You can't upload a track straight to Spotify or Beatport yourself — you go through a distributor, a service that delivers your music to every streaming platform and store and collects the royalties back for you. If you're independent and unsigned, this is the step that turns a finished file into an actual release people can find, stream and buy. It's simpler than it sounds once you know what the services do.

The main difference between them is how they charge and who they're built for. DistroKid works on a flat annual fee for unlimited uploads and lets you keep all your royalties, which suits producers releasing regularly. Others like TuneCore and CD Baby use per-release or one-off pricing. For electronic music specifically, pay attention to who actually gets you onto Beatport and Bandcamp, since those matter far more in dance music than they do in pop — Label Engine and a few others are built around that world and the way labels operate. Pick based on how often you release and which stores you actually care about, not just the cheapest headline price.

Whichever you choose, the admin around the release matters as much as the upload. Set your release date a few weeks out so you've got time to build a pre-save and tee up promo, get your metadata right (artist name, genre, ISRC codes — usually generated for you), and have your artwork meeting spec. A release with no run-up disappears the day it lands; one with a couple of weeks of build behind it gives the platforms and your audience a reason to pay attention.

We’ll be working closely with NOISE.IO (coming soon) to help artists independently manage their music and royalties. More info to come