DistroKid's Excruciating Detail report, explained
The Excruciating Detail report is DistroKid's full record of every play and sale stores have reported for your music. It's the most complete source of your numbers — and the hardest to read. Here's what's in it and how to get a clear total.
Where to find the report
- Log in to DistroKid and open Bank.
- Click “See excruciating detail”.
- Press Download to save the full report.
- Download a fresh copy each month — the full history is included every time.
The columns that matter
| Sale Month | The month the store assigned the activity to. Use this to group your numbers over time. |
|---|---|
| Reporting Date | When the store reported the row to DistroKid. Not the month it was streamed. |
| Store | The platform: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon, TikTok, Deezer and more. |
| Artist / Title / ISRC | Which artist name and track the row belongs to. |
| Quantity | How many plays, downloads or uses the row represents. |
| Country of Sale | Where the listeners were. |
| Earnings (USD) | What the row paid. Private on AudiMetr — never shown publicly. |
Column names can change slightly between report versions.
Mistake 1: adding up every row
The report mixes streams with downloads, video and social-platform usage. Summing all Quantity values mixes things that aren't streams.
Mistake 2: grouping by reporting date
Rows for one listening month can arrive in several reports. Group by Sale Month to see when listening actually happened.
Mistake 3: judging the latest months too early
Recent months look low until later reports arrive. Compare months only once they've filled in.
Mistake 4: spreadsheets that freeze
Large catalogs produce tens of thousands of rows. Pivot tables become slow and easy to get wrong.
Skip the spreadsheet
Upload your DistroKid report exactly as downloaded. AudiMetr groups every row by platform, country, track and month, and adds up one audited total across every store.
- Original reports only — nothing estimated
- Duplicate rows ignored automatically
- Unknown row types flagged, never counted as streams
- Earnings stay private
More guides: DistroKid report · TuneCore report · CD Baby report · DistroKid vs Spotify for Artists
Questions
Is the Excruciating Detail report a zip or a CSV?
DistroKid gives you a download with every reported row. You can upload it to AudiMetr exactly as downloaded — no unzipping or editing needed.
Why are there so many rows?
Each row is one combination of track, store, country and month. A small catalog on many stores quickly becomes thousands of rows.
Can I just add up the Quantity column?
Not safely. Quantity also counts downloads and other row types, so filter by type and store first. AudiMetr does this for you and flags rows it doesn't recognise.
Why is the latest month low?
Stores report to DistroKid with a delay, so recent months fill in over the following reports.