It is easy to be online, but not always intuitive to know what you’re doing online.
For example, you can know that tons of people have uploaded their music to the internet, but not have a clue how to do it yourself, let alone how to share it with the world.
Knowing where to upload your music is another task altogether.
Before choosing a place (or three) for your music to live online, you should have an idea of which sites are the most powerful and which are the most popular with your music’s audience.
If you know the answers to these already, or at least have a strong feeling, you’ll be better equipped to choose a platform that’s right for your music.
And by figuring out which is best for your needs, rather than choosing one at random, you’ll have better chances of your music reaching a wider audience, as well as potential gig booking opportunities or record deals.
But you’ll still need to know what the best digital music platforms are, and what each of them can offer to you or your band.
Luckily, we’ve made this part easy for you – we found the best places to share and promote your music online.
The Top 7 Places to Share Your Music Online
1. YouTube
YouTube is one of the most, if not the most, well-known places for posting music.
You can upload videos for free, and anyone can watch them for free.
Building up industry connections is not the easiest on this site, but you can easily create a full artist page and tap into promotional and analytics tools.
These make it easy to see which of your songs are the most popular, and find out how people find your profile and music.
The YouTube Creators Academy has several resources for helping you make the most of your account, like how to shoot better videos, how to grow your channel, and it even has tips on making money with your music on YouTube.
You can set everything up for you or your band yourself, or go through a third-party distributor, like CD Baby or Symphonic.
2. SoundCloud
If you’re only interested in uploading and sharing your music, SoundCloud is one of the best options.
The website was founded in 2007, and is made for creators, listeners, and curators, and is a great home base for your digital music presence.
It has a fun news feed-style landing page where you can easily find music according to genre or peruse the top charts.
On a creator’s page, you can view and listen to every song they have uploaded and track how popular it is with view counts, likes, shares, and comments.
Overall, SoundCloud is a solid way to connect with current and new listeners.
Though you’ll have lots of competition, the site’s user-friendly interface and serious dedication to music makes it easy to get your music uploaded and out in the world.
SoundCloud offers a limited basic plan that’s free with three hours of uploads, a mid-tier pro plan for $6/month with six hours of uploads, and an unlimited plan for $12/month.
They also have a feature called SoundCloud Premier where you can monetize your music and distribute it to other places.
3. iTunes
Tech giant Apple’s music platform, iTunes, is a household name and a must-choose if you want to give people a place to listen to and download all of your music.
You can even use iTunes to sell ringtones, music videos, iTunes LPs, and concert films, if you’ve got them.
It costs nothing to apply to sell your music on iTunes, and you can even request that iTunes sell your music in every country they can sell in.
It can take up to eight weeks to get your application approved.
To get your music on iTunes directly, you will have to meet all of their technical, content, and financial requirements; if you don’t meet them,
Apple may not work with you, or they may refer you to an Apple-approved aggregator and they will format and distribute your music to Apple for a fee.
Apple also has an affiliate program, Performance Partners Program, where you can earn commissions on qualifying sales.
You can also use iTunes Connect, which lets you manage all of your uploaded content as well as their pricing and availability, and your contracts.
Through iTunes Connect, you can also download iTunes Producer, which helps you easily deliver your music to Apple.
If you so choose, you can also put your music on Apple Music, which is Apple’s streaming music service, for double the exposure, especially for Apple ecosystem enthusiasts.
4. Spotify
Without a doubt, Spotify is the largest and most popular digital streaming music service, so having your music on there can only be good.
To get your music on the platform, you will either need to already be signed to a record label, who will handle distribution automatically on their end, or pair with a third-party distributor.
They provide a directory of artist and label distributors you can choose from to get your music on Spotify, for a small fee.
Since Spotify is an open platform, it is otherwise pretty easy to get your music uploaded.
They don’t have any strict regulations you’ll have to conform to, like Apple does, and the only scenarios in which your music might be filtered or removed from the platform is if it is hateful, illegal, or copyright infringing.
Users can enjoy a free version of Spotify with ads, or remove ads by going Premium.
The platform is known for its extremely user-friendly interface, browsing capabilities, and their tailored Release Radar playlist that features new music for each user.
