DistroKid, the $24.99-a-year service that puts independent music on Spotify and Apple Music, has confirmed it is removing tracks in response to claims made by Universal Music Group, which is suing it in a Delaware federal court.
Artists say their songs vanished without notice. “A very small number of recordings distributed through DistroKid have been removed in response to claims made by UMG,” Amanda Ferri, DistroKid’s vice president of artist services, told The Verge in a report published on 10 October 2026.
“We strongly dispute the allegations underlying UMG’s lawsuit and regret the disruption to affected artists,” she added.
What Universal’s lawsuit claims
UMG and its Capitol Records label filed the 52-page complaint on Tuesday, 15 September, in the US District Court for the District of Delaware. It accuses DistroKid of deceptive trade practices and “blatant copyright infringement,” and of running an “AI-slop pipeline.”
The suit says it is “not about the distribution of AI-generated music when clearly disclosed as such.” Its target is what UMG calls a false impression that DistroKid’s catalogue is made by real human artists who own their work, Music Business Worldwide reported.
One example in the complaint is a “Lofi Chill” act that put out 4,562 tracks in 12 months, according to Variety.
UMG also says DistroKid kept sending tracks to more streaming services after admitting it did not own the rights, including an unlicensed “radio edit” of Sam Smith and Kim Petras’s “Unholy.” “Here is where it gets egregious,” the complaint reads.
The exhibits list 1,000 recordings and call them “the tip of the iceberg.” Statutory damages can reach $150,000 per work, but only if the infringement is found to be wilful. Without that finding the range is $750 to $30,000 per work.
DistroKid says it distributes “roughly 40%” of all new music in the world for more than 4 million artists.
In July, the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners agreed a deal to buy a majority of the company.
Removed songs, and no warning
The takedowns have reached artists who say their music has nothing to do with AI. The musician McGwire told The Verge that six of his songs were pulled, with no message before or after.
One was a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely,” which he says he had licensed. Another was flagged for an uncleared sample, even though the song he supposedly sampled came out two years after his own track.
The rapper King Chase said an entire album by an artist he works with disappeared. “The album had been up for 3-4 years without incident,” he said, with “no copyright strikes or anything either.”
“DistroKid gave up on customer service about two years ago,” producer and marketer Jesse Cannon told The Verge. “They should have allowed artists to have recourse in this and a warning to debate.”
DistroKid stayed out of the new industry rules
The day before the suit was filed, the record industry body IFPI launched its Streaming Integrity Initiative, which asks distributors to vet their clients and identify AI-generated content. UMG, Sony and Warner signed up. DistroKid did not, Variety reported.
Sample claims are an old fight in electronic music. Kraftwerk spent 27 years in court over a two-second drum loop, and the first criminal case over AI streaming fraud ended with an 18-month sentence this month. More label and industry stories are in our discography section.
In its first response in September, DistroKid said it was “disappointed” that UMG went to court instead of using “established industry processes,” and that it would “defend DistroKid vigorously.”
This is UMG’s second suit against a big DIY distributor. Its 2024 case against Believe and TuneCore, which sought at least $500 million, was dismissed with prejudice in April 2026 after the two sides settled on undisclosed terms.
Lead photo: Luke Harold / Wikimedia Commons, CC0