How to put Your Music on Spotify: The 2024 Guide & Tutorial
So, you’ve finally got the mastered version of your song or album, now it’s time to make sure your music is available on all music streaming platforms so it’s being heard by as many ears as possible.
By the end of this post you'll know just how to upload your music to Spotify and other streaming services like - Apple Music, Google Play, Tidal, etc. Additionally, you'll have a new way to earn money through the sale and royalties of your music.
These streaming platforms need to ensure all of their music is properly licensed, so the process of getting your music on Spotify isn’t as simple as uploading it yourself directly like you can with Soundcloud or Bandcamp. Instead, they require all music to be submitted by either a label or distributor.
For those of us who aren’t signed to a label, we’ll have to go through a distributor who will handle licensing, get our music uploaded onto these streaming platforms and pay us those hard earned royalties for when our songs are streamed and downloaded.
There are various music distributors to choose from, each with their own benefits and most of them come with a small fee or percentage cut. I’m going to go through TuneCore, DistroKid and CD Baby (which are the main distributors in the industry worth considering) and their features to help you decide which one to go with getting your music into Spotify and more.
How to Upload music to spotify & all streaming services
TuneCore vs. DistroKid vs. CD Baby
FREE
Unlimited releases to all social platforms
RISING ARTIST
$14.99 /year
Release to 150+ digital stores globally.
BREAKOUT ARTIST
$29.99 /year
Release to 150+ digital stores globally and customize your releases.
PROFESSIONAL
$49.99 /year
For labels and professionals, release unlimited music and get access to premium services.
150+ stores
Keep 100% of music sales revenue
Daily/ monthly sales trend reports
Payout 45 days after the end of each calendar quarter
+ YouTube Money - $12/ one time – Keep 80% of revenue (earn money when your music is use anywhere on YouTube).
First up is TuneCore, they start at $14.99 per year to release unlimited music to streaming platforms. They also have a free tier which enables you to release on all social platforms (YouTube, Instagram), but not major platforms like Spotify.
TuneCore will distribute your music to over 150 different streaming services and lets you keep 100% of all sales (streams & downloads). TuneCore doesn’t payout as often as some other platforms and pays artists out quarterly. TuneCore is simple to use and comes equipped with daily and monthly stats for you to keep track of, which is really useful.
A feature that’s available and worth noting is the YouTube monetization add on, Its an extra $12, but you only pay it once and it allows you to earn money whenever your music is used anywhere on YouTube. TuneCore let’s us artists take 80% of this revenue, and they keep the other 20%.
If you're an artist that plans on releasing music frequently, you can probably see how it could get expensive because of the annual fees we have to pay in order to keep our music on Spotify. That’s right, you stop paying the annual fee on your track and it’ll get taken down.
MUSICIAN - Upload Unlimited
$22.99/ per Year
Keep 100% of your royalties
150+ Stores
paid monthly
MUSICIAN PLUS - Upload Unlimited
$39.99 / per year
Musician Plan features as well as...
daily sales stats
2 artists/ bands
custom release date
custom iTunes pricing
Ultimate
$89.99 / per year
+ YouTube Money – $4.95 – Keep 80%
DistroKid’s pricing works as one fixed yearly fee starting at $22.99 for the Musician plan, which you can then upload as many songs and albums you want to over 150 streaming services. You keep 100% of your sales with DistroKid and they manage to pay artists out monthly.
DistroKid is very easy and straightforward to use and comes with basic features. If you choose the Musician Plus plan for $39.99 per year they give you bonus features like daily stats, custom release date, custom iTunes pricing and you can manage (1) additional artist/band on the account.
In order to monetize your music being used on YouTube, TuneCore requires you to pay 4.95 per year, and pays out 80% of the earned revenue.
SINGLE
Single - $9.99
ALBUM
Album - $9.99
150+ stores
Keep 91% of sales
Make money on Youtube – Keep 70%
CD Baby’s pricing is as simple as $9.99 per single or album you want distributed to over 150 major streaming platforms. CD Baby has no annual or monthly fee to pay to keep your songs up which is nice, Although, CD Baby only gives you 91% of your music sales.
The customer support and resources offered at CD Baby is great and its no extra cost to monetize on YouTube, but… they only give you 70% of what your music makes.
CD Baby is inexpensive to get your music on streaming platforms with lifetime distribution, but as you can see they do dip into your earnings. This could add up to be a lot depending on how often you release music.
Conclusion
It all depends on what you’re looking for and how often you plan on releasing music. For example, If you just want to upload one song or project to Spotify for as cheap as possible, or you don’t release music as frequent, the low cost, one -time fee of CD Baby might suit you best.
However, many of us artists are at least planning on being consistent and of course we would also like to keep as much of our hard earned revenue as well. This is why I believe DistroKid wins the battle and I use them as my distributor.
They don’t charge you per single or album, you just pay your yearly fee and get as many songs distributed as you can release. DistroKid has also recently teamed up with Spotify enabling all the artists who use them as a distributer to be instantly verified on their artist page.
If Distrokid is your choice as well, I've added my custom link below which will hook you up with 7% off of your membership when you join.
In the video below, I walk you through step-by-step of how to easily upload your music to Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play & more using DistroKid.
I hope this has helped you come to a decision of which distributor to go with, and gives you a better idea of how getting your music on Spotify and other streaming platform is really done.
Goodluck, and release some great music.
- Pooks
PS. If you ever want to ask a question feel free to hit me up anytime.