Releases
Find answers to all your release related questions
You can pick and choose which online music stores and streaming services you want your music distributed to. The current available services are:
- Spotify
- Apple Music & iTunes (includes Shazam)
- Instagram & Facebook (includes Oculus, Boomerang, Lasso, IGTV, SparkAR and MicDrop, excluding WhatsApp)
- TikTok & TikTok Music
- YouTube Music & Content ID
- Pandora
- Deezer
- TIDAL
- Amazon (includes Amazon.com, Amazon Prime Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Amazon Music and Amazon AMP)
- JioSaavn
- Anghami
- Beatport
- Gracenote
- 7Digital (includes 7d Download Store, Electric Jukebox / Roxi, Grandpad, NEC, Snap Inc, Soundtrack Your Brand, Stationhead, Pinterest, HomeWAV and Reward The World)
- Tencent (includes JooxQQ Music, Kuwo, Kugou and Joox)
- Bugs! (includes Cyworld and Music Bro)
- Audiomack
- NetEase Cloud Music
- LINE Music
- Qobuz
By default we will distribute your music to digital platforms worldwide but you can de-select any country you like and make custom selections.
Yes, you can! When you log into your account, you can find this under the analytics tab.
Of course you can!
You can find our detailed guide on how to successfully switch your music to Make Waves below:
Moving Your Music From a Different Distributor To Make Waves
Feel free to contact support@makewaves.fm if you need any additional help or have some more questions about the switching process.
Generally, we aim to have your music live within three working days, however this can differ per service:
- iTunes / Apple Music: 5 days. A very small percentage of albums go through manual review at Apple, which takes an additional 1-2 weeks or so.
- Spotify: 2-3 days
- Amazon: 2-3 days
- YouTube Music: 2-3 days
- Deezer: 2-3 days
- TIDAL: 2-3 days
- Facebook/Instagram: 2-3 days
- TikTok: 2-3 days
We will support your release as long as you have the rights to release the cover song or use a certain sample. This is your responsibilty.
Please note: Securing cover song licenses can take up to 14 business days. Releases with cover songs will be submitted as soon as the license is approved by Harry Fox Agency (who handles our cover licenses). Check out www.songfile.com for more info.
Contact support@makewaves.fm if you have more questions about this, or check out our Legal tab in our FAQ for more information.
Yes, you can. However, you can only set a date one week (or more) away from submitting the release to Make Waves, as we need this time to process the release to all the stores.
We would generally recommend uploading your music at least 4 weeks before your chosen release date, to ensure it will go through the streaming service’s ingestion queue and promotion review in time.
This will become available in your account a few days after your music has been delivered.
Once the release has been delivered, you can find this release information straight away in the platform. When you go to 'Releases' and click on a particular release, you will find the Barcode / UPC that has been assigned to the release, and the ISRCs that have been assigned to the tracks.
Only content to which artists own 100% of the rights are eligible to be delivered to the UGC stores. Exclusive ownership must be held on a sound recording used for a track that is claimed for monetisation for these stores. This means that the following content isn't eligible to be claimed for monetisation, and can therefore be rejected.
- Any type of sound recordings for which exclusive copyrights are not held is deemed ineligible. This involves covers, unofficial remixes, karaoke or sound-alikes. Compilations, live recordings and various artist ‘best of’ releases are generally ineligible, as copyrights to all compositions are likely not held.
- Sound recordings or video footage of compositions in the public domain. Copyrights on the compositions have expired, making the content ineligible for monetisation.
- Insufficiently distinct content, also called generic content. This involves nature sounds, ambient sounds, ASMR, white noise, binaural audio, sound effects, loops, soundbeds, demos and meditative content (music for sleeping, etc).
- Royalty free production music libraries typically licensed for use in game, film, TV or other soundtracks.
- Audiobooks, podcasts, speeches, comedy recordings, film recordings, prayers, video gameplay footage.
- A continuous mix, DJ mix, mashups, countdown lists, or compilation of tracks within one asset are all ineligible.
- Sound recordings that exceed a duration of 10 minutes are flagged as ineligible.
- Sound recordings created primarily for use in a video game, such as the original score or background music accompanying a video game, which are owned by the video game’s publisher.
If one of your releases has been rejected for these stores and you don't agree with the decision, please send us an email (support@makewaves.fm).
We automatically select the correct format for your release when we deliver it, based on the amount of tracks your release has. So you don't have to select anything yourself, easy peasy! This is in line with the metadata guidelines from the DSPs. See below:
Single: 1-3 tracks
EP: 4-6 tracks
Album: 7+ tracks
You can find our detailed guide on how this is done below: