10 Things Artist Should Do After Releasing Their Music Online

Hey guys, here's a great article reminding Artist of 10 things they need to do after releasing their records. If you were on my Instagram Live yesterday we touched on most of these, but this list will mention a few other pointers that I forgot! Reach out to me if you need help with anything! 

1. Register with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO) 

Whenever your music is performed publicly, whether it be live in a venue or on TV and radio, the songwriters are due a public performance royalty. PROs are the agencies that collect these royalties and make sure that they find their way to you and your publisher. 

There are three main PROs in the United States: ASCAP, BMI & SESAC. Once you register with one, be sure to submit your compositions to them. 

2. Registerwith SoundExchange 

When your music is played via non-interactive services (where you don’t choose the tracks you hear) such as Pandora or SiriusXM, the songwriters are due a digital performance royalty. SoundExchange is a non-profit PRO that collects these royalties and routes them to featured artists and sound recording copyright owners. 

If you operate as your own label, you can register as both a featured artist and rights owner. 

3. Submit your artist bio & images to All Music 

iTunes & Spotify turn to All Music for the bios & images that are included on artists’ pages in their stores. 

4. Set up Apple Music for Artists Beta 

Apple Music for Artists enables you to keep tabs on how your music is performing and find out how your fans discover your music. 

To get your account set up, follow the instructions here. 

5. Claim your profile on Spotify for Artists 

Designed to help artists & their teams get the most out of the platform, Spotify for Artists enables you to manage your profile and access key performance data about your music and fans. 

Get started on Spotify for Artists here. 

6. Register your title & ISRC with Nielsen SoundScan 

Nielsen Soundscan tracks the sales and streams of music and video throughout the U.S. & Canada, and powers the Billboard Charts. 

Register your title here, and your ISRC here. 

7. Submit your release information to Nielsen BDS 

Nielsen BDS (short for Broadcast Data Systems) is a service that tracks monitored radio, TV and Internet airplay of songs. This service also feeds into the Billboard Charts alongside SoundScan, so it’s important to make sure both are set up. 

8. Submit your release information to Mediabase 

Mediabase monitors radio airplay in the U.S. & Canada, and publishers charts based on the most-played songs on terrestrial (AM/FM) & satellite radio. 

9. Register your entire song catalogue with Music Reports 

Music Reports maintains SONGDEX, a proprietary database filled with rights information for millions of sound recordings & compositions. Registering your songs with Music Reports helps to ensure that you’re collecting performance royalties from the use of your music on platforms such as SiriusXM, SoundCloud & Amazon as well as local television stations.

To register your catalogue, email shareinfo@musicreports.com with an excel spreadsheet containing: 

Artist 
Title 
Album 
Composers 
Publishers 
Percent You Own 
Territories In Which You Have Ownership 

10. If you’re distributing physical CDs, submit your track data to Gracenote 

Gracenote helps with metadata recognition of CDs in cars and on laptops, and they also can help to ensure that you are receiving royalties for your copyrighted music. Submitting your track data to Gracenote can be completed by following these steps: 

Open iTunes 
Insert your CD 
Highlight all the tracks and select “Get Info” 
Input all related metadata 
Click the gear icon on the top right, and select “Submit CD Track Names” 

Use this checklist to make sure you’re getting the most earnings & data possible from your music

Article taken from the folks at Stem -> 10 Things Artist Need To Do After Releasing Their Music!

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