How to Distribute Music

Let’s keep it simple and start from scratch. Here is how you distribute your music digitally.

Here are the bare essentials that everyone who distributes music needs to have to create a release and get their music to their listeners around the world. It’s simple, so let’s make it easy to follow the process.  

1. Have music to distribute 
2. Have cover art for your release and artist
3. Have your metadata and copyright information
4. Get EAN/UPC code for your release/Album
5. Get ISRC codes for the tracks
6. Find a distribution service

Have music to distribute

Your music is written, recorded and mastered. You have already planned how you would like to make it available to your listeners, either as an album of multiple songs or as singles. It is as ready as can be, just how you would like to listen to it yourself. The release must have a name. The tracks are ready to be uploaded to a distribution service in a .WAV file format.

Have cover art for your release and artist

Your release cover art and artist image are designed and ready to be sent out to the world. They are the best visual pieces of your release that represents your music and your artist or band. They are artistic and high quality and need to be square with a minimum of 3000 x 3000 pixels in size. The artist picture is needed for your artist profile in the digital stores.

Have your metadata and copyright information

The metadata is all the technical information about the song and recording. It is quite simple if you are the only contributor in the music, you wrote the song, recorded the song, mixed the song. It gets more complex when there are more contributors or if you have used licensed or borrowed music.

You need a list of all the people who have contributed to the music and the percentage of the rights they hold.

• Performers/artists and their roles; main, featured, remixer, etc. 

• Other contributors: composer, lyricist, producer, etc.

• Publisher, C-line (song composition owner), P-line (sound recording owner), 

• Lyrics & lyrics owner

Check out here an example of how to create a release and the metadata requirements.

Or click here if you rather watch how it's done

Get an EAN/UPC Code

This is a code that is unique to your release/album. You only need one EAN (European Article Number) or one UPC (Unique Product Code) per release. It is the barcode or serial number that identifies your release. Most distributors will supply an EAN or UPC code when you create your release for free or for a cost.

Get ISRC codes for your tracks

An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is needed for every track. It is the unique identifier for the specific version of the song and will remain the same for the lifetime of the song. It is used to track the usage of the song. Most distributors will supply an ISRC when you create your release for free or for a cost.

Find a distribution service

This may be the most mind boggling part, which service to choose. Every service has its strengths and weaknesses in costs and extra services and functions they may offer. In the end it doesn’t really matter, they will all get your music to the biggest stores. However, though some may boast the biggest service and most stores or the most features, they may be lacking in reach to essential countries where emerging listeners are the future of the global audiences. 

Conclusion

There can be much more covered in greater detail for each phase of distribution. This is the breakdown of the process, bare bones for digital distribution. Happy distributing! 

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