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How to Get Your Music on Spotify in 5 Steps

Make your music available on the world’s most popular music streaming service — and access your Spotify for Artists account immediately.

There are lots of ways to stream your music online, but when it comes to finding new fans, it’s important to be on the platforms where the most people are. Spotify continues to dominate the music streaming market, and it’s more important than ever to know how to get your music on Spotify in 2024.

In January 2023, Spotify reported 489 million monthly active users a quarter, which means having your music on Spotify can expose you to a massive new global audience, new promotion opportunities, and even new ways to make money.

Spotify is also one of the undisputed tastemakers in the modern music industry, using a host of curated and algorithmic playlists to drive current discovery and deeper catalog engagement. It’s essential for emerging artists to not only have their music on Spotify but to continue to take action on the platform through Spotify for Artists.

CD Baby is one of the largest independent music distributors in the world and trusted by over 2 million artists. Our dedicated team of experts thoroughly inspects each track to ensure every release gets onto Spotify with speed and accuracy — so Spotify will have all the information they need to provide proper payments to rights holders.

We even deliver your songs to all the other essential digital music platforms (Apple Music, TikTok, Amazon, YouTube, etc.) at the same time, for the same one-time fee. And, we help you get instant artist verification on Spotify, so there’ll be no delays in accessing your Spotify for Artists account.

  1. How to prepare for your release on Spotify

If you’ve been wondering how to upload songs to Spotify, you’re in the right place. The way to get your music on Spotify is through a music distributor like CD Baby. With a little bit of prep, you can upload your songs, bio and other information all in one place, then send it to Spotify and more than 150 other streaming services, including Apple Music, YouTube and TikTok. Here’s what you need to get started:

Pre-release checklist

Make sure you’ve prepared the essential information you’ll need for your Spotify release, just as you would with any single or album release. Make sure your bio and photos are up-to-date and you have a list of upcoming tour dates. CD Baby’s release plan generator can instantly generate a workback schedule that you can save and share, to help you figure out what you need to do and keep you on track with key dates and deadlines.

Pre-release promotions and teasers

Fans want to come along for the ride. Build up momentum and get people excited about your release by creating teaser videos and promotions, featuring clips of your songs and videos that can be shared across social media. Spotify itself doesn’t allow people to pre-save your music before it’s officially released, however you can use third-party tools like Show.co and found.ee to run pre-save campaigns on Spotify. Fans that pre-save your music will automatically have your music added to their Spotify library when the song is released.

Prepare Your Audio Files

You want your tunes to sound their best, especially when people will listen to them in playlists alongside other artists. Mastering your music puts that extra bit of polish on your sound and helps it stand up against the other music out there, instead of standing out. Spotify also uses “loudness normalization” to adjust tracks to -14 dB LUFS, according to the ITU 1770 (International Telecommunication Union) standard, and adjusts entire albums, so the volume is consistent with each song.

Prepare your artwork

Gather your promo photos and album artwork and make sure you have quality digital files like JPEGs and PNGs, in the proper file size (3000 x 3000 pixels at 300 dpi). Blurry images can delay your release, and scans of album covers are not allowed as they’re too low-quality. You can include digital images of album covers and liner notes but any words must match the information you put into the metadata when you send your music submission to Spotify, like information about songwriters and featured artists. There are some great free tools out there that make designing album cover art easy.

Review your metadata

Whatever you do, do NOT overlook this step. Your metadata is like the skeleton of your Spotify music submission. It includes all the important information about your tracks, like the songwriter name(s), language, copyright information, whether it’s an original composition or a cover, and more. This information is essential to ensuring Spotify listeners are getting the info they need, and that you are getting credit for your work and getting paid.

  1. How to upload music to Spotify with CD Baby

You can send your music to Spotify from your CD Baby account dashboard. Simply log in or sign up for an account if you don’t have one yet, click “Add New Title” under the distribute tab, then choose between releasing an album or a song.

CD Baby distribution allows you to send songs to Spotify and over 150 other platforms for a one-time fee, collect royalties, and use free marketing tools to promote your album. To get the most out of every release, be sure to check out CDB Boost so you get full access to collecting U.S. mechanical royalties, sync licensing, and more.

From there, follow the prompts to fill out and attach the required information, like where you want to distribute your song (you can submit songs to Spotify only or to more than one platform simultaneously).

Go through your pre-release checklist and make sure you add:

  • Release date (you can enter a past, present or future release date)
  • Copyright owner
  • Two genres your music fits into
  • Your music’s mood or style
  • Track titles and information like songwriters and performers
  • Time codes for 60 second TikTok clips (or it will default to the first 60 seconds of each song. Note: this can’t be revised later.)
  • Quality audio file in a finished state (mixed, mastered, etc.)
  • Album artwork and liner notes in 3,000×3,000-pixel size, and 300 dpi

Once you upload your music to Spotify, it goes into an inspection queue and through an approval process at CD Baby, where staff inspect it to make sure all of the information is there, that audio and images are clear, and that it is indeed release-ready. Once approved, it will be released immediately.

You can track the progress right from your account dashboard. You can also continue to make changes at this point, but keep in mind you will lose your spot in the queue, which could delay the release.

