For today's independent music releases to be discovered, extended metadata about the music is essential. Far beyond artist and titles, a successful release now needs identifiers, credits, dates, genres, and much more. And higher quality audio is more engaging for fans.
Each independent music distribution service offers their own web interface for uploading audio files and entering data about your release.
So, we created this survey of what is needed for your music to be discovered, artists to get paid accurately, and contributors to be credited. And, to ensure the highest audio quality. The survey evaluates a distributor on:
- Which data points it allows you to submit,
- How detailed it allows your data to be,
- What data and audio options are offered,
- How easy it is to use,
- And more.
The goal is to find best practices, teach artists what to look for, give props to the services that work well, and to help the rest improve.
Thanks for your help to improve these essential services for everyone!