How to Release an Album Online (Beginner’s Guide + Timeline)

music business

For years I had no idea how to release an album online, so I let the songs clog up my hard drive. After lots of research (and frustration), I finally put it all together. Here's how.

It's actually really easy to release your album these days. But there's a lot of steps you need to take to make sure your launch is successful.

This guide on how to release an album applies a lot of the lessons from that book, as well as my own experiences.

I've tried to make it a practical, FUN case study about how I released my first album for my synthwave project, “Portents.” (you can stream it while reading this very lengthy article - it's great instrumental background music!)

Note: This article contains affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on them. However, that doesn't influence my recommendations.

Quick Guide and Key Steps to Releasing Your First Album Online

Steps to Release Your Album on Digital Music Stores

Music Album Readiness: Ensure your music album, whether it's a full album or a single release, is musically polished and ready. Pay attention to the album title, song title, and track titles.
Mastering: Achieve a uniform tone and loudness across all tracks. This is crucial for a good sound experience on platforms like Spotify and other streaming platforms.
Album Artwork: An appealing album cover can capture immediate attention. Use tools like Canva for designing or platforms like Fiverr for professional help.
Protect Your Music: Copyright your sound recordings and register with a music publisher or a PRO (Performing Rights Organization).
Promotional Efforts: Develop a content calendar for your promotional efforts. This includes an electronic press kit, press release, and engaging with social platforms to reach your target audience.
Distribution: Choose a digital distributor to get your music on digital stores and streaming services. I use DistroKid and have been happy with it.
Engage with Digital Platforms: Ensure your presence on digital platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play. Utilize ISRC codes for tracking.
Connect with Industry Professionals: Network with industry professionals and seek advice on best practices. Utilize platforms like LinkedIn for professional connections.
Physical Formats: Consider releasing your music in physical formats like vinyl records, especially if it aligns with your genre or target audience.
Promotion and Marketing: Utilize social media, live stream events, and online stores for promotion. Engaging with fans through live shows and radio play can boost your album's visibility.
Press Coverage and Playlist Pitching: Aim for press coverage and pitch your album to playlist curators on streaming platforms. Using services like SubmitHub can be beneficial.
Analyze and Adapt: Post-release, analyze the outcome, and adapt your strategies for future releases.

Before You Release Your Album, Make Sure It's Ready!

Once you’ve recorded your album, it’s important to master it. Mastering involves making sure that all the songs have a nice tonal balance, are loud, and they’re in the right format.

That means converting your full projects to .Wav or .mp3. Then making sure each of those files is the right length (not do much dead space, no abrupt endings). You also want to make sure the names of the song files are correct!

Mastering is also where you get your music to a commercial volume level.

If you’ve got a production studio at home, you may want to consider mastering the tracks yourself. However, if you produced your own tracks, you probably shouldn’t master them as well.

That’s because you’re so used to the tracks that you might not be able to hear them with fresh ears. Plus the idiosyncrasies of your ears, your monitors, and your room will already be baked into the final mix, so you don’t want to double down on it.

Click here for my best tips on how to master your music.

Instead, you can have a friend master your tracks. Or you could hire a pro from a site like AirGigs.com. Alternately, you can use an online automated service.

Art for Your First Album Release

You can’t release an album without art. In fact, these days I’d argue that the album art may even be more important than the underlying music at first capturing the listener's’ attention!

Now, I don’t have much of an eye for design, so initially I went to Fiverr and hired someone to produce the album art. While I’ve had great experiences with Fiverr in the past, the particular artist I hired missed the deadline and would not commit to finishing the project on time. Bummer!

Since I was under a tight deadline and timing mattered (which is why you should download the album timeline), I needed to find another way to create my album art.

So I went to Pond 5 and purchased some royalty free images for less than $5.

From there, I went to Canva, a free online graphic design site and started with one of their album templates. I imported my just-purchased art into Canva. You can also just get a subscription to Canva that includes tons of art you can use for your album.

After about a half hour of tinkering, I ended up with some album art that I really enjoyed (below) and that fits the vibe of the album. This is probably the best way to do album art on the cheap for your first record release.

How to Copyright an Album

Copyrighting an album is way easier than you’d think (at least for a US copyright for your record release)! Now, when I was first researching how to release an album, I had no idea where to start with this.

