Uploading Your Music to Apple Music

Apple Music boasts a substantial subscriber base of 68 million, making it a prominent platform for artists to reach a wide audience. With a global presence in 167 countries, including a recent expansion into 52 additional countries, Apple Music provides an unparalleled opportunity for musicians. Actually, you can not only listen to other people's music but also add music to Apple Music. Introduce the world to your creations.

Apple Music For Artists

Apple Music offers artists direct access to their stats through the Apple Music for Artists platform. Once your music is on Apple Music, you can apply for access to Apple Music for Artists. This platform provides information on your music's performance, including demographics, popular regions, and listener ages. Additionally, with Shazam now integrated into the Apple family, you can also view your Shazam stats on Apple Music for Artists. This enables you to track where your music is being discovered and monitor its performance.

Great news! You are compensated for each stream your music generates on Apple Music. The payment is calculated based on the subscriber fees collected by Apple, and a portion of it goes to the artists. This means the more streams your music gets, the more you earn. In 2020, Apple Music paid an average of $0.0056 per stream to artists. The specifics of the payment arrangements depend on how you distribute your music on Apple Music.

How to Upload Music to Apple Music?

To make your music available on Apple Music, you have two choices. You can either upload it directly to their third system or use Apple's preferred-party aggregators. Both options follow the same process of delivering your music to Apple Music and the iTunes store.

#1 Through Third-Party Affiliates

If you don't meet the requirements to upload directly to Apple Music or find the process too complex, there's another option available. You can utilize third-party affiliates.

Apple Music provides a list of approved partners such as distributors and labels that can help you get your music on the platform. Distributors can handle the uploading of your music and collect streaming revenue on your behalf. Depending on the distributor, there might be a fee involved or a percentage of earnings taken. If you're signed with a label, they can also place your music on Apple Music. In this case, you'll receive a percentage of the earnings as per your contract agreement with them.

Click here to read my review comparing the two biggest distributors, Distrokid vs. CD Baby.

#2 On Apple Music Website

Minimum requirements

Musicians can directly upload their music to Apple Music and iTunes using the iTunes Connect platform. However, there are specific minimum requirements that must be met to do so. These requirements include:

Having a US Tax ID.
Possessing a valid iTunes Store account, which includes an Apple ID and a credit card on file.
Using a Mac operating on OS X 10.10 or a later version.
Having at least 512 MB RAM.
Acquiring UPCs and ISRCs for all albums and tracks intended for distribution (use the ISRC Finder Tool to search for them).
Holding a minimum of 20 albums in the catalog (note that singles also count as albums).
Maintaining an internet connection with an upload rate of 1 MB/sec or faster (a faster speed is recommended).
Recommended hard drive space of 20GB or more for larger catalogs.

Once the above requirements are met, application submission can be done through the iTunes Connect platform on Apple’s website. Please be aware that meeting these requirements does not guarantee application acceptance. Upon approval of the application, an email invitation to iTunes Connect will be received. This email will contain a link to log in to iTunes Connect. To proceed, you will be prompted to set up "Agreements, Tax, and Banking" and sign contracts between you and Apple Music.

For your music to be available worldwide, it is necessary to assign worldwide territory rights. Additionally, the option to assign specific territories is available in this section. If you set restrictions, then everyone who does not meet them will receive the message this song is not currently available in your country or region. Most people, if the music song is not available, just use a VPN. With VeePN, these restrictions can be bypassed. The only question is whether you will force your listeners to bypass the restrictions or allow them to listen without obstacles.

Specified format requirements

After completing the aforementioned steps, it is necessary to download and install iTunes Producer, the software required for uploading your music to Apple Music and iTunes. Before you submit your music to Apple Music, make sure that your music and artwork are in the correct format and meet the specified requirements. These requirements are essential:

Audio should have a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz (16-bit or 24-bit res) and 96, 176.4, or 192 kHz (24-bit res).
Use stereo audio sources. If unavailable, the audio source must have identical channels for the left and right.
Audio must be recorded with a codec approved by Apple.
Cover art should be 3000 x 3000 pixels with a 1:1 aspect ratio, in high-quality JPEG or PNG format.

Brief instruction

Here's how to upload music to Apple Music:

Familiarize yourself with the guides and ensure everything is prepared.
Launch iTunes Producer and sign in using your iTunes Connect credentials.
Create an album, even if you're uploading singles. They are considered albums on the platform.
Choose to create an album from either a CD or audio files.
Once your album is created, you have the option to include album details, artist names, genres, original release date, copyright information, and any other pertinent metadata. For adding the cover art, simply drag the art onto the designated Cover Art box or click "Choose" to select the cover art file.

Conclusion

Artists can unlock several benefits by uploading their music to Apple Music. Simply follow a step-by-step guide to effortlessly make your music accessible on this platform. By embracing Apple Music as a distribution platform, artists can tap into a global audience while gaining exposure and potentially achieving financial success.

From a Frustrated Producer in a Ragtag Bedroom Studio to Major Placements on TV Earning $1,000s!

My name is Evan, and I've been making music since around 3rd grade. I'm from San Diego, California, but I've lived in Washington, DC for the last 20 years.

After 3 grueling years of grad school, though I had put aside serious attempts at making music. I found myself spending my days doing work that was dreadfully uncreative, with a ton of student student loan debt.

Which made me feel like my favorite parts of myself were withering.

But I didn't know what to do about it.

Being in my early 30s with tons of student loan debt, in a world where there is "no money in music," I felt like my youthful dreams of trying to "make it big" were dead. Like my music would remain unheard in my head and hard drive.

Frustrated by my inability to get my music heard, I started researching solutions.

Instead, I wanted to find a way where I could focus on making the music and let someone else deal with promoting it.

I realized the music licensing was the perfect opportunity for a solo artist like me to get my music heard, without having to do any promotion. I just need to focus on improving what I could control - my songwriting and my production skills.

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In addition to being a music producer, I am passionate about teaching people how they can make professional-sounding music and earn money licensing it, all in their spare time.

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