Release & Production · Topic 14 of 27
How does your song get onto Spotify?
You can't upload it yourself. You need a distributor.
As an artist you can't simply upload your music to Spotify yourself. For that you need a digital distributor. Well-known ones are DistroKid, TuneCore or RouteNote. They deliver your song to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube Music and many more.
What you need
- The finished audio file in good quality
- A cover, ideally 3000 × 3000 pixels
- Song title, artist name, songwriters and genre
Costs and rights
Some distributors charge a yearly fee, others take a share of your income. Good to know: with a distributor you normally keep all rights to your music.
Timing
Upload the song three to four weeks before release. Then you can pitch it for playlists via Spotify for Artists. Every recording gets an ISRC, a kind of ID number that your streams are matched to.
All figures are rough guidelines for beginners and focus on Germany. They are no substitute for legal or tax advice.
