If you’re reading this, you’re either struggling to understand music distribution, or you’re looking for ways to learn more about successfully distributing your music on streaming platforms.
And by ‘successfully,’ I’m talking about generating significant streams, making noise in your industry, and making money off your independent releases.
These days, anyone can get their songs on Spotify, Apple Music, or Deezer. However — not everyone reaps the full benefits of it.
Everyday struggles of ‘not being able to reach >1000 streams’ or ‘not being able to collect revenue that is rightfully yours’ are very familiar.
While online streaming services have been around for a minute and music distribution services, such as CD Baby and DistroKid, make distributing music easy, they often focus their support and knowledge bases on what’s important to them.
And as a result, they’re skipping essential parts in the process of going from zero to publishing a song and collecting earnings that are rightfully yours.
We wrote this guide to teach you how to make the most out of music distribution, and it will cover all of the above (and more).
This is not going to be a quick-read(!) But I promise you, if you’re looking for a complete and concise guide to music distribution, you can stop going down the internet rabbit-hole to find answers. Most likely, you’ll find them here.
What you will learn from this guide
Our primary goal for this guide is to teach you everything you need to know about distributing your music on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and more.
This guide will include all the required (actionable and practical) steps to gain followers, listeners, fans, and collect revenue from your independent releases.
However, there’s more to ‘music distribution’ than meets the eye. The creative aspect, as well as your marketing efforts and understanding of specific business aspects, are critical to make this work.
This is why we’ve divided this guide into three different parts. (You can find a full breakdown of the table of content below)
- Part 1 — The Creative Side of Distributing Music
- Part 2 — The Business Aspect of Distributing Music
- Part 3 — Down To Distribution
Furthermore — these three parts will include links to sub-articles posted on our blog as well. These sub-articles will dive deeper into topics mentioned briefly and concisely in this full guide.
The sub-articles hyperlinked within this guide may also direct to other valuable external resources we believe are useful in following the steps outlined in this guide.
We recommend using this guide as a reference and bookmark this page right away. It will outline your course of action from start-to-finish, and you can refer back to this for every new song you decide to release.
Part 1: The Creative Side
The creative process of producing a song consists of four main steps.
- Writing
- Recording
- Mixing
- Mastering
As apparent as this process may sound to some of you, I ask you to at least skim down this part of the guide, even if it’s to check and validate that you’re on the right track.
I promise you, this part has everything to do with successfully distributing your music. Furthermore, in this guide, it’ll become much clearer how a lack of attention and effort put into these four parts individually can drastically influence your final results.
Step 1: The Writing Process
The process of writing lyrics should be very familiar to you. This part of the creative process is different for everyone. As a producer and engineer myself, this is something I never give comments or suggestions on and stay away from intentionally.
Your lyrics speak of your identity, and the process and methods you use are usually acquired through your way of life.
While some like to write on-the-spot, in a studio session, or in the presence of others, you might feel more comfortable penning down your lyrics while being alone, in bed, or when you’re on your way to work or school.
Don’t worry. There’s no need to make any changes to your writing process to make a successful song.
However — within this writing process, there’s a step that does not come naturally to everyone and is often overlooked.
The Post-Writing Process
After you’ve penned down your lyrics, you need to analyze your lyrics and structure your song in a way that makes sense to the general listener.
This sometimes requires (re)arranging your lyrics, moving parts of your song around (verses, choruses, pre-choruses), or — in more extreme cases — completely removing certain elements.
All of the above helps grab people’s attention and hold on to it for as long as possible.
Some practical examples:
- If the best and most catchy part of your song is the chorus, you might want to start with that.
- If your song consists of a story, you might want to build up to that slowly. A technique often used in slow jams and ballads.
- You also might want to cut your verses short and create quicker and more natural transitions into the chorus.
You might think, how does this relate to music distribution? Well — across all platforms, your first intention should be to grab people’s attention with your music and have them listen to your songs for as long and as many times possible. This is particularly important for platforms such as YouTube and Spotify.
The algorithms that get your songs in rotation and in front of others (“recommended”) highly depends on “how long” someone listens to your music.
On YouTube, this metric is better known as “Average Watch Time.”
Also, on certain platforms, streams or views are not even counted if people listen to your song for less than 15-seconds.
