Guide
RouteNote review: is it legit, and is it really free?
RouteNote is a music distributor that lets you release for free and pay with a share of your earnings, or pay per release and keep all of them. This review covers whether it's legitimate, what each plan really costs, and the catches worth knowing first. It's based on RouteNote's own pages and public reviews, not a paid test.
Updated November 3, 2026
Short answer
Yes, RouteNote is a legitimate music distributor, and its Free plan costs $0 up front. RouteNote keeps 15% of your streaming and download revenue on Free. Premium costs $10 to $45 per release, then $9.99 a year per release, and you keep 100%. The main catch is the wait: in late October 2026 it said it was approving releases within 21 to 23 working days.
What to do, in order
Work out what each release will earn
Free costs nothing but takes 15%. A Premium single only pays for itself once it earns about $67 in a year, so low earners usually do better on Free.
Plan around the review wait
Check RouteNote's current review time before you pick a release date, then allow up to two more weeks for stores to finish adding it.
Check the stores you care about
Read its store list against where your fans listen. The list names Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud and many others, but its article is from 2022, so confirm anything important.
Check how you'd get paid
Payments start once you've earned $50, and they go out by PayPal or bank transfer. Fees depend on the method you choose.
Save your codes from day one
Keep every UPC and ISRC, so leaving later is straightforward if you ever need to.
Is RouteNote legit?
Yes. It's a working distributor with public pricing and a large support center, and the copyright line on its site runs back to 2007. That doesn't mean it suits everyone, or that every experience with it is good.
On Trustpilot, it showed a 3.1 TrustScore from 3,067 reviews when we checked on 3 November 2026, with a claimed profile. Trustpilot's summary of recent reviews says most people were somewhat happy. Reviewers liked having no upfront or monthly fees, but some said review could take weeks or months and that support replies or song removals were slow.
Is RouteNote really free?
Free has no upfront cost or yearly fee, and RouteNote says it doesn't charge to keep your music online. You pay with a share instead: you keep 85% of your streaming and download revenue, and RouteNote keeps 15%.
You choose a plan for each release, not for your whole account, and RouteNote says you can switch at any time. If you cancel a Premium renewal, that release moves to Free and stays up.
| Plan | Cost per release | You keep | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 85% | Releases that won't earn much yet |
| Premium | $10 single, $20 EP, $30 album, $45 extended album, then $9.99 a year | 100% | Releases that earn enough to cover the fee |
| All Access | Custom pricing | Ask RouteNote | Professional labels |
From RouteNote's pricing and support pages on 3 November 2026. A single is 1 track, an EP 2 to 6, an album 7 to 18 and an extended album 19 or more. Prices change, so check before you buy.
RouteNote Free or Premium?
Compare the fee with the 15% you'd give up. After the first year, any release costs $9.99 a year to keep on Premium, so it's worth paying once that release earns about $67 a year. Below that, Free leaves you with more.
| Release | Premium, first year | Worth it from about |
|---|---|---|
| Single | $10 | $67 earned |
| EP | $20 | $133 earned |
| Album | $30 | $200 earned |
| Extended album | $45 | $300 earned |
Our math: the fee divided by 15%. It ignores payout fees and tax.
What's the same, and what Premium adds
RouteNote says the plans have the same store choices and file formats, and that it never charges to submit music to YouTube Content ID, Facebook recognition or SoundCloud monetization. Premium adds 90 days of its Trends data, fan location insights and what its pricing page calls fast track moderation. Its help article on wait times doesn't give a separate figure for Premium, so ask how much faster it is if timing matters.
How long RouteNote takes
This is the catch most likely to affect your release plans. On 26 October 2026, RouteNote said it was approving content within 21 to 23 working days after submission, as long as you didn't need to do anything further. That's more than four weeks, and it described the wait as longer than usual because of a high volume of submissions.
After approval, it says releases are sent to stores within 24 hours, and stores can take 7 to 14 days from the approval date to finish adding them. AI-generated or AI-assisted music may be reviewed for longer. The wait changes, so read its current figure before choosing a release date.
How RouteNote pays you
Payments generally go out between the 15th and 20th of each month, once you've reached the $50 minimum. You can be paid by PayPal or bank transfer, including through Payoneer.
Keeping 85% or 100% doesn't mean you receive every cent. RouteNote says it may take a transaction fee, that the charge has no single fixed amount, and that PayPal or currency conversion fees may also apply.
