https://wearethemusicmakers.co/latest Music tech and AI in music: the news that matters, what we think about it, and a directory of the tools. en-us Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:30:00 GMT https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/recipe-release-a-single-in-14-days https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/recipe-release-a-single-in-14-days A day-by-day plan from final master to release day for an independent single, using a distributor. Every step has a time and a cost, with distributor prices as seen on 26 Oct 2026. Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:30:00 GMT We are the music makers format-recipedistributionrelease-planningspotifyindependent-artists https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-fresh-finds-forward-independent-artists https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-fresh-finds-forward-independent-artists Spotify will invite about 10,000 independent artists a year from its Fresh Finds playlists into a 12-month programme of studio time, software, therapy and promotion. There is no cash in it, the biggest perks are US-only, and the real prize is the editorial attention that comes with membership. Sun, 25 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industryspotifyindependent-artistsplaylistsartist-development https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-wrapped-2026-artist-prep-6-november-deadline https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-wrapped-2026-artist-prep-6-november-deadline Every artist can send Spotify a thank-you video of 30 seconds or less for Wrapped until 6 November. Artists in the video upload beta can also add performance videos, which Spotify says earn royalties, count toward charts and stay on the profile. Here is what to submit, the fine print, and a checklist. Sun, 25 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers spotifywrappedworkflowsvideoroyalties https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/artist-bio-writing https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/artist-bio-writing A practical guide to writing an artist bio in three lengths (one line, short, long), what to put in each, what to cut, and how to keep it current across Spotify, your EPK and festival applications. Platform details come from Spotify for Artists support and SXSW programmer advice, read on 25 Oct 2026. Sun, 25 Oct 2026 03:30:00 GMT We are the music makers promotionpressspotifyworkflows https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/spotify-discovery-mode-explained https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/spotify-discovery-mode-explained Discovery Mode lets an artist team flag songs for some of Spotify's algorithmic listening, in return for a 30% commission on recording royalties from those streams. This guide sets out the mechanics as Spotify's own help pages describe them, a simple way to judge the trade-off for one song, and the criticism, as we read those pages on 24 Oct 2026. Sun, 25 Oct 2026 03:30:00 GMT We are the music makers spotifystreamingroyaltiesrelease-planning https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/playlist-scams-and-fake-streams https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/playlist-scams-and-fake-streams Paying a promoter for guaranteed streams or playlist spots is against Spotify's terms, and the penalties land on the artist: lost royalties, removed tracks and a per-track fee your distributor passes on. Here is how Spotify defines artificial streaming, what TuneCore, CD Baby and DistroKid do when a track is flagged, how to spot a scam, and what to do if you get a notice. Sat, 24 Oct 2026 06:30:00 GMT We are the music makers streaming-fraudspotifydistributorsroyaltiesmarketing https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/pre-save-campaigns-explained https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/pre-save-campaigns-explained A pre-save lets a fan add a release to their library before it exists, so it lands there on release day. Spotify and Apple now offer this natively for albums and EPs, third-party links still fill the gap for singles, and the only hard evidence that pre-saves help comes from the platforms themselves. Here is how each route works and what we would actually do. Sat, 24 Oct 2026 06:30:00 GMT We are the music makers release-strategypre-savespotifyapple-musicworkflows https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/sample-rate-and-bit-depth-explained https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/sample-rate-and-bit-depth-explained Sample rate and bit depth are the two numbers on every audio file, and the advice around them is full of folklore. Here is what each one actually controls, what Spotify and Apple ask you to deliver, and why the honest answer for most independent releases is "record at 24-bit, keep your native rate, and never upsample". Sat, 24 Oct 2026 06:30:00 GMT We are the music makers masteringworkflowsspotifyapple-music https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/spotify-for-artists-pitching https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/spotify-for-artists-pitching Spotify for Artists lets your team pitch one unreleased song at a time to Spotify's editors, and video pitching is rolling out too. Here is every rule Spotify itself publishes: the 7-day deadline, who on your team can pitch, what the form asks, how Release Radar and This Is pins work, and the things a pitch will never do, as we read Spotify's help pages on 24 Oct 2026. Sat, 24 Oct 2026 06:30:00 GMT We are the music makers spotifyplaylistsrelease-planningworkflows https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-one-year-ai-credits-verified-what-to-switch-on https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-one-year-ai-credits-verified-what-to-switch-on Spotify's one-year AI update says no single signal decides what counts as slop, so the signals you control matter more. Here is what to switch on, what you can't apply for, and what each tool doesn't do. Sat, 24 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicspotifystreamingworkflows https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/how-streaming-royalties-are-calculated https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/how-streaming-royalties-are-calculated There is no per-stream rate. Streaming services pool their net revenue each month and split it by share of streams, and two newer rules change who