Now that you have successfully registered your music with a performance rights organization (PRO) and have copyrighted all of your music, it’s time to release your music. But there are so many different platforms to release your music on. Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, SoundCloud, YouTube, Amazon, Google, how do you know which one is the best and/or how do you release on all those platforms at once?
First, to release of YouTube and SoundCloud is free. Create an account on each or either and you’re able to upload music and videos with ease. YouTube allows you to upload as much as you want, however it has to be a video, even if you don’t have a video for your song. If there is no accompanying video that’s ok, simply use iMovie (free with all Mac computers) and create a “video” of a still image with your song playing and upload it to YouTube (there are a variety of other apps and platforms that will allow you to create more visual videos with images, but this is the easiest way for sake of this article). As for SoundCloud, it is the same basic concept, create a free account and you are able to upload music for public consumption. However, SoundCloud only allows you to upload up to four hours of content with a free account (this can give you a ton of content if your songs are only three minutes a piece). Once you reach this mark you have to subscribe to SoundCloud Premium ($10/month) to upload more content (or you will have to pick and choose which songs and audio content you would like to say up and which to take down in order to stay under the four hour limit). If you choose to upgrade you will be able to upload content unlimitedly with no restriction. You can also then listen to all material on the platform with no commercials as well.
But what about the primary streaming platforms? How do you upload your songs Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal (among others)? For this there are a few options. First, you can create separate accounts on each platform as an artist and upload separately. For Spotify, creating an artist account will allow you to upload your music straight to the platform for free under your artist name. Apple Music is quite similar, using your apple ID (which most likely you have because you had to create one when you bought your iPhone or Mac) you can create an account and sign up for Apple Music for Artists. This allows you to upload your music into the iTunes store. Once your songs are uploaded, be sure to claim your artist profile so you will be able to receive the royalties from your the purchase of your songs. If you would like to upload your songs to Tidal, you have to go through a third party distributor, as you are not able to simply upload directly to the platform. To publish music through Tidal you must use either, Indigoboom, Record Union, Distrokid or Tunecore. These are the four main distributors listed on the Tidal website. However, if you are signed to a record label, the label will be able to upload your music through their distribution channel.
As an artist it maybe time consuming to singularly upload each track to each streaming platform individually. If you are independent and doing this yourself, it can be hard to track the metrics for each platform, and ensure your tracks were uploaded properly. So what options do you have to make this process easier? First, you can hire a company to do this for you, but this will cost varying amounts depending on the size of the company you hire and the scope of the campaign you are looking for. Second, you can build your own team and put people in place to monitor these platforms for you. Lastly (and most likely your best option) is to sign up for one of the many distribution channels available to independent artists. If you have the capability and/or the resources to do so you can get distribution through one of the major labels including Sony ATV, Kobalt, Universal, Warner, Columbia or Atlantic. However, as an up and coming new independent artist you probably don’t have access to one of the major label distribution channels. That still leaves you with a variety of independent options. Each one has its own platform with different stipulations, partnerships, connections, splits, rights, and subscription fees, but each of the following independent distribution channel will upload your music to all streaming platforms from their own platform once you upload your song to your account on the distribution website.
Here is a break down of a few of the independent distribution channel options you can sign up for as an artist:
Distrokid is a music distribution service that gets your tracks onto all the major music stores and streaming platforms. Users pay a yearly fee of $19.99 to upload unlimited albums and songs and artists always keep 100% of their rights and royalties.
CD Baby distributes your music to 150+ streaming and download services around the world for a fee of $9.95 per single, $49 per album and 15% of your royalties. CD Baby also gives you access to key demographic and geographic data when you distribute your music using their service.
Tunecore For a flat fee of $9.99 per single or $29.99 per album, Tunecore distributes your music to over 150 digital stores and streaming platforms. TuneCore artists keep 100% of the profits they earn from sales, downloads, and streaming revenue.
AWAL is a distribution service that delivers your music to all the key stores and streaming platforms in over 200 territories worldwide. AWAL is free to join, but they take a minimum 15% share of all your streaming and download profits once your track is released. One of the major differences of AWAL is that they don’t automatically accept every artist who wants to join the platform. They believe that having a curated artist roster lets them support their artists with a higher quality of service.
United Masters, while it’s free to distribute your music they deliver your tracks to 30+ stores and streaming platforms, including all the majors like Spotify and YouTube, they do take 10% of the profit from your streams and downloads. Every artist has access to an analytics dashboard which tracks your real-time data.
Ditto, with unlimited releases starting from around $25 USD per year, Ditto distributes your music to over 200 stores, including all the major streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and more. Ditto has three distribution packages available for music makers at every stage of their career – Artist, Professional and Label. Ditto lets you keep 100% of your rights and royalties, has 24/7 artist support and lets you track sales and trending data with daily analytics reports.
Record Union is a distribution platform that lets you register a free account and then charges you for every release. There are three distribution packages available depending on the amount of stores you want your track delivered to, with single releases priced from $7. Record Union artists are charged per year for every music store or streaming platform they want their track added to and take 15% of all artist royalties.
Spinnup is an independent record label and music distribution service owned by Universal Music Group. You can sign up for free to use their social data dashboard and special artist features, but then you pay to release every track. Single releases start at $9.99 USD. SpinnUp delivers to 44 music stores and streaming platforms, artists keep 100% of their rights and royalties, and the top tracks uploaded from their platform are sent to the Universal Music Group A&R team, giving you a chance to be discovered and signed by their record label.
Level One of the newest distro services on the scene is Level, which is currently available in beta and lets you release your music on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Play, TIDAL, Pandora, Deezer and Napster. While still in Beta, you can distribute your music free of charge, but when the full platform is launched, Level will take 8% from each of your release royalties.
It all comes down to which distribution channel fits your needs best as an artist. They are all similar in how they operate and what they offer, each channel just has a different structure to it. Some have major partnerships with different companies and organizations (United Masters having partnerships with the NBA) while others give you better splits and royalties on your music. They all give relatively even splits between one another, all of which are greatly beneficial and favorable to the artists in comparison to what you would get at a major label. The best part about going this route and chasing one of these independent distribution channels, is that you get to keep close to or the entire 100% ownership in your songs and catalogs. This means you own your masters, you own your copyrights, you own your songs in their entirety. If you were to sign with a label, especially as a new artist that is unproven, you would be giving up a majority of the percentage of not only your songs, but also your masters (which you may not own at all) and all other aspects of what you are able to sell (merchandise, your likeness, live shows, etc.). The final benefit to independently signing up with these distribution channels is your can sign up for multiple, giving you a wider distribution reach for your music, and a wider reach of partnerships and listenership for your music.
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