How Long Does It Take To Get Music On Spotify? (We Checked)

Many artists who want to reach a larger audience and build a strong fanbase choose Spotify as the music streaming platform to plug their music into.

Spotify, being one of the largest music platforms with a vast catalog, exposes artists to new fans, and fans to new music.

However, many of us often wonder how long it takes for artists to get their music onto the platform.

In this article, we delve into your questions about getting music onto Spotify.

Here’s What You Need to Know About Getting Music on Spotify:

Spotify does not allow independent artists to upload their music directly onto the platform. Artists and labels have to use a Spotify aggregator or trusted Spotify distribution partner to upload their music. Each distributor provides varying timeframes to get music live on the Spotify platform.

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How Long do Artists Normally Wait Before their Music is on Spotify?

In 2019, Spotify announced that it would be suspending the beta program where independent artists, especially, would upload their music onto Spotify’s database.

This move saw the rise of aggregators and distributors become more prevalent.

What is the difference between an aggregator and a distributor? A distributor focuses on both physical and digital distribution of releases. Whereas an aggregator focuses on enabling the artist to distribute their releases via digital streaming services like Spotify.

However, the terms are used interchangeably.

Artists that are under a record label usually have no hassles with getting their music onto Spotify.

This is because most labels already have a distribution partner which handles getting music onto streaming platforms without a hitch, as there is a standing relationship that also benefits upcoming artists.

Independent artists tend to have a slight disadvantage as they have to proactively weigh the pros and cons of various distributors before deciding on the one they will use.

And even after deciding on the one to use, getting your music on Spotify will not be an overnight thing.

The distributor needs to approve the song to be uploaded, and once that is sorted, Spotify also needs to approve the song before it goes live on the platform.

What’s the Average Time it takes to get music on Spotify?

The time it takes to get music on Spotify is dependent on the distributor being used. Since these distributors and aggregators have varying timeframes as to when an artist’s music will be available on Spotify, we have drawn a comparison between the trusted Spotify distribution partners to determine their average time and other valuable features.

DistroKid

It takes 2-5 days to upload your music onto Spotify.
Cover Tracks can take up to 14 days to upload as the licensing needs to be approved by The Harry Fox Agency (a cover licensing organization).
Artists pay a flat rate annual fee of $19.99 to upload unlimited albums and singles.
Artists also keep 100% of their royalties and get remunerated monthly.
Unfortunately, artists cannot select a custom release date.
DistroKid alerts the artist once their music goes live and sends them a link.

CD Baby

It takes between 2 days to 2 weeks to upload your music onto Spotify, inclusive of CD Baby’s inspection process.
Artists pay $9.95 for single releases and $29.00 for album releases.
CD Baby collects a commission of 9% on royalties.
Artists can choose a custom release date but are advised to make their release date at least 6 weeks to no more than 2 years from the date of submission for distribution to allow time for their music to be available on time.

EmuBands

It takes 2-7 days to upload your music onto Spotify.
Artists pay $12.50 per single release and $25 per album release.
Artists keep 100% of their royalties.
Artists can set a custom pre-order and release date as far in advance as they so wish.
There is no minimum threshold for royalty payout requests.

Record Union

It takes 5-14 days to get your music uploaded onto Spotify.
Artists pay $13 for single releases per annum and $25 for album releases per annum.
Record Union collects a commission of 15% on royalties.
Artists can select a custom release date.
Fun Fact: Record Union was Spotify’s first independent distributor partner back in 2009.

Vidya

It takes up to 5 business days for the music to be reviewed and delivered to Spotify.
Artists pay a flat rate fee of $20 per annum for unlimited audio distribution.
Artists can pick a custom release date.
There isn’t clarity on whether Vidya takes a commission fee or not.

LANDR

It takes about 5 days for review and approval from both LANDR and Spotify to get your music uploaded.
Artists pay $9 per single release and $29 per album release.
LANDR takes a 15% commission fee on royalties.
Cover songs are licensed at $15 per song (once off).
Artists are able to choose a custom release date.

TuneCore

It takes up to 5 days to upload your music onto Spotify, including the Review Process.
Cover Tracks take to up to 14 days, pending a mechanical license from the original copyright holder through The Harry Fox Agency or TuneLicensing.
Artists pay $19.99 per annum for single releases and $49.99 per annum for album releases.
With TuneCore, artists keep 100% of their royalties.
Artists can select a custom release date.
TuneCore also provides the artist with daily trend reports and a cover art creator.

There are more distributors out there that can get your music onto Spotify, these are just some of Spotify’s preferred and trusted distribution partners.

What is the Fastest way to get your Music on Spotify?

The fastest way to get your music on Spotify is to get a music distributor; in fact, it is the only way to get your music uploaded into the streaming giant’s catalog.

As an artist, you will need to do due diligence on the various distributors and aggregators.

Once you find one that appeals to you, you will need to study their guidelines for submission and ensure that you follow them; that will speed up the process of getting your music on Spotify.

What are Some Things that can Slow Down the Process?

Every distribution partner has guidelines for submitting music for distribution.

As an artist, it is imperative to follow your distributor’s required format for submission, this can be one of the things that delay getting your music onto Spotify’s catalog.

To ensure that your song doesn’t fall prey to delay, enter all of the release information accurately and correctly when filling out the information required by your chosen distributor.

Here are some things that can slow down the process:

Violating or ignoring the submission policies can result in delays or rejection from the distributor.
A sound-alike cover song sounds exactly or strikingly similar to the original. Music streaming services consider this as deceptive to users, and should they identify it once it is mistakenly uploaded, the song will be hidden by the streaming service, and distributors don’t provide refunds for this.
The standard quality format to upload music on Spotify is 16-bit 44.1kHz .WAV; if your song is less than this or exceeds this, your song may not get uploaded.
Another thing that can cause a delay is your cover art; the required pixels are 3000×3000 in JPEG form.

How Long Does the Vetting Process Take?

It is a Spotify recommendation that new songs are sent to them at least 1 week before their release.

This is to account for updates that may be required or if the song needs to be taken down if it doesn’t meet their standards.

If your release date is within the week required, Spotify cannot guarantee your song or album going live on time.

This makes things interesting as some distributors stipulate their upload time as less than the week required by Spotify.

Another thing to factor in with the review process is that some songs may be randomly selected for manual review.

When your song is selected for this review, it would take additional days, a week even, to upload it onto the streaming platform. This mostly occurs towards the holiday season.

Artists are advised to schedule their release date to at least 25 days post-submission; this is to ensure that you and your fans aren’t left in the lurch on the release date.