  1. How to set up your Spotify Artist Profile

Distributing your music on Spotify is the first step, but emerging artists also need to take action on the platform to promote their music once it’s there. Spotify for Artists is the best way to keep growing your Spotify profile. It allows you to promote your music, take control of your profile, add your bio and photos, view analytics and see who is listening to your music, and more. It also allows you to pitch to Spotify editorial playlists.

As a CD Baby client, you can apply for artist verification on Spotify right from your CD Baby dashboard and while submitting your songs to Spotify. Verifying your Spotify artist profile is contingent on us delivering your content and your first release going live on Spotify.

Once your release is live on Spotify, it can take up to two weeks for Spotify to fully create your profile. At that point, you can verify your page from your CD Baby account.

Once you have Spotify artist verification, you can customize your profile by:

  • Adding a profile photo
  • Adding your artist bio
  • Sharing playlists from your artist profile
  • Pinning an album, playlist, or song to the top of your profile
  • Listing upcoming concert dates or tours

Your Spotify Artist profile also allows you to keep tabs on analytics and see how your music is performing, including which playlists have featured your music. Check out CD Baby’s support page for more ways to set up your Spotify Artist profile.

  1. Optimizing your Spotify playlist

Make a music video or Canvas

Releasing a music video at the same time as your song and album can be a powerful way to get traction on other streaming platforms like Apple iTunes and YouTube, and help inspire fans to share your songs. You’ll want to create an 8-second clip for each song, called a Canvas, the little video that loops as each song is played. Check out artists you love for inspiration, and see what types of promo videos and visuals they’re using. Tools like Rotor Videos can help you make your own videos without having any filming or editing skills. You can just upload your music, choose or upload some clips, and select an editing style, then it does the rest.

Create a HearNow page with links to streaming services,
including Spotify

Think of ways to stream and share your Spotify tunes outside of the platform. With CD Baby, you can sign up for a HearNow promo landing page where you can easily embed your tracks and other promotional information all in one place, in a mobile-friendly way that’s easy to share. This will help people access your music even if they don’t have a Spotify account.

  1. How to promote your music on Spotify

You should never just put your music on Spotify and forget about it. Spotify is a lot more than a place to stream songs. It’s also a hub for promoting and marketing your music. Since Spotify has a built-in audience, you benefit from discoverability. People can stumble on your tunes through playlists.

Playlist pitching

Once you have a Spotify for Artists profile, you can access the pitching portal and pitch your music to editorial playlists. This can be an incredible way to reach new audiences and grow your global presence. Groover’s pitching portal is another way to pitch your songs to Spotify playlists and get guaranteed feedback about what they liked, what they didn’t, and what types of tunes can help you get on specific playlists.

Selling your merch on Spotify

You can turn your Spotify page into an online marketplace by taking advantage of options for selling merchandise on Spotify like t-shirts, posters, vinyl and CDs. You can also sell tickets to shows, special editions, and more. You’ll need to sign up for a Shopify store and link it to your Spotify for Artists account, so you can process payments and ship to customers when people make purchases.

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Getting on Spotify FAQs

  • How much does it cost to put your music on Spotify?

    The cost of submitting your music to Spotify is included with your one-time CD Baby fee. That fee also includes distribution to more than 150 other distribution platforms. Through CD Baby, you can submit a single song or album for just $9.99. Unlike other distributors, CD Baby does not have any recurring subscription fees and we will never remove your music from streaming platforms for missing a payment.

  • Can you upload your music to Spotify?

    Yes, you should upload your music to Spotify to reach new audiences around the world. However, getting your music on Spotify does require a submission process. You can do this right from your CD Baby dashboard. You’ll need to submit your songs with all the track information, audio and artwork, and confirm details like any copyright owners, if they are different from you.

  • Does Spotify verify every artist?

    Spotify verification is open to every artist submitting their music to the platform, but you must apply to verify your Spotify for Artists profile. When you use CD Baby to submit your songs to Spotify, we handle this process for you.

  • Does Spotify pay individual artists?

    You’ll get paid a streaming fee for using the sound recording whenever your songs are streamed. The more your music is played, the more money you make. A distributor, like CD Baby, collects the streaming revenue for you automatically. Be sure to add-on CDB Boost to each release in order to collect additional royalties such as digital performance royalties and mechanical royalties and make the most money possible from all your music.

    CD Baby will distribute your music to 150+ other digital music platforms and help you with YouTube monetization, music marketing, and more. We’ve been paying artists every week for over 25 years and have no recurring annual fees.

  • How do I put my music on all platforms?

    It’s super easy to reach all the major streaming platforms at once with CD Baby. Simply add new music under the Distribution tab in your CD Baby dashboard, fill out the prompts asking for your uploads, artwork and song information, then pay a one-time fee and submit. We review your submission and send it to Spotify and more than 150 other platforms at the same time.

  • How long does it take for my music to be released?

    The time it takes for your music to appear on Spotify depends on how complete your information is when submitted through CD Baby and how long it takes the Spotify team to review it. On average, it takes about 5-10 business days for your music to go live on Spotify once you have finished submitting your release through CD Baby.