Complete Guide to Releasing Your Single with DistroKid

You have the master of your single and you want to release it?

You need a reliable online music distributor, such as DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby and so on. Here we talk about DistroKid.

DistroKid is a simple tool that puts your music on more than 150 platforms, including the ones that matter: Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon, Instagram, TikTok and Tidal.

In this guide I show you how to release your single with DistroKid in a few steps.

1. Go to www.distrokid.com and create an account.

2. Pick a plan. There are three, all with unlimited uploads and 100% of your earnings: Musician (about 24 EUR a year) releases as soon as it is approved, no custom date; Musician Plus (about 43 EUR) adds a release date of your choice, a custom label name and daily stats; Ultimate (about 82 EUR) adds advanced analytics and audio replacement after release. For a planned single you need at least Musician Plus.

3. In the "Upload" menu, select "Upload music".

4. Select the platforms you want to distribute to. If you do not want YouTube to publish an automatic video with your track, untick YouTube Music.

5. Fill in title, artist, genre and all the required information.

6. Add the names of any co-writers or featured artists.

7. Upload an original cover image: jpg, square, ideally 3000x3000 pixels (1000x1000 minimum), RGB. No web addresses, social or platform logos, prices: the platforms reject them.

8. Upload the master file, ideally 24 bit wav.

9. Once approved, your single is sent to the platforms you selected. If you did not choose a release date, it may take a few days before it shows up everywhere.

10. Tick the mandatory boxes at the bottom of the page and you are done!

11. From the Dashboard you can open your single's page and add more details: split royalties with collaborators, add lyrics, credits and other metadata.

12. Use the hyperlink to share your single on social media.

TIPS

• If your plan allows it, upload your single at least two weeks before the release date. A month is better. It raises the chances that Spotify's playlist curators find your track and add it to the official playlists.

• Fill in all the metadata you can.

• Take care of your artist page on Spotify for Artists.

• Sync the lyrics to the music for the Genius feature on Spotify.

• Upload a high quality cover. Do not zoom into images, unless it is a deliberate stylistic choice.

Of course, releasing your music is not enough to get it heard. Set aside a budget to promote it on social media, and share it with everyone!