Today we’re getting your music on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Twitch, and even TikTok. SoundCloud is not the only option and no, you don't have to get “signed” either. You're also going to keep 100% of Your Publishing Rights and 100% of Your Royalties, and Unlimited Uploads. I’m also going to get you a 47% off. Let’s get into to it.
How to Upload Music to Spotify
- Sign up for a Distrokid account to get your music on Spotify
- Upload your music and cover art to put your songs on Spotify
- Add music contributors for splits for automatic payments
- Get your music on Spotify once it’s been approved by Distrokid
- Upload Unlimited Songs. You Keep 100% of your Rights and 100% of your revenue.
Distrokid
What is it? Distrokid is a distribution service. This is the middle man. You send them your music, they send your music to Spotify, Apple Music, and everywhere else. Then you get paid. It’s honestly as simple as that. You keep 100% of your royalties and 100% of your publishing rights. It’s an annual subscription with unlimited uploads.
Now, there are other services, which I’ll get into in a moment. I’ve talked to literally thousands of artists and the vast majority prefer Distrokid and for good reason.
The Discount
Step 1 is to sign up by clicking this link here. Click the link, sign-up, and don’t buy anything. Just sign up and leave the site. If you’ve already signed-up, scroll down to the FAQ section for some more information.
Step 2, after 24 hours, they should send you an email with a coupon of a 30% off your first year. Do NOT click that link.
Step 3, after 48 hours from your signup, they should send you a second email with a coupon of 40% off your first year. Click that link and make your purchase.
Step 4, like the video and share this with a friend.
Step 5, comment on this article or the video letting people know it worked for you.
Disclaimer
Some people have had issues. Rarely, Distrokid just doesn’t send the first coupon for 2 or 3 days and sometimes they don’t send any at all. It’s rare. Most people get the 40% discount. However, sometimes Distrokid does not add the 7% with the addition 40%. Instead of 47%, you may only get 40%. Most people get the 40% with no problem.
Distrokid Plans
When you make you make your purchase, you have three options. To put it simply, get the Musician Plus package. The Musician package does not allow you to Schedule your release in advance and you don’t get your own your own Label Name.
You MUST schedule your release in order to submit to Spotify Editorials.
Without being able to schedule your release, you immediately miss out on one of the biggest marketing advantages. Not to mention, you don’t get to name your label. There is a label section on every platform. Now you’re missing out on marketing your business; your brand.
Musician Plus also gets you an extra artist. You could split the price with a friend or release anonymous music through a second account. Personally, I bought the Musician Plus and I recently upgraded to the Label plan. I have 4 individual artist profiles that all are building an audience and growing my music as a whole.
Distrokid Alternatives
Some people have had success with Distrokid alternatives, but I strongly recommend you do your research first. TuneCore is common. I used it. They charge a premium for an average level of service. They also have the worst customer service of any site I’ve used.
The only thing I regret more than using TuneCore, is telling people to use TuneCore.
Cdbaby is common too. There’s nothing bad about CDbaby, but a below average price range with get you below average service. There are a lot of options, but the choice should be clear.
TOP 5 Reasons I Use Distrokid
5. Easily get verified on Spotify and make your YouTube channel an Artist Channel
4. Above average customer service and fixer (so when someone else’s music shows up on your profile, fixing it is super easy)
3. Payouts and Statistics are easy to access and kept very simple
2. Distrokid Teams offers you an easy way to manage your splits, or collabs. Since most people I know use DK, this has been a huge success.
1. Distrokid are the number 1 recommend distributor by Spotify
Payouts
Payouts are confusing in general. It's not a Distrokid thing. That’s a Spotify thing. It’s an Apple Music thing. It is confusing.
You get paid monthly, with a 2 month delay.
All the streams/sales in January appear in your withdrawal 2 months later, meaning April 1st. When you get paid on September 1st, that’s for your all your streams/sales from June. That’s with all streaming services, regardless of your distributor.
Just remember that January is April, and February is May.
How much do you get paid?
Your payment varies. If I look at my account, James G has had 1,840,439 and earned $5,650.07. That’s about $0.003 per stream, or $3 per 1000 streams. This is typically written as a $3.00 CPM, which is just cost per thousand. I’ve noticed that Spotify tends to pay closer to $2.00 CPM and Apple Music tends to pay closer to $3.40 CPM.