Go to Copyright.gov and register the album. It costs $55 (updated 3/4/22 it now costs $65 to registern), and you have to upload all of your songs. Note that this only works if you own the composition rights and the sound recording rights to do this.

How to Make Money Selling Music

You can make money from your music in a few different ways. First, if someone purchases your album through your distributor, you'll receive a percentage of the sale price. Second, if your song is streamed, the streaming platform will pay your distributor mechanical royalties on your behalf. The streaming platform will also pay the songwriter of the song's Performing Rights Organization (PROS), like BMI & ASCAP, any performance royalties they are owed.

You can also earn money licensing your music, just follow the steps in this blog post.

It’s important to recognize that there is a difference between registering your copyright with the government, and registering your song with a PRO. And how they're different from digital rights administrators like DistroKid (7% off with my link), and Sound Exchange.

This stuff is VERY confusing, and I’d encourage you to do a lot more independent research. If you really want to dig into all the registrations you need to earn all the money possible from your music, please check out Ari Herstand's book, How to Make it in the New Music Business. I’m just trying to provide a very basic guide of what you need to do for your record release.

Registering with a PRO

First, you need to create an account with a PRO - BMI or ASCAP in the US (it doesn’t really matter which - but you must pick ONLY one). The PROs will collect the portion of the revenue stream that belongs to you as the songwriter/composer for public performances within the US.

Second, you’ll want to register with SongTrust ($10 off through my link). Song Trust will end up being the tool you use to register your publishing royalties from around the world, and they will collect for a broader range of plays within the US, including a lot of micro mechanical royalties from streams on platforms like Facebook and Tim Tok.

You can also have them collect royalties for Youtube performances (unlike PROs). A lifetime membership costs something like $100.

How to Release an Album on iTunes & Spotify

After all my research, I concluded that there are two really great choices for how to release an album on iTunes, Spotify, etc. The first is CD Baby, and the second is DistroKid.

Both are reputable, have great software, professional and easy to work with. The big difference is the pricing model they use.

CD Baby charges a one time fee per album or single. As of October 2017, they were charging $29 per album. Distrokid, in contrast, charges $19.99 per year for unlimited albums, released under one name (and 7% off the first year with my link).

Depending on what your plans are, both provide great options.

Initially I ended up choosing CD Baby to distribute my album for the following reasons. First, I like the idea of paying a one time fee and having my music out there forever. Second, I plan on releasing multiple albums under different names (i.e. doing a lo-fi hip hop album, an indie rock album, a bosa nova album, etc).

But as time has gone by, I've found DistroKid’s unlimited albums per year is an incredible deal. That's because I have a big collection of songs in the same genre that I'd love to release regularly. I tend to put out a couple releases a year, and the savings really add up.

Online Promotion: Building a Web Presence

These days, it goes without saying that you need to be everywhere online. Here's the major things you should prepare - consider it your releasing an album checklist. Or at least a starting point.

You might think that having a website has nothing to do with how to release an album, but you're probably living in 1992.

These days, having a website is a must. It’s the only platform you can trust to never change the rules and to never force you to pay extra to interact with your fans. It’s a steady light in the darkness.

On your website you’ll want to include at least one photo, your bio, links to your music, any upcoming shows, and, most importantly, a way to sign up for your mailing list so you can directly talk to your fans.

If you’re not particularly tech savvy, I’d recommend setting up a website with Wix. It’s super easy, looks great, and is affordable. Again, this is probably the best option if you’re just releasing music as a single artist on a semi-regular basis.

If you’re more tech savvy, then you can build a site from scratch, which might ultimately be more affordable. I already had the tech knowhow, the domain hosting, and the software licenses I need to launch a band site.

So for me it was better to just register a new domain for the record release and host it on my existing account.

Engage Fans

You then need an email host to manage your growing list of subscribers. Mail Chimp offers a great free option as long as you have a smallish list.

Let me tell you, ask any “internet marketer” or band or anyone - having an email list is really where it’s at. The list allows you to announce new releases, tour dates, and share silly anecdotes with your fans for free. Other marketing tools (like Facebook) cost WAY WAY more per interaction.

Now that you’ve got your website up and running, at a minimum you’ll also need a Facebook page. You’ll want to include most of the same info on your Facebook page as your website.

