How to Get Your Music on Spotify

The Secret: Digital Distributors

Spotify does not allow artists to upload music directly. Instead, you use a distribution service that delivers your track to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and dozens of other platforms worldwide simultaneously.

What they do:

• Deliver files to stores
• Collect streaming royalties
• Manage standardized metadata

Models vary by:

• Yearly subscription vs. per-release fee
• Royalty percentage taken (for example 0%, 9% or 15%)
• Included marketing & label features

Why We Chose DistroKid

After looking at all the options, we went with DistroKid. Not because it’s perfect, but because it fits a high-output workflow. We’re building a catalog and wanted a system we could log into, upload quickly, and move on.

What They Do Best

• Fast distribution to all major stores
• Unlimited uploads (flat yearly fee)
• You keep 100% of your royalties
• Automatic revenue splits for collaborators

When to look elsewhere

• You only plan to release 1 song ever
• You want hands-on A&R or label-style marketing
• You prefer lifetime one-time payments

Ready to start building your catalog?

Use our referral link to get 7% off your first year (DistroKid may pay us a referral credit).

Join DistroKid Today

The Reality Check

Getting on Spotify is easy. Growing on Spotify is hard.

Uploading a song is quick. Building streams takes time, precise positioning, branding, playlist pitching, and aggressive consistency. Distribution is just the plumbing. Your strategy is what matters.

Ask yourself:

• Am I testing music casually?
• Am I building a long-term catalog?
• Am I chasing viral traction?
• Am I creating evergreen music (dance, fitness, sync)?

Our advice? Start simple.

Don't overcomplicate the distribution phase. Get your music live. Claim your Spotify for Artists profile. Learn how the system works. Then refine your strategy.

After upload, the real work begins.

How Do You Claim Your Spotify for Artists Profile and Pitch a Song?

Spotify for Artists is Spotify's dashboard for audience stats, promotion and profile management. If your distributor is one of Spotify's preferred providers, you get access as soon as you submit a request. DistroKid is listed as preferred in Spotify's provider directory, and its members request access from the Special Access menu. Otherwise you submit a claim with links to your website or social channels, and Spotify reviews it by hand, which can take a few days.

Pitching puts an unreleased song in front of Spotify's playlist editors:

• Deliver the release at least 7 days before release day, then go to Music, then Upcoming, in Spotify for Artists and fill in the pitch form.
• You can pitch one song at a time, and a song can no longer be pitched once it is live.
• A song pitched at least 7 days early is added to your followers' Release Radar playlists.
• Pitching does not guarantee a playlist spot, and no one can pay to be added to an editorial playlist.

DistroKid says the release date must be at least 3 weeks in the future to be considered. Choosing a future release date needs its Musician Plus or Ultimate plan.

How and When Does Spotify Pay Royalties?

Spotify does not pay a fixed rate per stream. Each month it shares out the net revenue from Premium subscriptions and ads by streamshare: if a rightsholder's music drew 1% of the streams, it gets 1% of that pool. Recording royalties go to the distributor that delivered your music, which pays you. Songwriting royalties go separately to publishers, collecting societies and mechanical agencies.

• The 1,000-stream minimum. Since April 2024 a track needs at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months, plus a minimum number of unique listeners that Spotify does not publish, to count toward recording royalties. Spotify said in October 2026 that the threshold is still in place.
• Timing. In many cases Spotify pays rightsholders once a month. DistroKid pays out twice a week, but store reports usually cover plays from about three months earlier, so a stream today reaches your account roughly three months later.
• Fake streams. Spotify charges labels and distributors per track when it detects flagrant artificial streaming, and DistroKid says a release whose streams are mostly artificial will likely be removed, with no royalties paid for those streams. Never pay for streams, followers or playlist placement.

Can You Put AI-Generated Music on Spotify?

Yes. Spotify has not banned music made with AI tools; its September 2025 policy says all music is treated equally, regardless of the tools used to make it. The limits are about deception and spam:

• Impersonation. Vocal impersonation is only allowed when the impersonated artist has authorized it.
• Spam. Spotify's spam filter targets mass uploads, duplicates, SEO hacks and artificially short tracks, and stops recommending them. Spotify says it has removed more than 75 million spammy tracks from the platform.
• Disclosure. AI credits, in beta and added through your distributor at upload, show listeners which parts of a track were generated with AI.
• AI Persona badge. Since mid-September 2026, profiles whose name and imagery are AI-generated can carry an AI Persona badge, self-disclosed in Spotify for Artists or applied by Spotify's review team. By default these profiles are left out of editorial and algorithmic recommendations, though followers still hear their music, and they cannot get the Verified by Spotify badge.

DistroKid accepts music made with AI tools as long as you own all the rights, copy no one's voice or identity without permission, do not mass-produce spam and infringe no one's rights.