If you would analyze the structure of some of your favorite songs (preferably songs that are similar to your style of music) — You would notice the similarities in structures. Professionals have developed and continue to apply these structures for a reason.
For example, 12-16 bar verses for rappers. Or a pre-chorus that consists of the same lyrics (in R&B and Pop songs).
Such repeat factors tie in with people’s attention span these days. If you skim the Apple Music charts, you must have noticed that songs are becoming shorter. (2,5 min. On avg. while it used to be 3,5+ min.)
Two reasons why professionals carefully structure their songs these days:
- The attention span of listeners has shortened over the years
- Having quicker rotation and play-through on albums and playlists to generate more streams (thus more revenue)
Step 2: The Technical & Creative Aspect of Recording
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
To some degree, the same is true when it comes to making a song. Each step in creating a song is equally important and should never be rushed or considered ‘fixable later.’ (even though, in some cases, this might be possible.)
If you happen to be an audio engineer reading this, you must be familiar with clients rushing their recordings based on the common misconception: “No worries, my engineer will fix this in post.”
“You can polish a turd as much as you want, but you can’t turn it into a diamond. In the end, it’s still a turd.”
The process of recording is as much a creative process as it is a technical process.
- The creative aspect of recording speaks about the emotional load in a song, the deliverance of your story, or the showcasing of talent and vocal skills.
- The technical aspect of recording speaks about the use of proper equipment, and more importantly, the knowledge of how to work with such equipment.
Both should be treated as equally important. However, I’d like to focus more on the technical aspect. From my personal experience — it is one of the main reasons why some songs do not live up to their full potential.
Why am I covering vocal recording in this guide about music distribution?
Everything is intertwined. The lack of quality of your recorded vocals may result in an unprofessional sounding record. You’ll learn more about this in the next topic of “Mixing & Mastering.”
In other words; Mixing engineers can only do their best work if they’re working with technically good recorded vocals.
And with these technicalities, I’m referring to things like:
- The quality of equipment (microphones, preamps, even pop-filters)
- The quality of the environment (vocal booths, acoustically treated rooms, low background noise)
- The recording techniques mastered by the artist (microphone distance, vocal performance)
- The quality of audio (no clipping on audio files, leaving several dB of headroom)
The mixing & mastering process will determine the quality of your song. And the quality of your song — you guessed it — heavily influences the success of your release.
While the internet sometimes makes it seem like you can record a song on your iPhone, mix it down, and upload it to Spotify, in reality — things don’t always play out this way.
Step 3: Mixing Your Vocal Tracks
First, I want to stress the importance of a ‘good’ mix and why your song is only as good as you can portray it to the listener.
Imagine looking at the best photo you’ve ever seen, but you can only see the blue colors. Not only would it ruin the image or have you focus your attention on the blue colors, but it would also prevent you from seeing all the beautiful details hidden in the other colors.
The same goes for your music and how it’s mixed. You might have written the best lyrics ever or recorded the best vocals ever.
All this won’t be noticed if your vocals don’t cut through the mix, meaning it sounds as if they are buried underneath a thick blanket of instrumental sounds, effects, or other elements in a song.
A high-quality, professional mix focuses on the individual tracks first and then brings them together as one great sounding track. In the process, each vocal/instrument gets its place in a mix. Professional audio engineers have ways to make the slightest detail of your perfect recording noticeable.
This makes the listening experience for your audience as ‘easy’ and pleasant as possible. In the best-case scenario, people will feel the emotion and get carried away in the songs you’ve worked so hard to create.
And if the combination of high-quality recorded vocal tracks and engineering skills is right, it can take your songs to a whole new level. A level on which Spotify, Apple Music, and all the listeners you’re trying to reach exist to play your music on repeat, share it with others, and become fans of your music.
While some artists have acquired the skill set to mix their vocals, most have not. These artists require the help of a professional to make the most out of their releases.
Hiring a professional audio engineer is one of the best decisions you can make. Finding the right engineer that matches your budget can be challenging. But it doesn’t take away that collaborating during the mixing stage is essential for creating great music.
Eventually, you want to feed not just your perfect listening audience but also Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music’s algorithms with beautiful music.
Step 4: The Master
People often confuse “mixing” with “mastering” or think it’s all the same process. But these stages have two different names for a reason.
What is the difference between Mixing and Mastering?
