What is digital music distribution and how does it work?

You get to keep 100% of the earnings received from your releases delivered to all supported DSPs.

Digital Service Provider (DSP) refers to companies like iTunes, Apple Music, and Spotify that offer online music services. 

Additional Benefits:

• Expedited submissions review
• Premium support
• AI-generated release cover art (Coming Soon)
• Earnings splits (Coming Soon)

Digital distribution is only available when you purchase a monthly or annual BandLab Membership, but you can create a draft release to prepare your tracks for submission during the trial period. 

1. Ensure you've confirmed the email address tied to your BandLab account
2. Ensure you've set up your payout method 
3. Finalize your artist and song name
4. Prepare an original cover art
5. Add the explicit content warning when appropriate

1. On BandLab Web, go to Services in the top navigation bar, select Distribution, and click the + New Release button.
2. Select a project if you're releasing a single or multiple projects if you intend to release an album or EP! 
3. Follow the steps and fill in the required details for your release. Remember to use eye-catching cover art!
4. Review your release, hit the Submit button, then read and agree to our Terms of Service
5. Congratulations! You've submitted your release!

We'll keep you updated on the status of your release via email. You can also monitor the status of your releases on BandLab!

BandLab supports the following file formats: wav, mp3, m4a, ogg, and aac.

Streaming services may reject any artwork that does not follow the requirements. To prevent this from happening, your cover art must be:

• In JPG or PNG format
• A minimum of 1400 x 1400 pixels in size, but no larger than 6000 x 6000 and have a 1:1 aspect ratio or perfect square

Ensure your cover art doesn't contain:

• Blurry or pixelated images 
• URLs, email addresses, phone numbers or social media handles
• Illegal or offensive material (nudity, drugs, extreme violence etc.)
• Additional text outside of the artist name, title and label information  
• Copyrighted or trademarked material (logos, company names, etc.)
• References to pricing
• Misleading information (images or names of artists not on albums, etc.)
• Upsells to another product elsewhere 
• Duplicate images from a prior release

While we welcome our users to share their music with others, we also encourage users to abide by the Community Guidelines. Here are some other factors to avoid:

• Copyrighted Materials (including cover art, a cover of a song)
• Trademarked Materials
• Public Domain Work
• Content that you don’t have the rights to

If you believe a release was rejected by mistake, please send supporting documentation to support@bandlab.com!

You worked hard on your music and you deserve to get credit where it’s due. Besides, most retailers now require first and last names for songwriters and other contributors to differentiate from artist names or stage names.

Unfortunately, this means that failure to provide the information will result in your release being rejected from those retailers. Not to worry, songwriter credits are not displayed prominently. If your stage name is your real name then just duplicate it in the required fields!

Yes, 100%!

Distribution times can vary depending on the store. Once we've reviewed your submission, it can take up to 2 weeks for your track to go live on Spotify, Apple Music, and other stores. 

Yes, you can! Our release scheduling feature lets you choose the ideal date to release your track on major streaming platforms. Select ASAP for a quick turnaround (5-7 business days), or set a Specific Date (at least 14 days in advance). This allows you to align your release with key events, holidays, or promotions to build excitement around your music.

To monitor your current Digital Distribution releases, click on Services in the top navigation bar, then select Distribution to view the status of your current releases.

To keep tabs on your earnings, go to the My Earnings dashboard, where you can view any pending or past earnings paid to you. Find out more about the My Earnings dashboard here. 

Earnings will be paid to your selected payout method on a monthly basis. Find out more about how we handle payouts.

You'll need to maintain an active Membership to keep 100% of your earnings. Should you discontinue your Membership, you'll receive 100% of your earnings until the end of the cycle, followed by 80% thereafter.

• Universal Product Code (UPC code) identifies albums or songs and aids in music purchase and sale. We provide a UPC code for songs released with BandLab Digital Distribution.
• International Standard Recording Code (ISRC code) is the internationally recognized ID for sound and music video recordings. We provide an ISRC code for songs released with BandLab Digital Distribution.

• 7Digital
• Amazon
• Apple Music
• Deezer
• Facebook and Instagram
• Gracenote
• KkBox
• LINE Music
• Mixcloud
• Pandora
• SoundCloud
• Spotify
• Tencent
• TIDAL
• TikTok
• iHeartRadio
• YouTube

You can! Your URI is a unique identifier that Spotify and Apple Music assign to every artist. It's basically a link used to share your artist profile. We use this link to identify existing artist profiles we should distribute to. The artist name you provide must match the profile linked in your submission.

Here's how you can obtain those links and include them when submitting for digital distribution:

Spotify

1. 1. On the first step of the Distribution form, click on + Spotify profile to reveal the field in which you'll need to paste your Spotify profile link. The correct link format would be: https://open.spotify.com/artist/{string of letters and digits}
   2. On the Spotify app, click the Triple-dot Icon on the artist's profile
   3. Select 'Share'
   4. Click 'Copy link to artist' and paste it into the Spotify profile field on BandLab
      
      

Apple Music

1. 1. On the first step of the Distribution form, click on + Apple Music profile to reveal the field in which you'll need to paste your Apple Music profile link. 
      The proper format would be: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/{artist name}/{digits}
   2. Click the Triple-dot Icon next to the artist's name
   3. Select 'Share'
   4. Click 'Copy link' and paste it into the Apple Music profile field on BandLab
      
      

You can only use one artist name per BandLab account at a time. After your first release is successfully submitted and enters status, the primary artist name, Spotify and Apple artist profile links will be locked. To release music under a different artist name, you need to create a new BandLab account.

You can make changes to your release and resubmit it to be reviewed again. You'll be notified on BandLab and via email informing you why your submission was rejected, and all you'll need to do is make the necessary edits to the metadata before resubmitting your track. Here's how:

1. Click the Fix Your Release button in the notification email, or on the Distribution Dashboard on BandLab, click the Triple-dot Icon next to the track with the tag 
2. Select Edit, and you'll be taken back to the submission form for you to fill in the details of your release. You'll only need to edit the field(s) that require your attention; everything else will remain pre-populated with the information you provided before
3. Once you've made the necessary changes, click Next to review your release, hit the Submit button, then read and agree to our Terms of Service

Once your release is live, you can search for it on streaming platforms by its title or your artist name. You can claim your artist profile directly on the streaming platforms:

• Spotify
• Apple Music
• Tidal
• Pandora
• Deezer