Today, let’s dive into Distrolok, a relatively under-discussed feature offered by DistroKid. It’s free, which might be why it hasn’t received much attention, but it’s a powerful tool for musicians, labels, and studios. According to DistroKid’s website, Distrolok works by creating an acoustic fingerprint of your original music when you upload it. This fingerprint is then secured to prevent unauthorized uploads.

Here’s how it works:

1. Upload Your Music for Free: You upload your original songs to Distrolok, and DistroKid creates an acoustic fingerprint of your track.
2. Securing the Fingerprint: The fingerprint is locked to your music, ensuring that only you can unlock it when required by music services.
3. Protection Against Theft: Distrolok registers your audio with various audio detection services to prevent others from uploading your music to streaming platforms without your permission.
4. Cross-Referencing with a Database: Distrolok offers a free API that lets distributors, streaming services, or social networks cross-check audio to see if it matches a fingerprint in the database. Unauthorized releases can be blocked automatically.
5. Blocking Altered Tracks: The service works even if the audio has been altered (sped up, pitch-shifted, etc.), and it is recognized by services like Audible Magic and platforms including YouTube, SoundCloud, Facebook, and more.

By using Distrolok, artists and labels get an extra layer of protection against copyright infringement on a global scale, ensuring that their original music stays safe from unauthorized use on popular platforms.

Distrolok in operation:

I’ve been using Distrolok since 2021, and while I can’t definitively confirm that it works exactly as advertised (since I don’t have the ability to scan all of Spotify to check if someone else has uploaded my music under a different name), I’ve never had an issue with this happening—at least not yet. This could very well be a sign that it’s working as intended. My Content ID dashboard updates daily, tracking the use of my music across the globe, from hobbyist YouTubers to more resourceful company marketing teams attempting to sidestep licensing fees.

Since it’s also a free tool, and since it’s managed in the backend by Audible Magic—the leading company in audio fingerprinting technology—I’d highly recommend taking a look at this service. The best part? You don’t necessarily need an active subscription with DistroKid to use it (I don’t have one), and you can upload your music through other distributors, as long as you temporarily “unlock” it to be accepted on the platforms.

Stay tuned, as in my next post, I’ll be diving into Audible Magic and exploring how its fingerprinting technology works to protect music across platforms.