How to Publish a Song: A Step-by-Step Guide for Artists

Matic Magister

Apr 18, 2025

Publishing a song is a crucial milestone in any artist’s career. Whether you’re a seasoned musician or a new artist ready to share your music with the world, it’s important to know the right steps to take to ensure your song gets the attention it deserves. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the entire process of how to publish a song, from preparing your track to getting it on popular music platforms.

📌 Viberate Analytics: Professional music analytics suite at an unbeatable price: $19.90/mo. Charts, talent discovery tools, plus Spotify, TikTok, and other channel-specific analytics of every artist out there.

Step 1: Finalize Your Song and Prepare the Artwork

Before you publish your song, make sure it’s polished and ready for release. This means finalizing your track in the studio, ensuring the sound quality is top-notch, and getting it professionally mixed and mastered. A high-quality recording is key to making a strong impression on listeners.

You’ll also need to create cover art for your song. This image will appear on music platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube, so make sure it represents the style of your music and is visually appealing.

Step 2: Choose a Digital Distribution Service

Once your song is ready, the next step in the process of how to publish a song is selecting a digital distribution service. These platforms are responsible for getting your music onto streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and more. These services generally require a fee, either per song or as an annual subscription. They will also handle the distribution to major platforms and provide you with access to royalty collection.

Step 3: Upload Your Song

After you’ve selected your digital distribution service, it’s time to upload your song. This typically involves:

• Uploading the final audio file (usually in WAV or MP3 format)
• Adding the cover art you created
• Filling out metadata like song title, artist name, release date, and genre
• Adding your track’s ISRC code (International Standard Recording Code), which is required for royalty collection

Ensure all details are correct before submitting, as mistakes could delay your release.

Step 4: Set Your Release Date and Pre-Save Campaigns

When uploading your song, you'll be asked to choose a release date. This is important because having a well-planned release strategy can significantly impact the success of your song. Most distribution services recommend submitting your song at least 4 weeks before the intended release date to give the platforms enough time to review and promote it.

A pre-save campaign allows listeners to save your song in advance of its release, making it easy for them to access it as soon as it drops. Many distribution services offer tools to set up pre-save campaigns on platforms like Spotify.

Step 5: Promote Your Song

Now that your song is ready to be published, it’s time to start promoting it. Share the release details with your followers on social media, send press releases to music blogs, and reach out to influencers or playlist curators who might be interested in featuring your track. The more promotion you do, the higher the chance that people will discover your music.

Some key strategies for promoting your song include:

• Sharing behind-the-scenes content and teasers
• Engaging with your fans on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok
• Creating a music video or lyric video for platforms like YouTube
• Submitting your song to playlist curators

Reaching out to blogs and websites that specialize in music reviews

Step 6: Track Your Song’s Performance

Once your song is live, the next important step is to monitor its performance. This is where analytics come in. If you want to understand how well your song is doing across different platforms, it’s crucial to track key metrics like streams, views, and radio airplay.

At Viberate, we offer an excellent Song Analytics service, which allows you to track the cross-channel performance of any song, across platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and even radio airplay. This tool is imperative for anyone who’s serious about publishing music and understanding how well their song is resonating with listeners.

With Viberate’s Song Analytics, you can:

• Analyze song streams and playlist placements on Spotify
• Track YouTube views and engagement
• Monitor radio airplay performance, including country and city distribution
• Measure key stats from SoundCloud, Shazam, and Beatport
• Rank your song against millions of others with a detailed performance chart

Understanding these metrics can help you adjust your promotional strategies and maximize your song's reach.

Step 7: Collect Your Royalties

Once your song has been published and distributed, the final step is to ensure you're receiving the royalties you're entitled to. Every time someone streams your song or purchases it, you’ll earn royalties. Your digital distribution service will collect and send these payments to you, but make sure you're aware of the royalty structure and fees associated with your chosen service.

Additionally, using a platform like Viberate's Song Analytics can help you identify potential revenue streams from different platforms, making it easier to track how your song is performing financially.

Why Viberate’s Song Analytics is Essential for Every Artist

As you can see, publishing a song involves more than just getting it onto streaming platforms. To truly succeed in today’s music industry, tracking your song’s performance is crucial. This is where Viberate’s Song Analytics can make all the difference.

By analyzing the performance of your song across different channels, Viberate’s Song Analytics gives you insight into:

Spotify Streams & Playlist Performance

With Viberate’s tools, you can track the number of streams your song receives over time, identify top playlist placements, and measure your song’s reach on Spotify.

YouTube Views and Likes

You can monitor the success of your song’s music video (or lyric video) on YouTube, track views and likes, and even compare performance across different uploading channels.

Radio Airplay

Viberate also offers valuable data on how often your song is being played on the radio. You’ll get a breakdown of radio spins by country and city, as well as which stations are playing your track.

SoundCloud, Shazam, and Beatport Stats

Beyond the major streaming services, Viberate tracks additional music stats, including Shazams, SoundCloud plays, and Beatport performance data.

Song Chart Ranking

Viberate’s Song Analytics includes a global ranking system for songs, based on over 58 million tracks. You can filter this data by different metrics such as Spotify streams, YouTube views, and radio spins, giving you a comprehensive view of your song’s success.

By using Song Analytics from Viberate, you’ll be able to fine-tune your promotional strategies, engage with your audience more effectively, and ultimately grow your fanbase.

Conclusion

Publishing a song is just the beginning of your journey as a musician. To make sure your track reaches its full potential, you need to promote it effectively and track its performance across various platforms. By following the steps outlined in this guide and utilizing Viberate’s Song Analytics, you’ll have the tools you need to ensure your song gets the attention it deserves and reaches a wider audience.

If you’re serious about knowing how to publish a song and measuring its success, Viberate is here to help you every step of the way. Get started with our Song Analytics service today!

For more details on how to track your song's performance, visit our .