- Mixing engineers make your song sound great
- Mastering engineers make your song sound great on every platform
👨🏻🍳 Imagine baking a cake. The first thing you do is mix all the ingredients together and prepare the cake. Only when you’ve followed the recipe (and checked it twice) — you heat up the oven and bake your cake.
Mixing engineers prep the ingredients and Mastering engineers bake it in the oven. Both steps are required to make a delicious cake.
Mixing engineers work with individual tracks (the ingredients) such as instruments and vocal tracks and balance these individual tracks to create a ‘mixed’ version of your song.
Mastering engineers generally work with a single track (the batter made of your ingredients) and balance the sonic elements of this ‘mixed version’ to create the final ‘mastered’ version you will use for distribution.
The purpose of “mastering” is to create an optimized version of your song that sounds good on all audio systems and media platforms.
You should never skip this step in the production process. Mastering is generally much cheaper than mixing and, without question, worth the investment. In fact, a necessary investment.
Once the mastering engineer is finished working on your song, you will receive the final version(s) in radio-ready, industry-standard, and high-quality formats such as:
- WAV 24bit
- WAV 16bit
- MP3 320kbps
These are also the formats you will need to upload your song(s) to music distribution services such as CD Baby, DistroKid, or TuneCore. (more about this later)
Step 5: The Importance of Compelling Artwork
The final creative step in producing and preparing your song for release is the use of artwork.
First and foremost, you need artwork for all platforms you decide to use for distributing your music. But creating (or having someone else create) compelling artwork is not something you want to take lightly.
Whether you like it or not, “people listen with their eyes.” Chances are pretty high people ‘see’ your song before they hear it. If it looks terrible or unoriginal, that could be a reason for someone to decide not to listen to your music.
In regards to the topic of “playlists” and reaching out to “music supervisors” or “curators,” — your artwork plays a vital role.
The artwork is not only used on a per-song basis. It may as well be considered a way to sculpt your brand as an artist. You could create consistency in certain aesthetic elements when promoting your music so it continually reflects you as an artist.
When given enough thought, attention, and when combined with creative effort to make your artwork ‘stand-out’ and be unique — you can use it as both your business card and a way-in for new opportunities and connections.
Part 2: The Business Aspect
It’s time to get to business! In this second part of The Ultimate Guide To Music Distribution, we’ll walk you through the business side of releasing songs and how to collect earnings that are rightfully yours.
You should know that a 2015 Berklee College of Music report found that anywhere from 20% to 50% of music payments do not make it to their rightful owners. Not only are payment structures (intentionally made) complex. Many artists also fail to understand “how to collect all royalties rightfully theirs” and skip parts in the process which prevents them from claiming all their money.
At the end of this part, you’ll find a checklist of every step you need to take before distributing your song. We will gradually work our way down to understand better why these steps are essential.
If, at some point, you start wondering how these topics relate to the subject of music distribution. We’re covering this because most of today’s violations, conflicts, removal of songs, and errors in payouts are a direct result of insufficient understanding of the process prior to distributing.
As you start working down your checklist to get your songs from Zero to Published, you will stumble upon these things undoubtedly.
We’ll be covering the following topics in regards to setting up the business aspect required before sending your songs off to distribution services:
- Using beats from online producers
- Copyright Ownership: Who owns what?
- Performing Rights Organisations
- Publishing Royalties
- Music Distribution Services
For the sake of keeping this part as concise as possible, we’re going to assume you’re an independent artist without a label, management, or publishing deal. And that you are not limited by any contracts that may entitle a person or entity a percentage of your song credits.
Step 6: Rights & Limitations To Your Song
This part applies to artists that are using instrumentals from (online) producers. You may skip this part only if you’ve created your own music and are the sole creator of all lyrics and music in your song, and have no other creative person to account to.
Licensing Beats From Online Producers
In this new music industry and the business I’m personally active in, it’s very common for artists to license instrumentals.
These licenses permit artists to create songs with other producers’ music and are usually acquired through websites such as BeatStars, Soundee, or Airbit. However — these licenses are often limited in usage rights.
For example:
- Not every license allows distribution on digital streaming platforms.
- It’s also very likely that your license has a streaming cap, and when you reach this cap, the license becomes invalid and requires renewal.
