Music Archives - Dennis Cortés

After releasing over 9 albums of music I’ve had a couple folks reach out to me about being inspired to make their own music (thanks to those that did!) and were wondering how to get started. Outside of what DAW to use (I use Ableton) and the hardware I prefer, the main question I’m asked is how to put music onto streaming services if you aren’t represented by a label.

Soundcloud and Bandcamp are great free options but aren’t widely used amongst consumers in comparison to others. To get your music on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, etc. I recommend using DistroKid.

How it Works

DistroKid is a subscription service that acts as your record label and take care of submitting and maintaining the music that you have online. The base subscription ($19.99 per year) gives you access to uploading unlimited tracks and albums. They don’t take any fees other than the subscription, so you keep all of your streaming profits. There are other tiers as well that give you things like scheduling uploads, having more than 1 artist, and daily stats if you would like.

With DistroKid you are also able to choose 15+ streaming services and can decide which you would not like them to show up on. DistroKid will generate your own individual “label” (which is just a random number) and will have this personalize this to support the music that you upload throughout different services of your choice.

Probably my favorite part of DistroKid is that it acts like a software company. I have my own dashboard with overviews on how much I am making from streaming outlets, and can easily upload music whenever I want. There is also a great support team that has happily helped me with some issues I’ve had with my artist page and typos on music I’ve put out for example.

Lastly, if you happen to have a team that helps you out with music, there is a separate “Team” tab that lets you divide earnings based on how much was agreed on. It’s all automated as well for when new profits come in. I personally do everything myself, but definitely seems helpful if you have a band or split profits with a mastering/mixing artist.

Hope you found this helpful, and would love to hear any music you put online using DistroKid. Be sure to send me a link on Twitter ?

Published by Dennis in Music

As a music lover and artist myself, I’m always looking for new music to keep me inspired and motivated whether I’m working, at the gym, or just relaxing. I switched over to Spotify from Apple Music a few months ago out of frustration for Apple Music’s UI and discovery and have since found some really great methods of finding music I like on Spotify.

Spotify does a great job of making most of their features in this space prominent and easy to come across for users, but a few I’ve found that have been very helpful for me that I wanted to share.

Discover New Music with Featured Playlists

Under Browse in your sidebar you’ll find a tab named Genres and Moods which is by far the best place I’ve found for discovering new tracks and artists on Spotify. Spotify’s editors curate the playlists you’ll find on these pages and are able to browse by both the mood you’re looking for or the genre you’re interested in.

The playlists within here go from general to very niche styles and you’re able to endlessly find new genres that peak your interest. For example, I recently found a great playlist named Cute Beats. Weird sounding I know, but it ended up being a niche I found that I really liked. This has happened a few times for me and have found a few artists I really enjoy through these playlists so I recommend digging through these for playlists to follow now and then.

Discover New Music with Albums from Songs Discovery

Tagging along off of Featured Playlists, finding new music through the tracks in these playlists is helpful as well. When I find a track from these playlists I really like, I’ll look into that artist’s other music that they have put out. Usually I find some more great music through other songs on that album or even on their entire profile. I’ve found some of my favorite tracks and artists through this method.

Discover New Music with the Discover Tab

Under Browse in your sidebar you’ll also find a handy tab appropriately named Discover. Here you will find a plethora of ways to find music similar to what you listen to and enjoy.

Discover Weekly is a hit or miss usually, but a great place to find new music weekly based on your listening patterns. Release Radar is a neat playlist that keeps tracks of the latest releases from artists that you follow on their Spotify profile. This is a nice way to find new music from your favorite artists without having to keep track of all of their releases.

You’ll also get Top Recommendations for You and New Releases for You which are a nice way to see the most relevant music based on your listening patterns. After that you’ll get recommendations based on specific artists you have listened to recently. This section isn’t as helpful in my experience but can lead to some gems here and there.

Recommended songs after a playlist in Spotify

Discover New Music with Recommended Songs

At the end of your playlists you’ll find a Recommended Songs section that acts sort of like a mini Discovery tab within your playlists. Spotify takes the tracks that you have in this playlist and will recommend songs that are similar to the tracks and mood on this playlist.

This overall has been a great place after I’ve gotten through one of my playlists and want some new similar additions. You can even press refresh in the top right to have Spotify bring in even more tracks for you to listen to!

Hope this will help you find some new great music to listen to and if you need something on the ambient side of things, be sure to check out my music that I make here and on all streaming platforms. Enjoy!