Releasing music these days is a complete minefield if you're a small, newish musician wanting to get their music out there. The largest and most popular streaming service out there is Spotify, but is it worth releasing your own music on there?
There are many reasons why you may not want to choose Spotify. Starting with perhaps the largest reason first, being that Spotify doesn't pay well. It doesn't pay artists enough money for the quality music that provides Spotify with streams, and it is well-known that the platform is tailored to suit the larger, commercial artists who get huge amounts of streams, leaving the smaller artists pretty stranded. When the smaller artists actually tend to be some of my favourite.
However, I think you should look at it this way. It IS the largest streaming platform, and, as it is not going to be much of a source of revenue, it should be used as a place to build an audience and market your music. Furthermore, Spotify statistics hold a lot of weight in the music industry. If one of your songs reached a large amount of streams, it probably won't pay you much, but will give you invaluable exposure. Yes, Spotify is brimming with new releases, and it feels impossible to get found, however it is possible with hard work. The most important thing you should do is promote your music on any social media you have. Creating a strong social media presence will help drive traffic to your Spotify, and invite fans to share your work, too. More ways for people to find your needle in the haystack include getting yourself on playlists, no matter how small their following, and asking anyone you know of in the industry to share your work as well.
Another issue is that releasing your music on Spotify will reduce album sales, as it will make it free to stream. This is something to seriously consider because as a small artist, you may not want to take this pay cut, but I personally think that it is worth the risk because some people will still buy your album, albeit a smaller percentage of them, but if you manage to build your fanbase on Spotify, that will increase the amount of people buying your album.
Overall, I think that Spotify is where you want to be focusing your energy in terms of distributing your music because this is where everyone is at. No matter if you're not making much money right now, if you want to build a reputation and an audience, try here. It's going to be difficult, it's going to be slow, but I'd say it's worth it. If not for any financial benefit, but just to be able to have your music out there on one of the biggest streaming services! It's satisfying and rewarding, and hopefully with time, and more releases, you'll gain some traffic.
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