How To Distribute Your New Release

How to distribute your music with Identity Music.

Keiran Johnson avatar
Written by Keiran Johnson
Updated over a week ago

If you’ve never submitted music before, you’re probably worried about making a mistake. Not to worry! We have put together a useful guide. This guide will help you to correctly submit your release through the client portal and ensure you have completed your distribution process the right way.

If you need any guidance whilst completing your release information, then your A&R Manager would be happy to help. Alternatively, you can find little blue “?” support bubbles alongside most entry fields in the portal.

PREPARING YOUR RELEASE IN THE CLIENT PORTAL

  1. Sign in to the client portal.

  2. Navigate to Assets > Album > Actions > Create New Album.

  3. You will be presented with 4 sections for managing your release

Main Info - If you do not already have a UPC, we will generate one free of charge!

Tracks - Upload your finished track.

Publish - Please ensure that you list all contributors and ensure that 100% of the share is correctly listed.

Review and Save - Make sure you double-check all the metadata is correct.

If the client portal detects any issues with the track after you save the information, a little tab will pop up letting you know (See Example Below). If you navigate to assets, you will be able to rectify any errors.

If you see this tab (Example Below) appear, it means that the computer is happy with the data and it’s time for round two (human approval!). This is the stage where you set how to distribute your music release. You can either select to start the distribution process now or you can store it in your asset tab for later.

DISTRIBUTING YOUR RELEASE IN THE CLIENT PORTAL

If you choose to distribute now, then you will be taken through to the distribution tab, where you should select “distribute now”. This will then bring up new fields to fill out.

YOUR FIRST RELEASE WITH IDENTITY MUSIC

When it comes to releasing your first track with Identity Music, we advise that you allow 2 weeks for your music to go live. That way, we can ensure that all your platforms are set up correctly and your future releases will run smoothly.

After your first release, you have the option to choose “As Soon As Possible” or select “On A Specified Date”. You can find out more about release times here:

TERRITORIES

This is the section where you can choose what countries you want to distribute your music to. You can choose from:

“Worldwide” - All countries are automatically selected or

“No” - You will be presented with the options to either exclude or include certain countries from your release.

PLATFORMS

In this section, you will go through and select the platforms that you want your music to be distributed.

If you are distributing to YouTube Music you will also need to distribute to select the YouTube Content ID below.

PREORDERS

Here, you can take advantage of pre-saves and pre-orders, free of charge through Identity Music! Set up a pre-save to a popular platform like Spotify for your fans and give yourself a pre-save window to promote your music and create a buzz.

CONFIRMATION

Finally, you will be asked to confirm your final selection, certify your legal right to distribute the release, and lock your release for distribution.

You will get a “Satisfaction” notification if it successfully goes through to the operations team.

ADDING MORE PLATFORMS

The track will now display where it has been distributed to in the assets section.

There is a button that will allow you to distribute music to more platforms if you have changed your mind since completion.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Once you have submitted your track for distribution, it is sent to our operations team for approval. Following approval, the track is submitted to your selected streaming sites. You can find out more about our partners in our Digital Music Distribution section.

The majority of tracks are approved upon the first submission and sent on their way to the platforms. In the rare case, your track is not approved, this article will help you understand why. If you read through the article and action the operations team’s advice, you’ll be back on your way to getting your music live!

Congrats! Your music is now on its way to your listeners!

If you have any questions, feel free to contact our team via our live chat service.

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