Releasing my Stock Music on Spotify?

Hey guys,

Is it allowed to upload my stock music on Spotify to promote my tracks? I thought If I release them in my artist page on Spotify maybe they will reach more people? What do you guys think?

Cheers

Yes, it’s allowed. The exclusivity agreement with AJ applies only to music being licensed for a project. If it’s simply for listening (iTunes, Spotify, etc), then you’re free to do that. I’ve got my music on various streaming services via DistroKid.

6 Likes

Watermark needed for that?

No. Who would want to listen to that anyway?

The only people who can stand the watermark are the battle-scarred AJ producers who subconsciously cancel it out while listening :rofl:

13 Likes

ha ha ha!!!

It may be a cool idea to protect your music registering in one of those services as Adrev and so on before putting your music in Spotify. Btw how good is the revenue you get from Distrokid?

1 Like

I’ve been on Distrokid for a few months and have about 25 tracks on spotify, itunes etc. Unless you promote or have a lucky hit that gains traction, for me at least it’s about 20 cents a month. And tracks only stay active for about a week after release before they maybe get like one or two views a week. Again unless it gains traction, which for me none have so far.

There is an entire small but intense industry growing around Spotify promotion. You have to work all the angles in order to get noticed, unlike AJ where a certain amount of visibility is guaranteed according to genre, title, etc. The competition is exponentially larger than AJ as well, so if Spotify success is your goal, then you have to be very proactive.

But for what it’s worth, my strongest performing Spotify track is one that was purchased here on AJ and used by a fairly popular YouTube channel with 700K subs. Turns out many of its listeners liked the tune and Shazamed it or asked about it online in order to find it.

7 Likes

Yeah, I was commenting to say what to expect if you don’t promote or have a lucky hit. I’m still learning how to promote for spotify but find it extremely hard since I don’t have enough money to pay promoters and am struggling to think of the best way to promote and grow on social media organically. I’m thinking it might be better to have a different alias for personal music so my name feels less business orientated and more personal, and maybe stick to one genre? Really not sure tbh.

And ah that’s awesome you have traffic coming from a source like that! :slight_smile:

My Spotify name is different than the one on AJ. Check out Soundplate for their playlist submissions. The process is a bit tedious and time-consuming, but I’ve gotten a number of placements through them which led to a nice if not mind-blowing amount of streams. I haven’t yet heard of a Spotify pay to play promoter that delivers reliable and real results.

2 Likes

Aah cool tks! checking Soundplate out now. :slight_smile:

i have a lot of my tracks from here on Spotify with a nice number of plays and fans. I use distrokid. Worth it.

2 Likes

I’ve been quite active on Spotify since March and I got more than decent results so far with ambient/downtempo music.

I think I was super lucky since the first track I published via Cd Baby got added by Spotify to one of their editorial playlists and that gave me a consistent number of plays and exposure.

I decided to use the momentum to promote another track via Playlist Push and the already mentioned Soundplate and I got another add to a big playlist (plus a thousands more).

So with luck and some money to carefully invest, there are dollars to be made there.

Just make sure to check the most famous playlists and see if you can produce music that can be featured in one of them.

@PhilLarson was the one that gave me the best advices so I tag him here :slight_smile:

14 Likes

You’re like the guy who wins the lotto the first time they ever bought a ticket!

I also use CD baby for distribution. Do I need to do something extra to make one of those editorial playlists?

Lol I should try to actually play Lotto and see what happens :smiley:

1 Like

From your Spotify Artist account you can submit an upcoming track for Spotify playlists consideration, but it has to be done at least 7 days before the release date.

I forgot to mention a great resource for Spotify: the ebook Work Hard Playlist Hard by Mike Warner. It’s like a Spotify bible, highly recommended. He’s also very active on socials and he answers every question.

9 Likes

Truly useful topic and truly kind and precious responses!
Thanx a lot for all the info…
Now i must get to work and get all my synthwave and ambient chill hip hop tracks on Spotify!
:beers:

6 Likes

I’m so glad I came up with this topic! Thanks guys!

@bugrasisman @ChoclateFix @Netrabeat @redberrysounds

Here’s an example:

My music is under the name of 1982.0 (my synthwave project). I have 2 of those songs available on AJ. They are in this playlist. Often making playlists with other popular tracks can get you new fans/

If any of you are on Reddit, go check it out and maybe give it some support :slight_smile:

3 Likes