Distrokid has served as solid independent music distribution service for nearly six years now, and it has recently added some new features with which members should become familiar.

WordPlay T. Jay has used this service for several years, impressed with how it delivers payments on time, shows numerous statistics and allows him to run his independent music business the way he wants.

As an affiliate of the site, this information is being provided to educate current members about new features and tools, not to pitch artists to become new members.

The first of the new tools added is an “Edit Release” button. Often with other distributors, an artist will have to contact customer service to make changes to things like a track name or correct a profile management mistake. Now with Distrokid, which is all about letting artists do things automatically and staying out of the way, users can go to “My Music,” then “Select Song,” then hit the “Edit Release” button. This allows changing things like a track or album title, artist name, artwork and labeling a track as explicit or clean.

Second up, Distrokid has added a tool called “Distrokid Fixer.” With this tool, members can edit their artist name and make sure their tracks are in the right place, as well as make sure other artists’ tracks do not end up under their profile. Releases can get mixed up with artists having similar names, or even wholly unique names. Once an artist has a specific Spotify or apple Music user ID, these issues become less prevalent, but until then, things can sometimes end up in the wrong places.

Thirdly, Distrokid has added a vault. This serves as a backup for all of an artist’s master recordings in their own folder on the website should a personal technical issue arise. For example, if an artist has had a computer crash and lost the Pro Tools files with no backup, Distrokid’s vault will at least allow the artist to re-download the master recordings.

Finally, the fourth new feature is called “Distrolock.” A protector of individuals’ original content, Distrolock is similar to YouTube’s content ID system. It takes a “fingerprint” of each track and alerts users when another person has tried to swipe a sample and upload it as their own, preventing copyright infringement. This feature will soon add YouTube content ID, allowing those two protections to work in tandem and keep others from trying to scam or pass someone else’s music as their own.

For more information about these features, check out the video below, or for more information on music marketing, visit WordPlay T. Jay’s YouTube Channel.