The label’s job used to be two things: pay for the recording, and get the record into stores.
Streaming killed the second job. Distribution is now a website. And the website works for anybody.
What distribution actually is
Spotify doesn’t take uploads from random people. Neither does Apple Music. They take uploads from distributors — companies that sit in the middle and feed the platforms.
A distributor used to mean a label deal. Now it means an account you open yourself in ten minutes.
The service
I use DistroKid. You upload your tracks, set a release date, and they push it to Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music, all of it.
Straight disclosure: that link gets you 7% off your first year, and I receive a referral benefit when you sign up through it. I’m telling you because it’s what I use, and the discount is real.
What it costs vs. what it replaced
One annual plan. Unlimited uploads. That’s less than a single hour in a recording studio used to cost — and the studio only gave you the recording, not the release.
The label model took your masters, took most of your money, and decided if you were worth releasing. The distributor model takes a flat fee and releases whatever you upload.
You do the math on which one respects the artist.
What you need before you upload
- A finished track. Mixed, mastered as best you can, exported as WAV.
- Cover art. Square, high resolution. Keep it clean.
- A release date. Give the platforms two to three weeks.
- Your songwriter info. You keep your rights. That’s the whole point of doing it yourself.
The part nobody tells you
Distribution is the easy part now. The hard part is the same as it always was: make something worth hearing, and tell people it exists.
The difference is nobody can stop you anymore. No A&R guy has to like it. No label has to approve it. You upload it Tuesday, it’s on Spotify in two weeks.
That’s ownership. That’s the theme of everything on this site.
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