When you finally have a beautiful recording of one of your songs in your hands, you naturally love to send it out into the world. Although album sales have reached a low point, nowadays more music is being listened to than ever, thanks to streaming services such as Spotify. Putting your number on Spotify is, therefore, a logical - and not even difficult - step. But, one of the most frequently asked questions is: how does it work if you don't have a label or record company that does this for you?
DIY - with a distribution partner To put your songs on Spotify, you need a distribution partner. You can see this as an intermediary between you and Spotify. Here you have a few choices, each with their own payment system. With some you pay per song, with others you can upload unlimited music for a fixed amount or you pay part of the royalties. Spotify already has some tips for you, but Songflow is not listed, while I hear many good stories about it. Here you pay € 5 per year, per track for worldwide distribution and you do not have to pay royalties. A Dutch company, moreover! If you want to put a lot of music online, I would like to look at Distrokid. If you do not want to spend money putting your music online, Music Kickup is a good option, although you do not get an insight into the statistics and income of your songs. You pay an annual amount for this. Music publisher in USA
Covers? A frequently asked question: can you put recordings of covers on Spotify in addition to your own songs? Yes, but only if you have not edited the song's text or edited the song in any other way. If this is the case, you must request permission from the original beneficiary. In addition, you should, where possible, state who the authors and copyright holders are at Buma / Stemra and state your use of the songs here.
The magic bullet for Spotify success: playlists The playlists on Spotify have in the meantime acquired the power to make a starting artist famous: if you end up on a playlist, you will greatly increase your listening audience. Read the interview with Pip Blom again.
Spotify is the largest player in the streaming market, with more than 100 million users in more than 60 countries. More than two trillion playlists have now been created, partly by daily users or companies, partly by algorithms (think of Discover Weekly) and partly by official curators. These are people who are hired by Spotify to create and maintain playlists, often with thousands of subscribers. If you are placed on an official Spotify playlist by a curator, this gives a huge boost to the number of times your song has been played. It will also become easier for future fans to discover you.
The power of the liquidator But how do you end up with such a playlist? Promote your number to the brim. Share the Spotify link on all social media that you know. Find out who the curators of your favorite playlists are and send them a link. Labels and pluggers have a lot of contact with these official curators and can pitch your number there. If you are looking for a plugger, ask if he or she can do this too.
Has your number made the curator curious? Then he will view the statistics for your track. Spotify naturally has a lot of insight into the popularity of your songs. The times you are played, the moments in your song where listeners skip to another song, the number of times your song is saved as a "favorite," the number of times a track is shared on social media: it's just a few examples of usable data. Does the curator notice that many listeners zap away after the first chorus? Then the chance that you end up on his or her playlist is of course small.
Spotify for Artists Certainly do it once your music is on Spotify: register as an artist with 'Spotify for Artists'. In this way, you gain insight into the listening statistics and a verification checkmark appears on your profile. The curators will take you more seriously with this checkmark. You can edit your photos and profile, send a message to your listeners and add performances. You can also add a playlist with your favorite tracks to your artist profile. If you're smart, you can of course also add a few of your own songs to that. Music Licensing Companies in USA
Speaking of Spotify: are you curious about what the singer-songwriters of our Singer-songwriter Training listen to? Listen with us here:
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