Get your music on Apple Music

How music gets onto Apple Music

Apple Music has no upload button for artists. Its catalogue comes from labels and distributors, which send Apple the audio, the artwork and the metadata for each release. Apple's artist help pages agree: if your music is not live, ask your distributor, and changes to titles, capitalisation or release dates come through the distributor too.

One delivery covers two places. Your release streams on Apple Music, the subscription service built into Apple devices and available worldwide, and it is sold as downloads on the iTunes Store. Apple Music has no free tier, so every play on it comes from a paying subscriber.

Apple Music also plays lossless audio, with a Hi-Res Lossless setting of up to 24-bit/192 kHz. We accept WAV, FLAC or AIFF at 16 or 24-bit and 44.1 to 192 kHz, so upload the master as it came from mastering rather than a converted copy.

Releasing on Apple Music, step by step

1. Apply and set up your artistAccounts are opened by application — tell us about your music and we usually have you ready within one working day. If the artist is already on Apple Music, add their Apple Music artist ID so the release joins the existing page.
2. Add the details Apple checksTitles, artists, a specific role for every performer and an iTunes price tier. The editor checks Apple's rules as you go; they are listed below.
3. Upload artwork and audioSquare artwork of at least 2400 × 2400 px (3000 × 3000 is ideal) as JPEG or PNG, and lossless audio. Both are checked on upload for low resolution, clipping, silence and format.
4. Pick the stores and submitTick Apple Music, which brings iTunes with it, and the other stores you want. We deliver approved releases within 24 hours.

Timing your release

How quickly Apple publishes a release is up to Apple; most stores have a release live within a few days of receiving it. Set your release date at least two to three weeks ahead: time for Apple to process it, for you to claim your artist page, and for every store to go live on the same day.

A new account's first release is reviewed by our team before it is delivered, so give it a little more room.

Apple Music for Artists: your page, your numbers, your Shazams

Apple Music for Artists is Apple's app and website for artists and their teams. Once your music is on Apple Music you can claim your artist page there. Apple gives Administrator access to the first artist or manager who claims it, and that person can add the rest of the team as Admins, Analysts or Profile Editors.

• Measure — plays, average daily listeners, song purchases and Shazams, with trends over time and the places you are heard
• Artist content — your artist image, lyrics and the details fans see on your page
• Promote — ready-made social media assets for your albums, songs and videos, and shareable milestones

Shazam deserves a closer look. Apple creates a Shazam artist page when your music is delivered to Apple Music, and your Shazam counts appear in Apple Music for Artists with the countries and regions that Shazam you most. A Shazam means someone heard your song somewhere — the radio, a shop, someone else's video — and wanted to know what it was: a useful guide to where your music is travelling without you.

Apple's metadata rules, checked before you submit

Apple is stricter about metadata than most stores, and a release that breaks its rules is sent back rather than corrected. The release editor checks the common ones for you:

• A specific role for every performer. Each track needs its performers credited with what they did. The generic "Performer" credit has been refused since August 2026.
• Featured artists as artists. Credit them in the artist fields, not by writing "feat." into the title.
• No titles in capitals. Titles written in ALL CAPS are refused.
• "Various Artists" for compilations only. A release by one or two artists must name them.
• A price tier for iTunes. Every release sold as a download needs one.

Declaring AI use

Since March 2026 Apple has asked labels to declare when AI was used to make a release, and the tags are due to become mandatory later in 2026. Be ready to say honestly which parts of a track, if any, were generated — vocals, instruments, lyrics or the whole recording.

The simplest habit is to note how each track was made while you make it.

Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos

Apple Music also plays songs in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, and Apple says it gives Spatial Audio releases a larger share of sound-recording royalties. But an Atmos version is a separate mix, not a setting. Apple refuses Atmos files upmixed from a stereo master or built from stems pulled out of one; the mix must come from the original multitracks and be delivered by a distributor or encoding house Apple has approved for Atmos.

The masters TempoDigital takes are stereo. A strong stereo master is what every store needs first; an Atmos mix is a separate project.

How Apple Music and iTunes pay you

Apple Music is paid for by subscriptions, so the money your plays earn comes from subscribers' fees. There is no fixed amount per stream: it varies by country and by month, and we do not quote one. iTunes earns from each download sold, priced by the tier you chose.

Stores report in arrears — most about two months after the month the plays happened. When Apple's report arrives, your earnings land in your TempoDigital wallet in US dollars; above $70 you can withdraw by Payoneer, PayPal, Wise or bank transfer. Moving releases from another distributor? Keep the same ISRCs and UPC — see how to switch music distributor.

Mistakes that hold Apple releases back

• No artist ID for an artist who is already on Apple Music. The release starts a second, empty page, or lands on another artist with the same name. Add the Apple Music artist ID before the first release with us.
• Credits gathered at the last minute. Collect every performer's role from the session notes before you start the release.
• Fixing details after release. Title, capitalisation and date changes have to go back through the distributor. Check everything before you submit.
• A release date for tomorrow. It may still go out, but you lose the time to claim your page and plan anything around it.