What music distribution is
Streaming services do not take uploads from artists. Spotify closed its upload tool in 2019, and Apple Music, Amazon Music and the other major services take releases only from labels and distributors. A music distributor is the company that delivers your recordings to all of them, keeps the details correct, collects what the music earns and pays it to you.
A distributor does not own your music. You license it to deliver and collect; you keep the rights to your recordings and your songs.
What you need before you release
| You need | Details |
|---|---|
| Final audio | Lossless WAV, FLAC or AIFF — 16 or 24-bit, 44.1 to 192 kHz, stereo. No MP3s. |
| Cover art | Square, at least 2400 × 2400 px (3000 × 3000 is ideal), JPEG or PNG. No web addresses, social handles or store logos on it. |
| Release details | Title, artist names exactly as you want them shown, featured artists, genre, release date, label name. |
| Credits | Songwriters, producers and performers. Apple Music needs a specific performer role on every track, such as vocals or guitar. |
| Codes | An ISRC per track and a UPC per release. A distributor provides them; keep existing ones if the music was released before. |
| Rights | You must own or control the recording. Covers, samples and bought beats each have their own rules. |
Releasing your music in seven steps
- Choose a distributorCompare what you pay, what share of royalties you keep, which stores are included, and whether YouTube Content ID and codes cost extra. More on that below.
- Set up your artist profileIf you already have a Spotify or Apple Music profile, link it to your artist so the new release lands there rather than on a new, empty profile.
- Pick a release dateAt least two to three weeks ahead. That leaves time for every store to have the release on the same day, and for you to pitch it to Spotify's editors.
- Build the releaseEnter the details, upload the artwork and audio, add credits. A good platform checks everything against store rules as you go.
- Choose your stores and submitFor most releases, all of them — a store you leave out is a listener you never reach.
- Pitch and promote before release dayPitch one song in Spotify for Artists, share a pre-release link, and line up your social posts and videos.
- Follow it up after releaseWatch which stores, playlists and countries respond, and put your next release where your listeners are.
How long distribution takes
Delivery itself is fast: TempoDigital delivers approved releases within 24 hours. Each store then publishes on its own schedule — most within a few days, some within a week. A release date two to three weeks out absorbs all of that, so the music appears everywhere on the day you announced.
What distribution costs
Distributors charge in one of three ways: a fee per release, a yearly subscription, or a share of your royalties. Some combine them. When comparing, look past the headline price:
- What share of store royalties you keep — 100% is common on subscriptions, less on per-release and free plans
- Whether YouTube Content ID is included or sold as an extra
- Whether ISRC and UPC codes are free
- What happens to your releases if you stop paying — on some services they are taken down
- How and when you are paid, and the minimum withdrawal
On TempoDigital it is $8.99 per release, $29.99 a year for unlimited releases as one artist, or $149 a year for a label with up to ten artists — 100% of store royalties on the yearly plans, codes and Content ID included, and nothing taken down if a plan lapses. Compare the plans.
How you get paid
Each store reports what your music earned and pays your distributor, usually around two months after the month the streams happened. The distributor passes your share on.
On TempoDigital everything — every store, YouTube and publishing — lands in one wallet in US dollars, with a statement each month. Above $70 you can withdraw by Payoneer, PayPal, Wise or bank transfer, and collaborators with a split are paid their share directly.
Streaming royalties pay for the recording. Songwriters are also owed royalties for the composition, which are collected separately through collection societies — that is what publishing administration is for.
Common mistakes
- Releasing with a date only a day or two away, which rules out playlist pitching
- Letting a re-release get new ISRCs, which wipes its stream history
- Writing "feat." into the title instead of crediting the featured artist
- Uploading MP3s or artwork with text that stores refuse
- Sending covers, uncleared samples or non-exclusive beats to YouTube Content ID, TikTok or Instagram, where they claim other people's videos
- Buying streams — stores remove them and can penalise the release