Guides

Guides

Questions about releasing your music?
Check out our guides to help you along the way.
Just type in your question to find what you are looking for below:

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Using Make Waves — 4 guides

Step-by-step guidance on how to use Make Waves features — from uploading and scheduling releases to promoting your music and tracking results.

Setting up a release in Make Waves

A quick video walkthrough on releasing your music with Make Waves

Moving your music from a different distributor to Make Waves

Moving your music to Make Waves is easier than you think. Find out how easy in this guide!

Track your streams - A quick guide to platform analytics

Your Analytics page is your window into how your music is resonating with fans around the world.

Request a payout

Once your royalty count starts running, you can request a payout directly from your Wallet. Just follow these simple steps!

#Withdraw royalties

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Preparing your music for release — 10 guides

Make sure your tracks are ready for the spotlight. Learn how to finalize your recordings, choose the right release strategy, and get all the details sorted before you hit "publish."

Claiming your artist profile(s)

Confused on how to claim your artist profiles? Read this guide!

Requesting a YouTube Official Artist Channel

Get verified and get access to tools such as Analytics for Artists.

How to reuse tracks on multiple releases

Sometimes you want to reuse certain tracks on multiple releases. Here is how you set this up correctly in Make Waves.

Setting up a Waterfall Release on Spotify

Use this popular release strategy on Make Waves

Artwork for streaming services

Artwork is an important visual element that can say more about an artist and their music. But what makes good artwork? Find out more about the relevant spec and some of our do’s and don’ts in this article.

How to add a Spotify Canvas to your release

Give your release something extra

How to get verified on Instagram and Facebook, TikTok and X

Get the famous checkmark

How to get set up on Bandcamp

All about setting up on Bandcamp

How to set up a Various Artists release?

Releasing a project with five or more primary artists? This guide walks you through how to get it right.

How to generate your own AI artwork

No resources to create your artwork? Try a free AI model to create a unique image for your release!

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Promoting your music — 10 guides

Get your music heard. From building a marketing plan to growing your fanbase, these guides cover everything you need to share your sound with the world and get it in front of the right ears.

Our best tips to promote your own music

In this article, we’ll share the best tips to promote your own music. Including pitching directly to stores such as Spotify and Amazon, updating your artist profiles and social media pages and what to post when.

Submitting your music for playlist consideration

Getting featured in the right playlist can really give your release a head start

Make sure your music gets heard with Groover

If you’ve released your music and want the whole world to listen to it, Groover is the promotional platform to make that happen! Read on for the next steps.

When and where to find your pre-save links

Pre-save links are great tools to promote your upcoming music with your followers, create some hype and help generate more saves. Find out more about when and where to find your pre-save links in this guide.

Shopify and Spotify: how it works

Get started with selling your merch through Spotify

How to use YouTube Shorts as an artist

The ins and outs of shorts

How to grow on Tiktok as a music artist?

How to start and grow on TikTok as a music artist?

How to publish a snippet of your song to Instagram and TikTok before release date

Got a new track on the way? Make sure your audience knows something exciting is coming.

The ultimate playlist pitch guide for independent artists

Getting your music featured in playlists is one of the most effective ways to grow your audience, increase streams, and reach new fans. But what makes a good pitch? Find out all about it in this guide.

#Editorial Playlists

Tips for your artist branding & release content by Melanie Esther

We asked Melanie Esther, a Dutch Artist Branding and Social Media Coach, to share some insightful tips on developing your artist brand and creating your release content.

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Managing your releases — 5 guides

Stay on top of your music once it's out. These articles help you track performance, make updates, and keep your releases organized across platforms.

Updating an existing release (post delivery)

Updating an existing release (post delivery): yes, it's possible!

What are YouTube Topic channels?

Are you confused about the YouTube Topic channel that was created for your music? We got you covered. After reading this guide, you'll know everything about YouTube Topic channels and what you can do with them.

How to takedown your release

How to takedown and delete your release from stores and from your Make Waves catalogue.

How to change your artist name

It can happen that you want to change your artist name, for whatever reason. Learn how you can action this yourself for Spotify and Apple in your own Make Waves account.

How to add and sync lyrics in Musixmatch

Adding lyrics is free and easy to do. Follow our steps to get them linked to your songs!

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Copyright and royalties — 6 guides

Navigate the complex world of music rights, copyrights and royalty management.

Samples, covers and copyright: what is allowed?

Find out more about samples, licenses, uploading covers, remixes and avoiding copyright infringement.

How do streaming royalties work?

Streaming royalties are often misunderstood. Learn more about the basics of streaming royalties in this guide.

Learn more about artificial streams

The ins and outs of artificial streams.

How to set up royalty splits in Make Waves

Add royalty splits directly to the platform and invite collaborators to receive their share.

Everything you need to know about online beat licensing

From the type of licenses to how the royalties are divided, you can find it all in here.

Know your music rights: composition and recording explained

Know your music rights: composition and recording explained

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