5. Google Play
Although Google Play isn’t as popular as Spotify or Apple’s two music services, at the end of the day, it still belongs to another tech giant – Google.
Like iTunes for Apple users, Google Play is aimed at Android users, so if you’re planning on uploading your music to iTunes, you should cover all your bases (and fans) and upload to Google Play Music as well.
6. Your Website
Having a website for your band or solo career is more than important – it’s a must!
It makes you look more professional and legitimate, and gives your fans a central place to connect with you, listen to or download your music, and stay up to date on appearances and other news.
If your end goal is to get signed with a record label – whether major or independent – they will also want to see that you are putting in the effort and that you are capable of making your own success and collecting fans of your music and style.
If you don’t have an artist or band website yet, don’t fret.
You can easily create a simple website on sites like Wix or Squarespace.
These sites have some free functionality, and offer premium options as well, especially when it comes to themes, online stores, marketing tools, and tracking analytics.
You can host (or add on) your electronic press kit to your website as well.
You can host your entire discography on your website, and choose whether it’s only there for listening or for purchase and download as well.
If you don’t want to host that, you can keep a few samples there, then link fans to where you prefer to host your music, such as SoundCloud or Spotify or iTunes.
Kind of in the same vein, it’s important that you also set up social media accounts on all of the most popular and relevant sites.
These include YouTube, as we mentioned earlier, along with Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.
Though these sites aren’t necessarily music-centric, they are great places to share videos of you or your band playing live or in rehearsals as well as fun behind-the-scenes moments.
You can place your website URL in your bio on these sites, making it easy for fans to find you wherever they are and follow you wherever you are.
Record labels definitely pay attention to social media stats, so make sure your numbers are high and impressive all-around.
7. GigFaster
GigFaster is the best way to promote your music and book gigs. (Shameless plug!)
We have a huge database of contacts within the music industry, from venues and music blogs to music promoters and record labels.
With GigFaster, we work directly for you.
We never make you compete with other bands, and we work with music across all genres, from country to metal.
We actively work to get you connected to the resources you wanted to be connected with until we hear back from them, which frees you up to focus on making and playing your music.
There’s no annual membership fee – you can pay for one-time submissions or subscribe to one of our monthly plans.
You can even choose how much you want to be paid from every individual venue you play at through us.
We actively work to get you connected with the industry professional you’re interested in, be it venue promoters or record labels, all to help you get your music out there.
Why Is It Important to Share Your Music Online?
Of course, you aren’t obligated to share your music with anyone.
But if you’re super talented and have a great sound, why not share it with the world?
Art is one of the few good things we have in this world. And who knows – maybe your music could brighten someone’s day, or inspire them to make their own.
Promoting your music has a ton of benefits, and can help you move towards any goals you have set up regarding your music, like grabbing a record deal.
Promoting your music is a must if you are wanting to have any sort of success within the industry, or make music your entire career.
Uploading your music and working to connect it with your fans and potential fans doesn’t have to take much effort – maybe a weekend at most to upload songs to multiple websites or create your own band website.
And while you’re at it, one of the best tips is to make sure you do a good job of uploading and sharing your content online.
Make sure you use high-quality audio and video, and pay attention to other small details, like using correct spelling, grammar, and links.
Always be polite and friendly when interacting with fans, and don’t start drama where there isn’t any.
This shows fans and important individuals within the industry that you are serious and professional, and worth their time and attention.
By being thorough in creating your online presence, it will be easy for fans to find your music and share it with others.
Providing multiple ways for fans to listen to or download your music, watch your videos, and learn about upcoming concerts and album releases makes fast work of getting popular and starting to make money from your music.
You can make sharing your music online about fame and money, and there’s no shame in that. But it can also be about connecting with fans and similar-minded people.
Sharing any kind of art is beautiful and always worthwhile. And should you eventually be able to make your living from it? All the better.
Whatever your end goal with your music is, there are places for everyone to upload and share their music with friends and followers online.
You can stick to your favorite or put your songs everywhere, making it easy for fans and record labels to find you and make you the next big star!
