How to get your music on iTunes and Spotify
Uploading your music to digital stores is getting easier and easier. Today, we see that artists are faced with many options to distribute their music in digital stores.
Why iTunes & Spotify?
iTunes and Spotify are among the most popular music streaming services available today, having millions of songs available for streaming and download.
But how do I get my songs on these platforms?
You must go through a music aggregator. These are companies that are dedicated exclusively to help you distribute your music on a global scale through digital stores & streaming platforms.
SongCast is a service we recommend that makes music distribution easy to upload your music to iTunes & Spotify.
Here are some things to consider before uploading your music:
1. Price
When selling your music on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon,etc, the first criterion is often the price. Although from my point of view it is not the most important thing. If you work from a professional and serious point of view, the difference of $10 or $20 when distributing your music can cost you much more in the long run if you don’t look closely at the other factors that need to be taken into account.
a) Price to upload your music.
How much do they charge you to upload your music to the channels?
Is it a fixed price for all channels or can you choose where to send your music?
But be aware that a well-made distribution has the following costs for any distributor:
– Quality control to ensure that the music reaches the channels correctly and is published. Cost of data processing and sending content packages to stores.
– Customer support cost.
– Cost of maintaining the music on the servers for future use.
– Cost of processing the royalties.
Somehow the distribution companies have to recover these costs, and saving on any of these aspects will directly affect the quality of the distribution service they offer you.
b) Price to keep your music available on the channels.
Cost per month or year to keep your music available on the channels.
First of all, it is important to note that no channel (such as Spotify, iTunes) charges its distributor to keep the music available. However, many digital distributors charge significant maintenance fees to supposedly make sure your music is available. It’s simply a way to generate recurring revenue for these companies, without them having to bear those costs.
c) Percentage of sales paid.
Apart from the above fees, it is important to take into account the % of royalties paid by your distributor. And if it’s not 100%, can you justify taking a percentage of your sales? Does it offer you a value-added service, promotion or other values in exchange for this percentage?
d) Costs of changing or removing your music from the channels
When it comes to distributing your music, you want it to be available as soon as possible. But it’s always good to look at where the exit door is before you enter – How much does your dealer charge you to change or remove your music from the channels – Can you do it at any time or is there a minimum term for which you have to sign up?Click here to download 19 beats!
e) UPC (barcode) and ISRC costs
To distribute your music in digital stores, you will need these codes. Songcast provides this to you free of charge.
Although a digital distribution will take your music to stores all over the world, contacting your distributor is essential, especially if you want to align your digital launch with promotional campaigns, a tour or a physical launch. If your distributor speaks your language and you have the possibility to visit her and explain your project in person, things will flow better and you will avoid misunderstandings. It is also important to see if there is a support community, ways to contact your reseller via online chat or phone and if the support department answers your questions. You can check this before hiring the services of any distributor.
Know-how
Digital music distribution is a pretty complex world. It is about managing technological processes, multi-currency cash flows with multiple tax assessments and copyright issues. In addition, the distributor (if working directly) continuously interacts with multiple channels at the same time, for support, royalties and promotion. Check if your distributor has a minimum of equipment, as all this is impossible to do with few people who are not experienced in the sector. Again, if here you see that behind the façade there is little depth, in most cases they will be agents of other distributors.
Additional services
Distributing your music is just one of all the needs you have as a musician. It is important to find out and assess whether your distributor can advise you with digital and conventional promotion, CD duplication, a strategy for your career… If you have to manage all these needs with different vendors, it will increase the complexity of management and, above all, complicate the planning of all the elements that are necessary to make your next launch a success.
Here is a checklist before uploading your music:
1. Make sure you have the proper copyright registration of your songs.
2. Be sure to have your songs mixed and mastered.
3. Each single or album must have a cover.
4. Have at hand all the possible data (composer, collaborators, artist, description of the album or song, title page, name of songs, name of the album & release date)
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