Go to 29th of June 2024. Latest Update
19th of May 2024
I was listening to this podcast on The Daily today. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/19/podcasts/the-daily/brett-martin-spotify.html
Have you heard the song “Brett Martin, You a Nice Man, Yes”?
Probably not. On Spotify, “Brett Martin, You a Nice Man, Yes” has not yet accumulated enough streams to even register a tally. Even Brett Martin, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and the titular Nice Man, didn’t hear the 1 minute 14 second song until last summer, a full 11 years after it was uploaded by an artist credited as Papa Razzi and the Photogs.
When Martin stumbled on “Brett Martin, You a Nice Man, Yes,” he naturally assumed it was about a different, more famous Brett Martin: perhaps Brett Martin, the left-handed reliever who until recently played for the Texas Rangers; or Brett Martin, the legendary Australian squash player; or even Clara Brett Martin, the Canadian who in 1897 became the British Empire’s first female lawyer. Only when the singer began referencing details of stories that he made for public radio’s “This American Life” almost 20 years ago did he realize the song was actually about him. The song ended, “I really like you/Will you be my friend?/Will you call me on the phone?” Then it gave a phone number, with a New Hampshire area code.
So, he called.
The burning question for me was “How does one put songs on Spotify?” I have published my tiny catalogue of two songs + remix done by my husband on YouTube, YouTube Music and Soundcloud but didn’t think it was possible to have it on Spotify, as only signed/approved artists have content there. I’m not deluded in thinking I could ever even sell any copies of it, or that anyone who doesn’t know me personally would stream. I don’t think even people who do know me would ever stream it! But, out of curiosity, I decided to investigate and go through the process of releasing songs.
It only took a few hours to get the ball rolling. Firstly I found out that RouteNote was the best option for me. For a fee of ZERO POUNDS (RouteNote will get 25% of the money the songs make, I’m expecting to make ZERO POUNDS). They will then, subject to approval of the tracks, distribute the track digitally, i.e. Get them into Spotify and a bunch of other platforms including Amazon, Apple Music, Napster, Soundcloud, YouTube… It claims to upload the music to the top stores of THE WORLD!!!!!! They say the approval process takes 24-72 hours, sometimes longer. Here is the Support/FAQ page for RouteNote with lots of information.
So, if you want to release a song and get it on Spotify this is one way to do it. I’ll update this page as I go through the process. Firstly, I had to sign up for RouteNote – just a simple email signup, no need for address/phone number. After that I had to follow the steps to create the release and then upload the songs.
The songs must be 320kbps. GarageBand – the old version I have – creates them at a maximum of 256kbps. I did something that is meant to decrease the quality of the recording, and, via Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 (OLD SKILLS + OLD SOFTWARE!), saved the tracks as 320kbps mp3s. They sounded the same to me, and the songs were accepted.
I had to think of an artist name. I wanted Lelé (my nickname), that was taken so Lelé London it is. The album title? Lelé Music. Keeping it simple! And now I have to wait a few days for it all to be approved (no idea what the process is, but it seems it is done by humans, not machines).
For the album art, a 3000x3000px image is required, but the image I wanted for the album was only 1024px. Once again, Adobe (Photoshop) to the rescue, I upped the image size and it was accepted by RouteNote.
I wanted to use the image below, but because it was generated in Midjourney for free, the license does not allow ‘commercial use’.
So, I’m using this one instead, which is 100% generated by my phone + frozen car windscreen.
I have now gone through the process of publishing my songs as well as writing some new ones… It seems awfully slow in these fast times – I still have one last EP to be approved – but it’s all free. Although the tracks are available on a variety of platforms, they are not on Spotify yet (dunno if they will ever be) and I’m still trying to claim my artist name in there as Lelé London. Not terribly inspired but that’s what I ended up with. Wondering if Lelé Letal would have been funnier. But also Letal (Lethal in Portuguese) is a bit too confrontational. A bit too harsh for a 52 year-old grandmother! Here are the releases in push (this keeps links of the releases and where they can be found in various platforms)
Ifs & Buts – Learned how to edit releases on Push, thanks to this release being left with ‘amp’ from Ifs & Buts which shouldn’t have been there.