But you’ll also need to commit to making a couple of posts every week to keep people engaged.

You’ll also want to create a Youtube channel (did you know that Youtube is one of the biggest music discovery sites around?) so that you can eventually upload your music videos.

Instagram is really hot right now, and is a great way to communicate with fans, if you’ve got visually compelling content. Twitter can be great for interacting with folks, but I find it hard to gain much traction without being on it constantly. Still, you should create an account.

EP Release Strategy: Publicity

Now you’re going to need to get some press! You need to have an EP Release Strategy to get publicity. I didn't.

So next you want to submit your music to blogs and Spotify playlists. If there’s already blogs that you follow in your genre, then those are great places to start.

But if not, there’s plenty of ways to find new opportunities. Go to Hype Machine and check out which blogs are bumping music similar to yours. Then visit the blog and send the editors a quick email laying out what you’re about and why you think your music would be a good fit, and include a streamable link to your song (DON’T ATTACH FILES). Dropbox.com or Box.com are the best - Soundcloud can be unreliable (and may not be in business by the time you read this.)

You should also check out SubmitHub, a service where you can search for blogs that match your genre, and submit your songs (for a fee you’ll get more attention). Because Spotify pulls information from blogs to a certain extent, this is really helpful tool for kickstarting some buzz for your record release.

On Spotify and Youtube, search for playlists that include songs in a style similar to yours. Then try to track down the curators and send them a link to your tracks. Depending on how frequently they update their playlists, they may constantly be looking for new content.

Another place to look for playlists are those with a geographic or thematic bent. For example, there could be one promoting artists who live in Detroit or who are alumni from a certain school. If you meet the criteria, pitch your tracks!

More Spotify Playlist Tips

Wondering how to get your songs included in playlists? Here's some tips from a friend on submitting to playlists, which is now an essential skill you need to know as part of how to release an album, from Gerry.

Ok here is the lowdown for contacting the playlist curators(always drives me batty when people say contact the curators but don’t tell you even where to start…..so this is where you start)
now keep in mind if you wanna triple and quadruple your efforts, you could always hire an intern or assistant on fiverr for cheap, to hunt down the profiles for the curators.
That is another option of course.

Step one: Cruise on to spotify and do a search for the genre, moods, feelings, artists names etc you want.
Ignore the official playlists.

Make a list of all the user-generated playlists that your songs would fit on Spotify.

Step two: Click on the user the person that created the playlist.
What you're looking for is the the persons name(not a screen name,90 percent of the time a user links up there facebook profile with there spotify account.)

Click on their profile, and look at the photo

Step three: Now search the name on Facebook. 90 percent of the time the photo will be the same as the facebook profile because they are linked up.

Step4:(message template)

Next once you find the person you send them a message.
“Hi”insert name”
Really enjoyed your music for”insert playlist name” its how I discovered”insert name of artist and relevant into from the playlist”.
I have this new song that came out that I think would really fit well on this playlist.

Here it is”insert spotify link”.
Id be honored to be included on it.

Thanks have an awesome day.”

The method works awesome.
I've seen 6 different plug companies doing the exact same thing.

Additional bonus ideas and outside the box stuff:

You can also go deeper on your research and look on linkedin, Google, look for there emails etc.

Facebook is the easiest way to do this.

You can use the same approach with twitter as well.

Now if you are uber crafty and savy with this working Deezer with this method works amazing, with the linked in info, twitter etc you can actually find their office address, you could actually reach out with postcards etc.

Maybe a cute little merch sticker etc.

With deezer most of the stuff international so sending out the postcards etc is a unique way to really get in touch with the curators.

(same idea i've seen used from the 303 infinity guys back in the day……he used to send out tons of flyers etc its pretty awesome)

Running ads on Deezzer format:
Next off.

You can use Feature fm ads to get onto playlists on deezer.
Its fairly in expensive.
Feature.fm

Lastly keep in mind any user-created playlist on most of these services usually have curators on facebook, so you can search it out on tidal as well.

By doing this, you'll be able to create long term connections and relationships with spotify curators etc.

How to Advertise Your Record Release

Facebook advertising is becoming huge, and as a musician you desperately need to learn how to use it. My band relies on it heavily to promote our shows, but it’s also a great way to target potential new fans for your music.