What to watch for
None of these rule it out, but you should know them before you upload a whole catalog.
| Issue | What it means |
|---|---|
| Long review times | A wait of 21 to 23 working days means planning a release well ahead. Trustpilot reviewers mention it too. |
| You can't swap the audio | Details such as titles can be updated on an approved release, and updates can take 7 to 14 days to reach stores. The audio can't be edited. |
| A UPC can't be reused | Once a UPC is approved at RouteNote, it can't be used on another release there, so think before you delete and re-upload. |
| Artificial streaming | If a store flags fake streams, RouteNote says that revenue is blocked and the release is often taken down. It says stores can't undo this, even if you weren't at fault. |
| Store list | Its list, last dated 2022, names 30-plus services, including SoundCloud, TikTok, Pandora and Qobuz. Audiomack wasn't on it when we checked. That doesn't prove it can't deliver there, so ask before you rely on it. |
| Alerts | RouteNote says stores don't provide automated notifications when music goes live. We didn't find removal alerts on the pages we checked. |
RouteNote vs DistroKid
The basic choice is between paying with a share and paying a yearly fee. DistroKid suits artists who release often and will keep paying. RouteNote suits artists who want to pay nothing up front, or who want a release to stay up without an ongoing fee.
| Compare | RouteNote | DistroKid |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $0 | $24.99 a year |
| You keep | 85% on Free, 100% on Premium | 100% |
| If you stop paying | Premium release moves to Free and stays up | Music can be removed unless you bought Leave a Legacy |
| SoundCloud | On its list | Not on its list |
| Audiomack | Not on its list | Free extra with a linked account |
| Removal alerts | Not described | Artist Profile Alerts on Ultimate, for Spotify and Apple Music |
From each company's own pages. RouteNote checked 3 November 2026, DistroKid 2 November 2026.
Is RouteNote worth it?
For many new artists, yes. Whether it's right for you mostly comes down to how much a release will earn and how long you can wait.
| It's a good fit if | Look elsewhere if |
|---|---|
| You want to release with no upfront cost | You need music live within a couple of weeks |
| You want music to stay up without a yearly fee | You'd rather never give up 15% and don't want a fee per release |
| Your releases earn modest amounts | You need to replace audio on a live release |
| You want to choose a plan per release | You want a person to answer quickly when something goes wrong |
Signing in or leaving RouteNote
To sign in, go to routenote.com and use its account link. Traxure isn't part of RouteNote and can't help with its accounts.
To remove music, RouteNote asks you to contact support from your registered email or open a ticket from your dashboard, and to include the release's UPC. It says there are no hidden fees for this. If you're moving to another distributor, upload an exact copy there first, with the same ISRCs and UPC, and only remove the old release once the new one is live.
How Traxure helps
Traxure is not a distributor, and it works with whichever one you pick. Traxure checks your Spotify profile every 12 hours and your full catalog on 12 platforms every day. If a release goes missing on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, TIDAL, SoundCloud or Pandora, it emails you the before, the after and a note to your distributor ready to send. Monitoring starts with a seven-day free trial.
RouteNote's details were checked on its own pages on 3 November 2026, and the review score on Trustpilot the same day. This isn't based on a paid test.
Questions artists ask
Is RouteNote legit?
Yes. It's a working distributor with public pricing and a large support center. Trustpilot showed 3.1 from 3,067 reviews on 3 November 2026, and the complaints are mostly about slow review and slow support.
Is RouteNote really free?
Yes, the Free plan has no upfront cost or yearly fee. RouteNote keeps 15% of your streaming and download revenue instead, and you keep 85%.
How much does RouteNote Premium cost?
$10 for a single, $20 for an EP, $30 for an album or $45 for an extended album. From the following year it's $9.99 a year per release, and you keep 100% of streaming and download revenue.
What happens if I stop paying for RouteNote Premium?
RouteNote says that if you cancel the renewal, the release moves to the Free plan automatically. It stays up, and you keep 85% from then on.
How long does RouteNote take to approve a release?
On 26 October 2026, it said it was approving releases within 21 to 23 working days. Stores can then take 7 to 14 more days to finish adding a release. The figure changes, so check its current one.
How does RouteNote pay you?
By PayPal or bank transfer, generally between the 15th and 20th of each month once you've reached $50. A transaction fee may apply, along with any PayPal or conversion fees.
Is RouteNote better than DistroKid?
It depends on how you want to pay. RouteNote has a free option and keeps Premium releases up on Free if you stop paying. DistroKid has a yearly price with unlimited uploads and describes much shorter review times.
Sources
- RouteNote: pricing
- RouteNote: what it costs
- RouteNote: what it takes
- RouteNote: Free and Premium differences
- RouteNote: how long a release takes
- RouteNote: payment options
- RouteNote: transaction fees
- RouteNote: where it sends music
- RouteNote: SoundCloud
- RouteNote: changing a release
- RouteNote: taking music down
- RouteNote: using your existing codes
- RouteNote: artificial streaming claims
- RouteNote: go-live notifications
- Trustpilot: RouteNote reviews
- DistroKid: pricing
- DistroKid: if you stop paying
- DistroKid: services and stores
- DistroKid: Artist Profile Alerts
Traxure
Know the same day, not weeks later.
Traxure checks your releases on Spotify and other platforms around the clock, confirms a change before alerting you and tells you what to do next. Seven-day free trial.
Pricing
Plans from $12 a month.
7-day free trial on every plan. Cancel anytime.
- Artist $12/mo
- Manager $69/mo
- Label $199/mo