Korda
Entrepreneur First '23London, GB · Founded 2023 · 1 known investors
Korda is a distribution service for independent musicians. Artists upload a track once and Korda delivers it to more than 100 streaming services, with a single dashboard for managing releases, editing metadata, and viewing royalty data. The model is aimed at creators who want to release music without going through a label or other intermediary.
Also known as Korda
Founders & leadership
Korda was founded in 2023 by Mali McCalla and Alina Verbenchuk.
Investors · 1
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Korda operates a music management and distribution platform aimed at independent recording artists. The product bundles several categories of tooling into one subscription: track management (uploading tracks, managing publishing metadata such as ISRCs, and sharing private listen links with play/completion statistics), distribution to major streaming platforms worldwide, email marketing to a collected fan list with campaign sending and open-rate reporting, artist website pages covering link-in-bio, merch drops, pre-save campaigns, tour dates, ticketing and press-kit downloads, cross-platform analytics on streams and listener geography, and revenue tracking with automated splits across collaborators.
The revenue module distinguishes multiple income lines — royalties, merchandise and ticketing — and supports automatic payout splits among multiple collaborators on a release. The positioning is explicitly disintermediated: the site repeats claims of 100% royalties, no middlemen, artist ownership of masters, rights and data, no hidden fees and human support. Korda also publishes a stance on AI-generated music under the tag '#StopTheSlop'.
The website's feature screenshots use illustrative data (for example, 91,350 streams in a month, 831 email contacts, and royalty/merch/ticket balances) that appear to be product demonstrations rather than verified company or customer metrics, and should not be read as platform-level traction figures.
Founding story
Founder Mali McCalla is described on the site as both founder and artist, and is quoted saying he is building Korda in order to release his own music on his own terms, having concluded after leaving Warner that there is nothing a label can do for an artist that the artist cannot do themselves.
Business model
Korda sells a subscription software product directly to artists. The site advertises a single all-in-one plan at $8.25 per month, positioned against an estimated $196.99 per month for buying the constituent categories separately (distribution, publishing administration, ticketing and merch, mini-site/link-in-bio, analytics, collaboration tools and private audio sharing). Sign-up is free with no credit card required, indicating a free entry tier or trial ahead of a paid subscription. The site states artists keep 100% of royalties and retain ownership of their masters, rights and data, implying revenue comes from subscription fees rather than a share of recording income.
Subscription software, advertised at $8.25 per month for the bundled plan, with free sign-up and no credit card required at registration. Artists are stated to keep 100% of their royalties.
Traction
The site names individual artists using the platform, including OUO, Dan Shake, TENNIN, Sham Blak, Eli Verano, Closed Forever, Gabby Allong, Gensai, Alan Ward, Joseph Lofthouse, Fantastic Mr Marcel, same. and From:Ksusha, and carries a testimonial from singer-songwriter Dessi Perez. A call to action refers to 'thousands of artists' on the platform, but no audited user, revenue or volume figures are published.
Latest developments
The current site presents Korda as a broader artist-career platform rather than distribution alone, adding email marketing, artist websites and link-in-bio pages, ticketing and merch, analytics, collaboration tools and revenue splits. Pre-save campaign examples reference release dates in April 2026.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Korda competes in independent artist services, explicitly naming the incumbents it aims to replace across each category: LANDR, DistroKid and TuneCore in distribution; Songtrust, Sentric and CD Baby Pro in publishing administration; Shopify, Musicglue and Bandzoogle in ticketing and merch; Wix, Linktree and Shopify for mini-sites and link-in-bio; Songstats and Spotontrack in analytics; Soundtrap and BandLab for collaboration; and Dropbox, Google Drive and WeTransfer for private audio sharing.
Korda positions itself as a consolidation play: one subscription replacing separate distribution, publishing administration, ticketing/merch, website and link-in-bio, analytics, collaboration and file-sharing tools, at a materially lower stated monthly cost than the sum of comparable services. It also differentiates on artist economics and control — full royalty retention, ownership of masters, rights and data, and no intermediaries — and takes an explicit editorial position against AI-generated music.
Technology
A web-based artist dashboard covering track ingestion and metadata/ISRC management, delivery to streaming platforms, private shareable listen links with engagement tracking, email campaign tooling, hosted website and pre-save/ticketing pages, cross-platform streaming analytics, and multi-source revenue accounting with automated collaborator splits.
Go-to-market
Self-serve, product-led acquisition: visitors are prompted to sign up free in about two minutes with no credit card. Marketing leans on named artists using the platform and their testimonials, a founder story, a side-by-side cost comparison against incumbent point tools, and a public stance on AI music.
Independent recording artists and self-releasing musicians who operate without a label, from those with a first fan base to established acts, including collaborators who need automated revenue splits.
Geography
Distribution is described as worldwide across major streaming platforms. The site's illustrative analytics reference listeners in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany and France, and named artists on the platform span genres described as alternative, house, French R&B, hip hop, indie pop and mystic-pop.
History
The public site does not set out a dated corporate history. It presents Korda as a working product with named artists on the platform and a founder-authored account of the company's origins, and it publishes a public position on AI-generated music under the label '#StopTheSlop'.
Risks & controversies
No controversies are documented in the available sources. Publicly available material is limited to the company's own website, so claims about pricing, savings and artist retention are unverified by third parties. Several similarly named but unrelated entities exist — an Ohio engineering firm (Korda/Nemeth Engineering), a UK carp-fishing tackle and clothing brand (Korda Developments), the film producer Alexander Korda and golfer Nelly Korda — creating name-collision risk in data sourcing.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Kordakorda.co · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Korda do?
- UK platform bundling music distribution, artist websites, fan marketing, analytics and payouts for independent artists.
- Who founded Korda?
- Korda was founded by Mali McCalla, Alina Verbenchuk in 2023.
- Who are Korda's investors?
- Korda's investors include Entrepreneur First.
- Where is Korda headquartered?
- Korda is headquartered in London, GB.