I’d start out by watching a few Youtube tutorials (I recommend Miles Beckler’s channel unequivocally). Once you’ve mastered the fundamentals from, I’ll tell you how to apply them as a musician.

You’ll need to start out by figuring out what your goal is. Are you trying to get people to like your Facebook page? Do you want to drive traffic to your website so you can convert people into newsletter subscribers? Do you want people to watch a music video?

My recommendation is to try to get people to sign up for you newsletter. It will be the most cost-effective way to stay in touch with your fans.

Once you’ve got that figured out, you’ll need to set your budget. Facebook requires a minimum budget of $1 per day. To see meaningful results, you should probably be spending $5.

From there, you need to find your audience.

This is where it gets cool.

If you sound like another famous artist, then you can (and should) directly target their fans, by showing your ads only to people who have that artist as an interest.

When you design your ad, you’ll need a nice image or video, and some text that says something like: “Fans of XXXX are loving the new album by YYYY. Find out why.”

How to Make Cheap Music Videos

Did you know that Youtube is the second largest search engine?

These days, everyone should have a music video up on Youtube. Having music videos ready is a super important step in learning how to release an album. You can do something really simple in iMovie or Cyberlink (affiliate), where you just put the music behind a static image of your album art (like this).

Or you can hire someone on Fiverr to make a lyric music video for you.

Or, if you’re feeling creative and adventurous, you can make a music video on your own by downloading free clips on sites like Pexels and buying stock video on sites like Pond 5. I went down this route for some of my music videos (like this) and was really happy with the results.

Where to Learn Even More About How to Release an Album Online

Many thanks to the incredible Ari Herstand for laying much of this out in his book, How to Make it in the New Music Business.

It’s full of brilliant information on all aspects of being a musician these days. I'd highly recommend reading it if you're interested in making a living from your music.

Additional Tips for a Successful Album Launch

Timing: Ensure you give yourself enough time for each step of the process. Rushing can lead to missed opportunities or mistakes.
Engagement: Keep engaging with your fans through social media and live shows. They are your core support system.
Professional Help: Don’t hesitate to seek professional help for areas outside your expertise, like legal aspects or mastering.
Learning and Improvisation: Always be open to learning from your experiences and improvising for your upcoming release.

Conclusion

So there you have it, you've learned how to release an album! Releasing your first album isn’t too daunting, you just have to go through the steps. And if you mess up - remember, it’s not the end of the world. Most of these things can be undone, and you’ll be releasing more music in the future, anyway, right?

Cheers and good luck!

-Evan

From a Frustrated Producer in a Ragtag Bedroom Studio to Major Placements on TV Earning $1,000s!

My name is Evan, and I've been making music since around 3rd grade. I'm from San Diego, California, but I've lived in Washington, DC for the last 20 years.

After 3 grueling years of grad school, though I had put aside serious attempts at making music. I found myself spending my days doing work that was dreadfully uncreative, with a ton of student student loan debt.

Which made me feel like my favorite parts of myself were withering.

But I didn't know what to do about it.

Being in my early 30s with tons of student loan debt, in a world where there is "no money in music," I felt like my youthful dreams of trying to "make it big" were dead. Like my music would remain unheard in my head and hard drive.

Frustrated by my inability to get my music heard, I started researching solutions.

Instead, I wanted to find a way where I could focus on making the music and let someone else deal with promoting it.

I realized the music licensing was the perfect opportunity for a solo artist like me to get my music heard, without having to do any promotion. I just need to focus on improving what I could control - my songwriting and my production skills.

While I still have a full-time day job, I have created systems that have allowed me to produce dozens of songs a year in my spare time.

My songs have been on Netflix, TV shows like the 90 Day Fiance, an award-winning indie film, and NPR’s “All Thing Considered.” They've also been streamed millions of times.

In addition to being a music producer, I am passionate about teaching people how they can make professional-sounding music and earn money licensing it, all in their spare time.

Thousands of musicians, like yourself, have trusted me to guide their musical journey. My YouTube videos have been watched nearly a million times. And my story has been in Forbes, Side Hustle Nation, and the Side Hustle School.

You Can Achieve Your Musical Dreams Too - Attend the Free Music Licensing Workshop!