Getting your music onto digital service providers (DSPs) used to mean faxing one-sheets and shipping physical discs. Today, a distributor sits between your finished masters and the catalogs listeners browse on streaming platforms, download stores, and other digital outlets. This guide walks through the real work: choosing a partner like CD Baby, DistroKid, or TuneCore, preparing assets correctly, uploading without rejections, and confirming your release actually lands where you intended.

Distribution is not marketing. It is infrastructure. Treat it like soundcheck — invisible when done well, catastrophic when skipped. Artists who rush the upload often discover missing ISRCs, wrong release dates, or artwork that fails platform specs two days before launch. Slow down here so everything else can move fast.

What a music distributor actually does

A distributor encodes your audio and metadata, delivers it to DSPs and stores under their delivery agreements, collects royalties from those platforms, and pays you according to their fee model. Some also offer optional add-ons: cover song licensing support, YouTube Content ID, publishing administration, or physical merch fulfillment. You still own your masters and copyrights unless you separately sign those away.

You do not need a record label to distribute. Labels often use the same pipelines; the difference is capital, relationships, and staffing — not the fact of getting a song onto a DSP.

Pick the right distributor for your stage

CD Baby, DistroKid, and TuneCore are the most-cited options for independents, but the “best” one depends on how you release.

  • Volume and speed: If you drop singles often, look at annual unlimited upload plans and how quickly they advertise delivery windows.
  • Per-release pricing: If you release rarely, a one-time fee per album or single can be cheaper than a yearly subscription.
  • Royalty splits: Some keep a percentage; others take a flat fee and pass through a higher share of streaming revenue. Read the live pricing page — models change.
  • Extras you will actually use: Publishing admin, neighboring rights, sync pitching marketplaces, or store credit for ads. Ignore shiny features you will never open.
  • Support and takedowns: When a release needs a date change or a takedown after a dispute, responsiveness matters more than a cute dashboard.
Choose the distributor you can operate calmly under deadline — not the one with the loudest influencer code.
Studio sessions — prepare masters before you open the upload form.

Prepare assets before you open the upload form

Most failed deliveries are asset problems, not account problems. Build a release folder first.

  1. Masters: WAV (or AIFF) at the sample rate and bit depth your engineer delivered. Do not upload a low-bitrate MP3 as the master.
  2. ISRC and UPC: Many distributors can generate these. If you already own codes from a previous partner, reuse them so charts and reporting stay continuous.
  3. Artwork: Square JPEG or PNG, typically 3000×3000 px, RGB, no physical product packaging text that violates DSP guidelines (no “Exclusive,” fake parental stickers, or URLs slapped on the cover unless policy allows).
  4. Metadata: Exact artist name spelling, featured artists, remixers, language of lyrics, genre/secondary genre, explicit flag, songwriter and publisher fields if requested.
  5. Release date and time zone: Pick a date far enough out for delivery — often one to three weeks depending on the partner and whether you want editorial consideration windows.
  6. Territory: Worldwide unless you have a rights reason to exclude regions.

Write artist and track titles exactly as you want them displayed forever. Changing a name later creates duplicate profiles and splits your audience.

Step-by-step: create the release

The UI differs across CD Baby, DistroKid, TuneCore, and others, but the workflow is consistent.

1. Create or confirm your artist profile

Match the spelling and image you use on socials. If you already have DSP profiles from a prior distributor, ask support how to deliver into those existing profiles (often via a profile URI or similar identifier). New artists should claim profiles after the first delivery goes live.

2. Start a new release

Choose single, EP, or album. That choice affects track count rules and sometimes pricing. Add the title, primary artist, and release type.

3. Upload audio and artwork

Wait for encoding checks to finish. Listen to a short preview if the tool offers one. Confirm the cover crops correctly — logos near edges get clipped on some storefronts.

4. Enter track-level metadata

For each track: title, ISRC, contributors, explicit flag, and sequence number. Credit session musicians if your distributor supports contributor roles; supervisors and playlist curators notice complete credits.

5. Set the street date and pre-save / pre-add strategy

If you want pre-saves, your marketing site or link tool needs the upcoming release URI after the distributor creates it. Build that into your calendar: upload → receive links → launch pre-save creative → street date.

6. Select stores and services

Default to all major DSPs and stores unless you have a strategic reason to hold territory or platform. Leaving a major outlet unchecked by accident is a common mistake.

7. Review and submit

Read the confirmation screen slowly. Typos here become permanent storefront copy. Submit, then screenshot the confirmation and store the release ID in your campaign doc.

After submit: verification checklist

Delivery is not done when you click submit. Over the following days:

  • Watch for QC rejection emails (artwork, audio loudness quirks, metadata conflicts).
  • Confirm the release appears in the distributor dashboard as delivered or processing.
  • On street date morning, spot-check two or three DSPs and at least one download store.
  • Verify artist profile images and biography if you submitted them.
  • Test your smart link — every destination should resolve to the correct release.

If something is missing, contact support with the release ID, UPC/ISRC, and screenshots. Vague tickets get slow replies.

Money, splits, and collaborators

Decide ownership before the upload. If two artists own the master 50/50, either use the distributor’s split tools (where available) or collect into one entity and pay the partner via contract. Side deals done on handshake after a song charts are how friendships end.

Keep a simple ledger: distributor payouts, ad spend, mixer fees, sample clearances. Tax time and label conversations both ask for this.

Common pitfalls

  • Uploading too close to the date for editorial or playlist pitching windows.
  • Inconsistent artist name variants (“DJ X” vs “Dj X”).
  • Artwork with dense text that becomes unreadable at thumbnail size.
  • Leaving the explicit flag wrong — stores suppress or mislabel tracks.
  • Moving distributors mid-catalog without a migration plan, orphaning older UPCs.

A simple operating rhythm

For each release, run the same sequence: lock masters → prepare folder → upload with buffer time → generate links → market → verify street date → archive assets. Distribution should feel boring. Boring means reliable. Once this machine works, your creative energy goes into the song and the campaign — which is where careers actually move.