Distributing your music

Before Botify can earn you anything, your tracks must be live online. You cannot upload a track directly to the platforms: you go through a distributor. The distributor places your music on the platforms and pays you the revenue from the streams.

Why a distributor is essential

• The platforms do not accept direct uploads from artists: you need an approved intermediary.
• The distributor generates your ISRC code (the unique identifier of each track, which is what makes your streams countable).
• The distributor is the one that collects the money from the platforms, takes its cut where applicable, and pays it out to you.

No distributor, no revenue

If your tracks are not distributed, Botify can stream them all it wants: no revenue will be generated. Distribution is the first step, before you even buy proxies.

Existing distributors

There are several well-known distributors. They all do the same basic job (putting your music online and paying you the royalties); what mainly sets them apart is the pricing model and the payout speed:

Distributor	Pricing model (rough idea)
Amuse	Subscription
DistroKid	Yearly subscription, unlimited tracks
RouteNote	Free (cut on royalties) or subscription
TuneCore	Per release / subscription
CD Baby	Fee per release
Believe / TuneCore, etc.	Varies

Which one should you pick?

They are all paid in one form or another (subscription and/or a cut of the royalties), and prices change often — compare them and check the current price on the distributor’s own site before signing up. On Discord, the community shares its experience to help you choose.

How you get paid

1. Your distributor puts the track online (allow a few days).
2. Botify streams it (a stream counts from 30 s of listening).
3. The platform pays roughly $0.003 to $0.005 per stream to the distributor.
4. The distributor pays you, with a 1 to 3 month delay (and its cut where applicable).

See Maximising your revenue for the full calculation and the levers you can pull.

Setup order

1. Distribute your tracks through the distributor of your choice.
2. Wait until they are live online.
3. Add them to “Mes sons” (My Tracks) (Accounts & music).
4. Start streaming — every “Mes sons” play generates real revenue.