I just use $2.70 in all my calculations.
However, don’t forget you have to file taxes at the end of the year. In the US, this will be a 1099-MISC form. I am not a tax specialist, but I recommend putting aside 20% of all your earnings to make sure you can cover your income tax.
Let’s run a couple examples quicks. If I want to make $1,000 a month with an estimate CPM of 2.7, then I need 370,371 streams. That’s about 92,593 streams per week or 13,227 streams per day.
Now, don’t let the big numbers scare you. These are actually very easy to get. I have a several videos on my YouTube Channel that show you exactly how to do this. Also, please to comment any questions you have. I read and answer all of them.
Spotify Verification
Once you upload your first track and it is on Spotify, head back over to Distrokid. Under the “More” tab on the right side, scroll down to the bottom, and click “Streaming Service Goodies”. From here, you can Verify your Spotify with Spotify for Artists (SFA). I love Spotify for Artists. If you are an artist, you NEED access to your Spotify for Artists. It’s free.
This gives you Live Statistics as well as control over your Artist Profile. You also need SFA when you are submitting to Spotify’s Editorials.
When you click SFA, you should see your artist's name. Fill out the information and you should have immediate access. If your artist name does not appear, don’t worry, it will be there within a few days of your music going live on Spotify.
That your Spotify Artist page and your Listener Profile are completely different and cannot be merged. If you have a Spotify account that you listen to music on, that’s just a Listener Profile. Your Artist Page can only be accessed through SFA.
Next, do this same process with Apple Music for Artists. AMFA is similar, but not nearly as amazing as, SFA. I strongly recommend you still get verified.
YouTube Official Artist Channel
Distrokid already automatically uploads your music to YouTube. YouTube will create what's called a "Topic" channel. It is usually formatted something like "Artist - Topic". You cannot edit or change anything on the Automatic channel.
If you set up your YouTube Official Artist Channel, your music will pop up on your personal YouTube Channel, rather than the separate, automated channel. You also get that little Music Note next to your name.
Personally, I recommend doing this after your music has been out for a few months. This is because YouTube will automatically promote your music when it first gets uploaded. That automated channel will get subscribers. Then, when you set up your YouTube Official Artist Channel, it merges those followers.
I had about 80-100 subscribers on my personal channel. Then I set up my YouTube Official Artist Channel and I had like 220 subscribers by the end of the week. That’s because the automated channel and my channel were merged.
FAQ’s
These are some actual questions from the comments section in the original video. Please comment your own questions and I'll be happy to answer them.
Why Distrokid?
Distrokid is the best music distributor because it costs far less than the competitors and you get way more for you purchase.
I never got an email, what happened?
Make sure you checked your Spam folder. Also, if you’re using Gmail, check the Promotions and Social Tabs. If you still cannot find it, sign-up using a different email.
I already signed up, but never bought anything before. How do I get the discount with the same email I’m using?
This gets a little complicated, but it’s possible. I have never done this before, but some people said this works. You need 2 emails; a preferred and secondary.
Create your Distrokid account with a Secondary email. Follow the instructions above and to get the discount. Make your purchase. Once you have made your purchase, go into your settings and change your email to your preferred email.
If you’re still having problems, contact Distrokid about changing your email on your account.
I clicked the referral link then waited 2 days , I got the email. But when I clicked on it, only the 40% discount applied and no 7%. Why?
Sometimes this happens. The 47% is a hack. It’s not supposed to work. Sometimes you only get 40% and sometimes you get 47%.
I've already paid for a plan before I found this video. Any options for me?
Yes, there are options for you. Market your music. Unlike everyone else who is reading this, your music is out there. The whole world has access to your music now. You need to get them to play it and you’ll get paid. Then, the Distrokid subscription will be paying for itself.
How much do artists get paid for streams?
Spotify pays artists about $2.70 per 1000 streams, or a $2.70 CPM.
When does Spotify pay their artists?
Artists get paid Monthly, with a 2 month delay. Expect the check from January’s streams to arrive at the beginning of April.
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