How to Release Your Music on Spotify and Apple Music?

In this article, I will go through a few points that may be useful when planning to release music on streaming platforms/stores like Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.

Ok, first thing first...

What are the essentials to release music on streaming platforms/stores?

If you own the music, for example, it is your or your band's original song, all you need are the following.

A lossless master audio file, the most universal specs for this is a wave or FLAC file in 44.1kHz/16bit. Some of the distributors accept lossy audio files, such as mp3, wma or m4a, but submitting a lossy file is not ideal.
A square album art, at least 1000x1000 px. Some distributors accept smaller dimensions, but again this is not ideal.
An artist/band name
A song name
A customized label name. This is optional but it's better to have one, can be any name.

I've got everything I need, what's next?

Most streaming platforms/stores, including Spotify and Apple Music, don't accept submission from end-users or labels. An aggregator/distributor is required to submit music to these platforms/stores.

Some distributing services are free-of-charge, some may charge upfront fees for each release, some may charge annual fees for multiple releases and keeping the music online.

The platforms/stores available for releases may be slightly different across distributors, but the biggest ones, Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Google Play, YouTube Music and Amazon Music, are available on every distributor.

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Other than Spotify and Apple Music, which are the other platforms/stores available for digital releases?

Quite a few, some of them may be available in your area, some of them may not and you may not hear of them before. Every distributor lists their distributing partners on their website. For example, Distributing Partners of CD Baby。

Streaming platforms and stores are two different concepts. Some of the platforms/stores may have both in their model.

Streaming platforms provide services streaming music but don't sell audio files as a product. For example, on Spotify and Apple Music, you can listen to all the music available, but can't buy single audio files.

Stores, on the other hand, sell audio files (often DRM-free mp3), but don't offer all-you-can-listen services. For example, you can buy DRM-free mp3s on iTunes or Google Play, but can't listen to all the music on their platform

The combo example of these two concepts is Amazon Music, which offers all-you-can-listen to Prime members and sales mp3s.

Some distributors offer to release music for Facebook/Instagram Stories. Once released, users are able to use the music in their stories.

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What is UPC/ISRC?

UPC is 'Universal Product Code', a unique identifier for each album/single release. In the era of CDs, this UPC is often presented as a barcode on the back of a CD.

Similarily but differently, ISRC, 'International Standard Recording Code' is a unique identifier for each audio track.

So for example, an album has one song (a 'single' release) would be with 1 UPC and 1 ISRC. In another case of a 10 track album, it would be with 1 UPC and 10 ISRC.

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Why is UPC/ISRC important?

As mentioned above, UPC/ISRC are the unique identifiers for each release and song. At least ISRC is required to track the release on various places and for royalty collection.

ISRC is required by most the streaming services, including Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes and by Billboards, to calculate the popularity.

Distributors issue UPC and ISRC for free (for example Ditto) or with an additional fee (for example, CD Baby).

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So, is it free or not to release music on streaming platforms/stores?

Short answer: it may be somewhere from free to tens of dollars per release.
Long answer: it depends on the charge/royalty models and services of the distributor. Please refer to the next question.

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Which are the aggregators/distributors available to release music on streaming platforms/stores?

Quite a few.

For example, the lists sorted by u/JustKarmo on Reddit:
List of paid distributors and List of Free distributors

[More about this topic: DistroKid vs. CD Baby vs. EmuBands and more - My Experience with Music Distributors]

In this section, I will introduce a few major distributors for your interests

A few aspects to keep in mind when considering a distributor:

How is the distributing service charged? Is it a one-off charge? Or annual payments? Or both?
Do they take a cut of the royalties?
Do they offer UPC/ISRC for free or for a fee?
When will they take down the music?

Paid distributors

CD Baby

CD Baby is the longest-running and biggest digital distributor on the market and the first one opens to everyone.

CD Baby charge one-off fees per release, with two plans, Standard/Pro, $9.95/$29.95 for a single and $29/$69 for an album.

The difference between Standard and Pro is that Pro provides collecting publishing royalties and songwriter organisation registrations. Standard is fine for releasing the music to streaming platforms/stores. Upgrading a Standard release to Pro is possible.

CD Baby takes 9% of the royalties, pays 91% to the users.

CD Baby offers ISRC for free and UPC for a fee, $5 for a single and $20 for an album. So together with the Standard price, the least prices to pay for is $14.95 for a single and $49 for an album.

