How-to Publish Your Music Online

Written on 12.02.2023 by Andrijan Apostoloski

If you are an independent artist (meaning no label behind you), you will want to get your music on all possible platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram and others alike. In a world of vast information, its natural to have dozen of possibilities and for these kind of things to become a bit confusing. In this modest post, we go through some bulletproof methods to get your music on the internet.

For some it comes natural, but many struggle to upload their music properly online. There aren’t any reasons why not to, on more platforms you’re on, there’s higher chances for people to discover and listen to your music. As listed here, first start with opening up a Bandcamp profile – this is the best way to be connected with your fans and listeners directly, and this is where most of the finances (if any) will come from. After that, think about which distributor you’ll go with, and make sure to upload your music there as well – aside from streaming sites such as Spotify and alike, these distros will get your music on Shazam, YouTube Content ID, Instagram stories, etc.

Bandcamp

Before doing any of the distribution, please make yourself a favour and open up a Bandcamp profile (if you haven’t already). This platform gives you the best reach to music geeks, crate-diggers and other folks which if they like your music, will make sure to buy it, follow you and support you in the future as well.

Before or after uploading your music on Bandcamp, reach out to YouTube promoters such as losprimerosVIIVI, HATE or others to spread the word to the techno community about your release. Most of these promoters will share your music for free – if they like it, but some require a donation. At the end, it all depends on the style of techno or electronics you’re producing, how much you have to invest, etc. Your Bandcamp link on these YouTube videos is the best way to gather an audience that will be loyal, as long as you offer them fresh new music from time to time.

Soundcloud for Artists

Now, aside from your Soundcloud profile (which is a must!), you will want to invest in a Pro account if you want to gain access to the Distributor section where it allows you to upload your releases to digital stores such as Spotify and others. If you’re doing good on Soundcloud, you can also monetise your tracks and gather some extra cash from the streams there.

Few considerations:

– With Soundcloud, you have YouTube Content ID which not every distro offers.
– When it comes to fees, Soundcloud isn’t the best, but balances very good if you have a pro account. You retain 80% of the profits, 20% goes to Soundcloud.

With all that in mind, a monthly pro account costs 2.50€/month and 5.50€/month respectively. This is far from the cheapest solution, however it’s a norm for every dedicated artist to have a pro account as it allows unlimited uploads, detailed analytics and many other perks which you can gain from.

Free distribution solutions

Please consider that all of these distros offer uploading and distributing your music for free, although they all have fees and pricing which affects the final revenue you will receive. When checking them out, make sure to go through the Pricing pages and get informed about the deal you’re getting.

– Routenote
– Soundrop

Beatport & others

More specialised stores such as these don’t really play along with these mainstream distros here. If you’re releasing techno and want to get your music on there, you can either apply directly on Beatport, however they only accept labels which frequently offer fresh music. If you are an artist, it’s much more difficult, however not impossible. Search for some specialised distros which offer this service and will upload your releases on these stores, I’ll update the post as soon as I find any good ones.

Ignore these…

Despite being the most popular of them all, the pricing they offer is often too much for DIY artists and their offerings aren’t anything special. However they are legitimate, and as an option if you’re more established artist, their pricing may fit you better than the fees from the free distros.

– CDBaby
– DistroKid