DistroKid has been quietly taking down songs in response to UMG lawsuit

Artists are frustrated with the lack of transparency around DistroKid removing their songs.

Terrence O'Brien

Oct 10, 2026, 6:52 PM UTC

Image: DistroKid

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Terrence O'Brien

is the Verge’s weekend editor. He’s covered the tech industry for over 18 years and knows a thing or two about synths.

Artists aretakingtosocial mediatocomplainthat DistroKid hasunceremoniously removedtheir work without notice. Now DistroKid has confirmed toThe Vergethat the takedowns are a direct response to claims made by UMG. The label filed alawsuitin September claiming that DistroKid has created an “AI-slop pipeline.” Artists are saying that their non-AI works are being caught up in the purge, however.

Musician and self-described “Video Game boy”McGwirereported that six of his songs had been removed from streaming. As has been the case with others, McGwire says that there was no communication from DistroKid before or after the removals, and that he had to contact the company for an explanation.

DistroKid also makes it exceedingly difficult to contact them. McGwire first had to have a “lengthy circular conversation” with a bot before getting hold of a live agent. One of the songs removed was a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely,” which he claims to have had a proper license for. Another track used a beat he purchased through a marketplace, which others had also licensed.

Most infuriating for McGwire was a song removed for an uncleared sample. The song he allegedly sampled was releasedtwo yearsafterhis track.

Much of the frustration from artists stems from the lack of communication and recourse. Nerdcore rapper Insane Ianpostedthat he “had an original song taken down with no warning, and they wouldn’t tell me why either.”

RapperKing Chasealso struggled to get through to a person at DistroKid. He toldThe Vergethat an entire album for an artist he had been working with was removed with no communication or explanation. “The album had been up for 3-4 years without incident,” he said, and that there had been “no copyright strikes or anything either.”

Amanda Ferri, DistroKid’s VP of Artist Services, toldThe Vergethat “A very small number of recordings distributed through DistroKid have been removed in response to claims made by UMG. We strongly dispute the allegations underlying UMG’s lawsuit and regret the disruption to affected artists. We are working to minimize that disruption while protecting artists’ ability to release their music.”

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