1) Make the best music you can.

Before your upload - ask yourself: "can I improve the track?"

A lot of great songs get pushed to the wayside due to quick or unprofessional production.
Saving a little bit of money to give the songs production a lift can do wonders.

The better you can make your music - both in the songwriting and production, the better chance it has in succeeding once it's out in the world.

2) Ready your artwork.

Its a good idea to get your artwork sorted well before release time.

Here are the artwork requirements for distribution with Unchained Music.

• Wdith and Depth: 3000x3000 (up to 5000x5000), square format
• Resolution: 300 dpi
• File Format: JPG or PNG
• Color Space: sRGB
• File Size: Under 36mb (ideally under 4mb)

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3) Understanding UPC / IRSC

• An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is like a digital fingerprint, used to identify a song on streaming platforms, and track its performance.
• A UPC (Universal Product Code) is used to track an entire digital product (such as an album or video). Different parts of a single song can be packaged up as different products (album, video, single etc).  The UPC is used to track these products.
  

In the Unchained Music App, you can auto generate both of these codes. Or you may add them, if they have already been generated somewhere else.

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4) Prepare your Audio File

Audio must meet certain standards to be accepted for distribution.

Mastering

In order to ensure good audio quality and meet the standards of the contemporary music industry, all audio files must have undergone a mastering process before distribution. If they have not, they risk being rejected by our quality assurance process.

The minimum requirements for uploading audio masters are:

WAV at 16 bit depth, 44.1KHz, stereo.

FLAC at 16 bit depth, 44.1KHz, stereo.

Audio Quality

Audio files containing background noise, and/or other sound imperfections will not be accepted for distribution.

Silences or Pauses

Silences, pauses, or extended dead space at the end of the tracks are not allowed by DSPs. If a song ends with a final silence it should last no longer than ten seconds. You may not distribute tracks that are mostly or entirely silent.

Minimum Track Length

If it is a single, a song must last more than 30 seconds, otherwise channels may interpret the release as click fraud. Streaming services generally won’t accept albums if the average track length is less than 60 seconds.

5) Artists

Be sure to include Primary Artists (usually those who played a big role in the track) and/or Featured Artists (who are adding to the track).  

It's helpful to discuss this with those involved before uploading as this can change how songs appear on platforms - songs will appear on Primary Artists main Spotify pages for example.

6) Need more help?

Head over the FAQ page on our website

Or jump in our Discord and chat with the team.