Traditionally, record labels have been responsible for releasing their signed artists’ music to online platforms, however, with the growth of solo musicians and artists, it’s become a fairly straightforward process to release your own music.

You can choose to use distribution companies such as DistroKid to release your own music for either a one-off fee or an annual recurring fee. I’ve personally used both models and there are pros and cons to both.

As part of the process, you’ll be asked to provide the following data in order to submit your music to streaming platforms:

• ARTIST OR BAND NAME
• LINK TO YOUR ARTIST PAGE ON SPOTIFY, APPLE MUSIC, YOUTUBE MUSIC, INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK
• RELEASE DATE
• LANGUAGE
• PRIMARY GENRE
• SECONDARY GENRE (OPTIONAL)
• ALBUM COVER – RECOMMENDED 3000 X 3000 SQUARE JPG FORMAT
• SONG TITLE
• FEATURED ARTISTS?
• IS THIS A RADIO OR SPECIAL VERSION?
• SONG CAN BE UPLOAD AS WAV, MP3, M4A, FLAC, AIFF, WMA
• IS THIS ORIGINAL OR A COVER?
• SONGWRITER/S REAL NAME, NOT STAGE NAME OR BAND NAME
• EXPLICIT LYRICS?
• IF THIS IS A RADIO EDIT, IS THERE AN EXPLICIT VERSION?
• IS THE SONG AN INSTRUMENTAL OR DOES IT CONTAIN LYRICS?
• TRACK PRICE (FOR ITUNES & AMAZON) – $0.69, $0.99 OR $1.29 USD

I always recommend recording and releasing audio that is lossless (.WAV), stereo, 44.1kHz and at least 24 bit. These parameters are accepted by streaming platforms, radio and sound good through speakers and headphones alike.