- Most licenses have an expiration date. When you’ve reached the expiration date, you’ll need to renew your license as well. (Usually after 5-10 years)
At this point, it’s a good idea to check your license agreement. Suppose this agreement states any of the above, and you ignore or surpass the usage-rights provided. In that case, you’re in direct violation of the license agreement and accountable for any copyright issues and damages caused by these violations.
If you do not have a license agreement or official written permission from the producer to use the instrumental for your song, you are not allowed to distribute your song, and you can not follow the steps outlined in the rest of this guide.
Need more help understanding Online Beat Licensing? We’ve written an in-depth guide covering the ins- and outs. Definitely give this one a read later. 😉
Refrain From Using Distributors’ YouTube Content ID services
Also applicable to those who use beats from online producers is utilizing YouTube’s Content ID services.
Content ID is YouTube’s automated, scalable system that enables copyright owners to identify YouTube videos that include content they own.
Music Distribution services, such as DistroKid and CD Baby, provide additional services to upload your song to the Content ID system. This system will then detect any use of your song in other YouTube videos. Upon detection, they’ll notify you as the original creator and copyright owner.
Simply put, when given that notice, you can decide to monetize these videos, track them, or block them entirely.
This can help detect whoever is using your music in their videos and even allows you to monetize the videos that contain your song, thus generating an extra stream of (passive) revenue.
However — and this will become clear in the next section — if you do not have master rights, you are not the copyright owner of the song.
In other words; If you’ve licensed the instrumental non-exclusively from an online producer, you are not the copyright owner.
As YouTube claims and expressively mentions; Only copyright owners can submit their music into Content ID.
I want to stress the importance of this, particularly for protecting myself and my fellow producers. But also for any artists out there reading this.
If you’re using beats from online producers on a non-exclusive basis, you should never opt-in for the additional service of YouTube Content ID provided by distributors. It’s as simple as ticking a box when uploading your song, but this puts you in direct violation of international copyright laws regarding copyright ownership.
Suppose you happen to own and control 100% of your song, including the music and lyrics it contains — good for you! 🙂 You may take full advantage of these additional services.
We’ll get back to this later in this guide as we walk through the submission process for uploading your songs to streaming platforms.
Step 7: Copyright Ownership: Who Owns What?
Before you can upload your songs to (1) a distributor, it’s common to register it first with (2) a Performing Rights Organization and (3) a publishing company. More about this in the next section.
For all three, you need to know “who owns what” in your song.
There are two types of Copyright we will be discussing here.
- Performing Arts (PA-Copyright)
- Sound Recording (SR-Copyright)
Performing Arts Copyright
In most cases, you are not in full control of the PA Copyright in your song, which means you’re sharing copyrights with producers or other writers who helped you with the lyrics.
- Producers own PA-copyright to the MUSIC
- Writers own PA-copyright to the LYRICS
These copyrights are better known as Performing Arts Copyright (PA-Copyright)
Suppose an artist wishes to register their song with a Performing Rights Organization or distribute their songs to streaming services. In that case, the artist must credit every person involved in the song for their part.
Generally speaking, credits are divided as 50% Music & 50% Lyrics.
Sound Recording Copyright
Another form of copyright that relates to your song is Sound Recording Copyright. In the industry, this is better known as the Master Rights.
For the sake of staying concise and to-the-point, all you need to know before distributing your song is whether you are the Master Rights owner or not. Here’s some help.
- If the music in your song is licensed on a non-exclusive basis, you are NOT the Master Rights owner.
- If the music in your song is licensed on an exclusive basis, you ARE the Master Rights owner.
- If you’re signed to a label (major or independent), your contract will state whether you control your masters or not — in most cases; you’re not.
- If you’ve written, produced, and paid for everything related to producing your song, you ARE the Master Rights owner.
- If someone else financed (parts of) the creative and production of your song, you may NOT be the Master Rights owner.
Even if you are not the Master Rights owner, you may still be allowed to distribute your song based on the deals or agreements you have with others involved. (such as a license agreement from the producer for using their beats)
But utilizing services or opportunities that require you to be the Master Rights owner may be limited.
For example, as mentioned in the topic of Content ID, if you’re not the master rights owner, you may not register your song for Content ID.
Another example is submitting and entering deals related to Sync opportunities (TV placements, Film, Netflix, etc.) — this requires approval from other rights-holders.
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