CD Baby doesn't take down music unless requested by the user.

To summarise, CD Baby may be suitable for users who is happy to pay for a fee upfront and forget about it. There are no annual fees and no need to worry about the music might be taken down because of payment issues. 9% of the royalties will be taken off. The charges are relatively clear and without hidden fees. The website is informative and easy to navigate. They somehow send marketing email quite often.

Distrokid

Distrokid started in 2013 and is often compared with CD Baby on Reddit. Quite a lot of YouTubers and musicians vouch for them and share discount links (7-10% off).

Distrokid offers an all-you-can-release model, unlimited releases for an annual fee. Though, their payment model has a few pitfalls needs to be aware of to ensure you get what you wish for.

The cheapest plan, Musician, costs $19.99 per year and offers unlimited releases. This plan lacks a few features compared to other competitors on the market, for example, not being able to customise release dates and labels.

These two features are available with most other competitors and with the second cheapest plan offered by Distrokid, Musician Plus, for $35.99.

Distrokid doesn't take a cut of the royalties. Users get paid 100%. However, see Updates on DistroKid's tax withholding controversy for a recent controversy on this 100% issue.

Distrokid offers ISRC free-of-charge. The UPC they provided is their internal UPC called Distrokid UPC, and can't be used outside Distrokid. UPC issued by other major distributors are universal and can be used with other distributors.

Distrokid will take down all your music if you stop paying the annual fees. They claim they offer "Leave a Legacy" to keep music online forever, but it may not be as straightforward as it appears to be.

For elaboration, see 6 Pitfalls to Know About Distrokid

To summarise, Distrokid is suitable for musicians who constantly release music and willing to pay annual fees. They don't take a cut of the royalties so users keep 100%. Their website is okay in terms of information, but may not explicitly address a few topics. There may be hidden fees along the way that need to be aware of, particularly "Leave a Legacy".

Free Distributors

Amuse.io

Amuse may be the most popular free distributor on the market. They provide free and paid plans to users to release music on major streaming platforms/stores.

Amuse doesn't take a cut of royalties, users get 100%. Due to it's free, the issue of music getting taken down doesn't exist in this case.

There are another few distributors that are popular on the market but I don't know much about them. I'm listing a few below.

Ditto Music

Plans on Ditto start from $19 per year with unlimited releases.

Ditto doesn't take a cut of royalties and pays user 100%.

TuneCore

TuneCore charges annual fees per release. Every release is required to pay annual fees to keep online, $9.99 per year for a single, $29.99 first year and $49.99 afterwards for an album.

TuneCore doesn't take a cut of royalties, users get 100%.

AvidPlay started a few weeks ago

AvidPlay is the newcomer on the market, offers quite a few payment models, including

Annual payment of $24.99 for unlimited releases
One-off fee upfront for each release, $9.99 for a single and $49.99 for an album
Annual payment per release, $4.99 per single per year and $19.99 per album per year

AvidPlay doesn't take a cut of royalties, users get 100%.

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How to decide which distributor to go with?

This is a brilliant question.

It depends. For example,

If there is no budget for releases, go with Amuse.io

The processing time of Amuse free plan is set to 4 weeks, on top of the processing time of the platforms/stores, one might be looking at getting available online in 4-5 weeks after submission.

This may be the most obvious downside. They don't take a cut of royalties.

If there is a budget for releases, considering the payment model of CD Baby and Distrokid, these may roughly fit into two production patterns.

CD Baby

If you're a slow cook producer, say 1 to 2 songs per year, or an album in a few years, go with CD Baby may be cheaper. There is no need to pay annual fees when nothing is getting released. The downside with CD Baby is they take 9% of royalties.

Distrokid

On the contrary, if you release music quite often, say more than 3 songs per year, the unlimited releases offered by Distrokid is a no-brainer. The annual fees won't be an issue in cases of frequent release. The caveat needs to be aware of is their hidden fees and not-so-straightforward terms and conditions.

[More about this topic: DistroKid vs. CD Baby vs. EmuBands and more - My Experience with Music Distributors]

In another case, if you stop producing at some point (I hope that won't happen...), you can always jump to CD Baby from Distrokid. In that case, there is no need to pay the annual fees and the music will be kept online forever and you still have access to the royalties.

