How To Upload To Spotify

published on 5 April 2020

Musicians, artists and general music creators are always on the search to get their music heard by the masses. As streaming platforms take over our industry it is essential that you use these service providers to establish a presence online. Music lovers do not want to pay for your music, especially when they can stream music for a small monthly fee. This is the present and the future, there is no avoiding it so lets get creating and distributing your music online for your portfolio to build. We are going to briefly explain how to upload to Spotify.

Why Spotify is a powerhouse.

As streaming platforms grow they are just as, if not more important than having a Facebook or Instagram profile. Spotify is growing into more of a social platform day by day and whilst social networking platforms are great for connecting with your fans there is nothing better than high quality recordings of your music itself.

You do currently require thousands of streams minimum to see a half decent financial return but some people do miss the point of how powerful Spotify is.

Take this as an example… If you consistently upload music onto Spotify, building your portfolio of music, keeping your output of music of a high quality and quantity, you will have built the foundations for your music to thrive.

How? Well, at first you may not have any fans listening to your music, you may not have any streams on your songs but over time this may change if you are committed and focused on growing your music. If you have a portfolio of say, 25 songs, over a period of 2 years and the 26th song attracts a viral response or get’s promoted to a larger audience you may see a substantial return on all 26 songs you have uploaded. If they have enjoyed listening to the 26th song they most probably will take a listen to your portfolio of other songs, they may click shuffle and take a listen to your previous songs creating multiple streams from 1 release. Effectively, you build your portfolio to work for you down the line if you keep pushing your music.

How to get your music onto Spotify

It’s pretty straight forward and simple… A Music Distributor/Aggregator is your route to get your music on all music platforms including Spotify.

There are plenty of distributors you can use after a quick google search but there are many pros & cons for each. We have worked alongside plenty of different distributors over the years and we also come back to Ditto Music.

They offer some of the best options in the industry, some of the best analytics and great pricing!

1. Go to Ditto

Once you visit their website you will be able to click ‘Join Us Now‘ to start the process of uploading your music to Spotify and all other platforms.

You will be able to set a release date, select your genres, input your band/artist name, upload your artwork, choose the platforms you want to release on and many other options to help your release.

You will need to set a release date at least 3 weeks away to ensure the stores receive the release in time. You can also select an express service for an additional cost which will get your release on iTunes & Apple Music within 24 hours and the remaining stores (including Spotify) significantly quicker.

They will also create FREE ISRC codes if you haven’t already created any for your release. The codes are used to identify each song to enable their usage to be tracked. You can then use these codes on physical CDs to assist your mastering engineer complete a DDP master.

We have included a link below to get you started.

2. Pricing

As of the date of this article they currently offer their services for an annual fee starting from £19.

This will enable you to release unlimited music throughout the year under 1 artist name.

You will also keep 100% of your earnings, Ditto will not take a royalty cut.

3. Analytics and Earnings

You will earn approximately 0.003p per stream and stores will take between a 21-43% cut on all download sales. These figures vary but this is gives you an idea of the level of earnings you may return.

Once you have a Ditto account you will be able to view your sales data by visiting the ‘My Sales‘ page. This will then allow you to view your Royalty Earnings and Sales Trends for each release.

Your reports will be received between 2-4 months so hold tight! It takes time but it’s all legit and controlled efficiently.