After spending countless hours writing and recording your own music, you're probably itching to send it out into the world for other people to listen to.
This used to involve burning CDs and selling them at your gigs. But if you want people to find your music in the 21st century, you need to get it on Spotify, Apple Music, and other music streaming services instead.
In this article, we explore the various ways to distribute your music on streaming services.
How to Distribute Your Music on Streaming Services
Most music streaming services don't deal directly with artists. Which means you need to work with an established distributor to get your music online.
Of course, signed musicians can leave it to their label to sort out the music distribution. But if you're an unsigned or independent musician, you need to find a music distributor to work with.
Fortunately, there's a whole host of music distribution services available to use.
Most of these services charge a small fee and put your music on all of the major music streaming services. After doing so, anyone can listen to your music and you can claim payment from the royalties.
How Do Music Distribution Services Work?
Every music distribution service offers a different business model, and we'll detail all of the options below. But generally speaking, you either pay an upfront fee or give up a percentage of your earnings to get your music on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, and every other major music streaming service or digital store.
You then make money from your music through royalties, sales, and streaming payouts.
You should still own all the copyright to your music after signing up for a music distribution service. But make sure you read the terms and conditions yourself to be certain.
Most distributors issue payments at regular periods or after your earnings reach a certain threshold. That said, don't expect to make big bucks unless you get thousands of streams per month.
On average, a single stream earns you about half a cent, or less.
The best distribution services show you a breakdown of where your music is getting played, how often, and on which streaming services.
You only need to sign up with a single distribution service for each musical release. That service should make your music available everywhere, although it may only be for a limited time.
For future releases, feel free to use the same service again or jump ship and try someone else.