Considering the royalties, Amuse and Distrokid don't take a cut, where CD Baby takes 9%.

All I can say is that there may not be a perfect solution. All down to personal choice.

Let's recap the four aspects of choosing a distributor.

How are the services charged? Is it a one-off charge? Or annual fees? Or both?
Do they take a cut of your royalties?
Do they offer UPC/ISRC for free or for a fee?
When will they take down your music?

The good news is, it is possible to switch to another distributor even if you have had many releases online. We will talk about this in another section.

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I've decided which distributor to go with, how to release my music?

Well. The submission part is the most straightforward among all of these topics, in my opinion. So go ahead with the distributor of your choice and submit your music!

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What will happen after I submit a release? When will I be able to listen to the songs on platforms/stores?

After the submission, a few things will happen.

The distributor will process the audio and album art to make sure the format is correct. Then the release will go through an internal review process, which may take a few days, before getting to the next stage. Most of the paid distributors process releases within 10 working days. The free plan of Amuse takes 4 weeks.
The release will be submitted to platforms/stores, the processing time of the platforms/stores take from a few days to a few weeks.
If there is a future release date, the platforms/stores will release the song on the day.

So take that all together, the songs may appear on platforms/stores 2-3 weeks after submission or a month in some slow cases.

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Are there going to be a lot of people listening to my music?

Good question, if you do nothing else, no!

Releasing music on streaming platforms does not necessarily boost exposure. It just enables a convenient channel for people to listen to your music. Marketing is still necessary for exposure. Other than that, in the era of streaming, getting onto a playlist is a great way to boost exposure.

On Spotify, it is possible to pitch a song for playlist consideration after it is available on Spotify and before it is released. We will talk about this in the next few sections.

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What's the deal with a specific release date? Do all the distributors offer customizable release dates?

A specific release date will affect marketing and submitting for playlist considerations. In order to make the songs available on all platforms/stores on the same day and being able to pitch for playlist considerations, setting a release date at least 3-4 weeks ahead is suggested.

Most distributors offer customisable release dates, but some of them don't, for example, the cheapest plan from Distrokid, Musician. You won't be able to set release dates for your releases if going with ahead this plan.

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How do I get access to artist pages on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music?

At least one song on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music is required for claiming artist pages on each of them. In another word, before the first song arrives the platforms, there is no direct way to access the artist pages.

After the first song arrives, the access can be made through Spotify for Artists, Apple Music for Artists and Amazon for Artists (this is app only) to get to the artist page.

Some distributors offer 'verifications' for artist pages and may facilitate the process.

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How to pitch a playlist consideration on Spotify?

The "Upcoming" tab on the artist page lists songs that have arrived Spotify but not yet released. To submit a playlist consideration, choose one song from the list. Each artist is able to pitch one song from each release. If it's a multi-track album, only one song can be pitched.

For more details, please see Spotify。

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Is it possible to switch distributors?

Yes, it sounds complicated but it is relatively straightforward.

Simply release the songs via the new distributor. Make sure to use the same audio, metadata and ISRC (available from the old distributor). After the new releases go online, take down the songs from the old distributor.

As long as the ISRC and metadata are the same, the stats and royalties won't be affected by switching distributors.

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Is it possible to make changes to a release?

Yes, if the changes you'd like to make are available on the release page of a distributor, go ahead with that. If not, resubmit the release with the same ISRC and metadata and take down the old release.

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How about covering other's songs?

Cover songs will need to acquire cover licenses while submitting. This is often for a fee. For example, Landr and Soundrop.

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What are the differences among distributors, labels and agents?

A distributor provides services distributing music to steaming platforms/store, it is not necessarily involved in marketing or changes the ownership. Labels and agents are often involved in marketing and sorting out ownerships.

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How about SoundCloud and Bandcamp?

SoundCloud and Bandcamp allow users to upload their music. The distributors don't distribute to these two platforms. It doesn't matter if songs are on these two platforms and/or released via a distributor. If you get the UPC/ISRC, these can be added to songs on SoundCloud and Bandcamp as identifiers of the same release.

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Is there anything else you haven't told me?

Well...If there's anything you'd like to know, give me shout.

For further reading,
6 Pitfalls to Know About Distrokid
DistroKid vs. CD Baby vs. EmuBands and more - My Experience with Music Distributors

Happy producing!
Also posted here.

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