Releasing Original Music 101: The Basics

Being an artist full time, or even part time for that matter, isn’t always easy. This is especially the case for musicians who are trying to break into the industry and make a name for themselves as the next big thing in their genre. However, many young aspiring musicians really have no idea where to start when it comes to actually releasing their tracks and getting real listeners to tune in and stream their music.

This is an important part of the music industry, because even if you’re the next Bad Bunny, Beatles, or Michael Jackson, if no one knows about you, then it doesn’t matter and your voice will carry off into the atmosphere unheard.

This is why music distribution plays such a crucial role in the development of young and upcoming musicians in the modern era. The following advice will help any young and aspiring musician get started with releasing original music so they can start to reach their audience, build a fanbase, and get their music career off the ground.

Table of Contents

Creating the Music

It’s important to note that in order to release original music, you first have to make that original music. This is something that should go without saying, but many people want to wait for the golden opportunity before they just start betting on themselves and singing, or making whatever music they choose.

However, no artist in the history of music has been signed without making some type of original music. So before you get ahead of yourself and worry about artist profiles, release schedules, and music distribution services, it’s important to first focus and hone your musical craft and artistry.

From there, you can start worrying about actually releasing your music and building your fanbase.

Making an Artist Profile

Once you’ve got your art in a place you feel confident about, it’s time to actually start pursuing the public release. With most modern day music streaming platforms, this begins with the creation of an artist profile. This is because the streaming platform software needs a way to differentiate between artists users and listener users.

As such, artist profiles often come with a variety of additional features, functions, and tools geared at releasing, distributing, promoting, and advertising the independent music. Once the artist profile is successfully created, it pays off to take some time to really tailor and personalize the artist profile. This is because it’s going to eventually help the algorithms of the streaming platform connect you with more relevant audience members based on the information you’re able to provide in your artist profile. As such, the more comprehensive your artist profile is, the better.

Uploading Tracks

After you’ve gone through the process of creating your artist profile and filling out the relevant details, it’s time to actually begin uploading your tracks. Now, there are several ways to do this. Firstly, you can upload local tracks to private profiles and public playlists simply to make them available to stream. However, this isn’t going to garner any profits. This simply makes the music available to you.

However, if you’re a musician looking to make money from listens and streams, you’re going to have to submit your music to the actual library curators of Spotify, or whatever streaming platform you’re using. If your music is approved, you’ll be able to profit off of streams, listens, and other measurable metrics.

Submitting to Playlists

Once you’ve managed to get your music approved and added to the main Spotify library, it’s time to focus on getting your music in front of relevant audience members. This way, you’ll increase the likelihood of repeat streams, and long-term-fan conversion, ultimately leading to a larger and more dedicated fanbase that loves your music and wants to see you succeed as an artist.

One of the best ways to get additional exposure for your music on streaming services is through specific playlist placement. Seeking out playlists that are genre specific and pitching your music to the curator can be an excellent way to get your tracks included in additional playlists throughout the library.

Music Distribution Services

Finally, one of the best tools available to modern day musicians who are trying to make it as full time artists are music distribution services. There are a wide variety of music distribution service providers on the market from which artists can choose to partner, and while their packaging and pricing varies, their services are very much the same.

There is typically an annual fee, and most popular modern music distribution services allow the artist to retain ownership, rights, and royalties over their music, even while profiting from streams and listens.

Getting all of this help typically for a reasonable monthly or annual fee is great because it takes a lot of the work out of the actual music distribution process for the artist, which allows them to focus more of their time and energy on the actual music creation process.