serve, or replace the relationship you have with artists and labels. Those are the reasons to run a distributor in the first place. You still decide: - who can join; - what you charge; - which genres, territories or communities you specialise in; - how releases are presented and approved inside your service; - what support and marketing you offer; - how much of the reported revenue your customers receive. The distribution work underneath those choices is what the monthly fee is for. Frequently asked questions -------------------------- ### Does the monthly fee include human release review? Yes. Human review before delivery sits inside the same plan as the API, operations UI, delivery operations, sales matching and payout workflow. ### Can I set my own prices for artists and labels? Yes. The platform does not set your customer pricing. You decide subscriptions, commissions, release fees and how much reported revenue your customers receive. ### Do I need my own store deals to start? Not if you buy the operating layer. Building everything yourself usually means securing and maintaining those relationships. Bought infrastructure is the route when your advantage is the customer product, not the store pipeline. ### Can I start without a finished customer product? Yes. Begin with a narrow offer and run early releases through the operations UI. Add your own registration and release screens once you know which steps customers struggle with. ### Is the base plan only for existing distributors? No. It works for new distributors and for teams that already have customers. The commercial shape is the same; the launch sequence is what changes. ### Where do I create an account? Registration is self-serve at [ark.kinjari.com/register](https://ark.kinjari.com/register). For inclusions and store routes, start with the [music distribution API](/music-distribution-api) page. Start with the catalogue you have --------------------------------- You do not need a 50,000-track forecast to begin. You need a clear offer for the first artists or labels, a price they understand, and a release workflow you are prepared to support. Model the platform fee, the 10% share and your own opex before you publish that price. See how the service works and what is included on the [ARK music distribution API](/music-distribution-api) page, then [create an ARK account](https://ark.kinjari.com/register). You got the music. We'll get it out there. ------------------------------------------ Just $3/mo. You keep 90% of the royalties. [ Let's Do This ](https://app.kinjari.com/register) More from the Blog ------------------ Read even more from our blog. [### We're Removing Per-Track Fees from Kinjari Label Kinjari Label is removing per-track fees beyond 200 tracks. Grow an unlimited catalogue for $39/month, with the existing 10% royalty commission unchanged. ](https://www.kinjari.com/blog/kinjari-label-removes-per-track-fees) [### Best Music Distributors for EDM & Beatport Artists A practical comparison of the best music distributors for EDM artists, from Beatport costs and Volumo access to royalties, label tools and mastering. ](https://www.kinjari.com/blog/best-music-distributor-for-edm) [### Build or Buy Your Music Distribution Operation? 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