Mixed Messages
Mixed Messages (feat. Olivia Lu) [Magneze Breakbeats Remix]
Comfortabubble Journey
Tabloid Formula
Waiting on the last 3 songs to be approved. Here’s how the songs came to exist.
An automatic channel is also generated for the EPs by RouteNoteLelé London Topic on YouTube
I checked today on RouteNote and I was able to finally claim my Spotify Artist Profile. Although, for reasons I don’t quite understand, only the 2nd EP is there, not the first EP with Ifs & Buts + Mixed Messages…
I got the email from RouteNote saying the last 3 songs have been approved, but there’s a caveat:
“We have had to remove YouTube’s Content ID, TikTok & Facebook/Instagram program from this release as we have found ineligible content and/or non-exclusive content in the audio.” Here are the reasons why content recognition is blocked.
Perhaps because these tracks use a lot of GarageBand’s library loops? I decided to contest it because the garage band license states that:
You may use the Apple and third party audio loop content (Audio Content), contained in or otherwise included with the Apple Software, on a royalty-free basis, to create your own original music compositions or audio projects. You may broadcast and/or distribute your own music compositions or audio projects that were created using the Audio Content, however, individual audio loops may not be commercially or otherwise distributed on a standalone basis, nor may they be repackaged in whole or in part as audio samples, sound effects or music beds.
So don’t worry, you can make commercial music with GarageBand, you just can’t distribute the loops as loops.
More info here:
https://thegaragebandguide.com/can-you-use-garageband-loops-commercially
Here’s what I put in the RouteNote dispute form:
I only used GarageBand loops, which according to their license, is eligible for Content ID & commercial use. I believe this was triggered by mistake as all three songs are originals and don’t use any copyrighted samples/loops. https://support.apple.com/en-us/102034
It’s not clear which of the tracks isn’t eligible for ContentID? There are three tracks in this release UPC: 5063535669635
I posted the songs in this release on my personal YouTube channel and they haven’t triggered any copyright/contentID notices.
i.e. Agogô Dubstep ISRC GX38U2499061: https://youtu.be/aVHuXATfd_E
Dusky Lullaby ISRC GX3HH2428244: https://youtu.be/CpXn_7lQym0
PanReggaeton ISRC GX3HH2443521: https://youtu.be/xr64H8fwFAE
After emailing RouteNote about the first three songs not being in Spotify – I got a reply
Unfortunately, it seems as though your release has failed the initial upload to Spotify. Sadly, RouteNote is not always notified by our partner stores of any failed deliveries, but there are a variety of reasons that this could occur (such as processing errors or partial ingestion).
To remedy this, I have re-delivered your release to the store in question to ensure that it’s delivered. It should be available within the next 2 weeks.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this!
Now all the releases are available on Spotify: full discography
My ContentID appeal was accepted and now all songs are also on YouTube Lelé London – Topic
All of the songs on Push.fm (What is Push.fm?) – these are added by RouteNote – but they are also customizable.
Lelé Music EP
Ifs & Buts Release on Push – Learned how to edit releases on Push, thanks to this release being left with ‘amp’ from Ifs & Buts which shouldn’t have been there.
Mixed Messages Release on Push
Mixed Messages (feat. Olivia Lu) [Magneze Breakbeats Remix] Release on Push
Comfortabubble EP
Comfortabubble Journey Release on Push
Tabloid Formula Release on Push
Agogô Dupstep EP
Agogô Dubstep Release on Push
Dusky Lullaby Release on Push
Pan Reggaeton Release on Push
Here’s on how the songs came to exist.
So that is that! NEXT!!!