gets into that split: Spotify ignores tracks under 1,000 streams a year, and Deezer weights streams from established artists and active fans. Here is the whole chain, step by step, as the services describe it on 24 Oct 2026. Sat, 24 Oct 2026 03:30:00 GMT We are the music makers royaltiesstreamingdistributionspotifydeezer https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/release-timeline-checklist https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/release-timeline-checklist Spotify lets you pitch yourself a week before release, but Apple Music, Amazon Music and Deezer editors mostly hear about your song through your distributor, and distributors want weeks of notice. Here is a six-week plan built backwards from the deadlines distributors publish, as we read them on 24 Oct 2026. Sat, 24 Oct 2026 03:30:00 GMT We are the music makers release-planningworkflowsplaylistsdistributionspotifyapple-music https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/streaming-loudness-targets-2026 https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/streaming-loudness-targets-2026 Most "streaming loudness target" charts mix official numbers with figures nobody at the platform ever published. We went back to each service's own pages on 24 Oct 2026. Spotify publishes a full spec, Apple and Amazon describe the method but no number, YouTube says normalisation-style processing is off for music, and for TIDAL and Deezer we found no current artist-facing page at all. Here is what is documented, what is reported, and a target plan you can defend. Sat, 24 Oct 2026 03:30:00 GMT We are the music makers masteringloudnessworkflowsspotifyapple-musicyoutube https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-q3-2026-306m-subscribers-agentic-age https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-q3-2026-306m-subscribers-agentic-age Spotify ended Q3 2026 with 306 million Premium subscribers and 788 million monthly users, and its co-CEO pitched it as a winner of the "agentic age". As listening moves into AI agents and conversations, artists have little view of how they get picked, and the the Universal and Warner deals reaching their two-year mark in early 2027 are the moment to ask. Thu, 22 Oct 2026 03:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industrystreamingspotifyai-agentsearnings https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-50-million-slop-spam-tracks-recommendations https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-50-million-slop-spam-tracks-recommendations Spotify says it has taken more than 50 million "slop and spam" tracks out of its recommendations in 2026, and counts removals from the service separately (more than 75 million). For producers, the useful question is no longer only "will my track be removed?" but "will anyone be shown it?" Wed, 21 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers streamingai-musicspotify https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-1000-stream-rule-ai-shield https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-1000-stream-rule-ai-shield Spotify now calls its 1,000-stream royalty threshold a "first line of defense" against AI-generated tracks, which it says are 10 times more likely to fall below it. The same rule decides whether a new human artist earns anything, and Spotify still keeps one of its two tests secret. Tue, 20 Oct 2026 07:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industryspotifyroyaltiesai-musicstreaming-fraud https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-ai-remix-tool-artist-consent https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-ai-remix-tool-artist-consent Believe and TuneCore became the fourth licensor of Spotify's planned AI covers and remixes add-on on 20 Oct 2026, and the first to describe an artist-level, two-step opt-in. The earlier UMG and Kobalt announcements talk about "participating" artists without saying who makes that choice, and Merlin says artists get a choice without describing how. Price, revenue split and launch date are still undisclosed. Tue, 20 Oct 2026 06:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicspotifylicensingconsent https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/sony-260000-deepfake-takedowns-indies https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/sony-260000-deepfake-takedowns-indies Sony Music has now asked platforms to remove more than 260,000 AI tracks imitating its artists, up from 135,000 at the end of March. That is roughly 20,000 requests a month, which is a full-time enforcement operation. An independent artist facing the same impersonation has a report form, a distributor and their own spare time. Mon, 05 Oct 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers artist-rightsai-musicdeepfakessony-musicspotify https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/landr-fake-streams-down-95-percent-distributor-screening https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/landr-fake-streams-down-95-percent-distributor-screening LANDR says artificial streams flagged by Spotify across its catalogue fell 95% between Q1 2025 and Q2 2026, and it is now screening releases before they reach streaming services. The figure is company-reported with no base disclosed, and it says nothing about honest artists caught by the same filters. Thu, 24 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industrystreaming-frauddistributorsspotify https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/spotify-bundle-mlc-ruling https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/spotify-bundle-mlc-ruling A New York federal judge has refused to let the Mechanical Licensing Collective appeal early against the ruling that Spotify Premium is a "bundle" with audiobooks, which lets Spotify pay US songwriters a lower mechanical rate. The judge also threw out Spotify's "unclean hands" defence. Songwriters now wait for the whole case to finish, even though subscription prices rose again in February. Mon, 07 Sep 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industryspotifysongwritersroyaltiesmlc https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/spotify-streamshare-explained-no-per-stream-rate https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/spotify-streamshare-explained-no-per-stream-rate Spotify pays rights holders a share of each country's monthly royalty pool, in proportion to their share of streams there. The "per-stream rate" is a number worked out afterwards, which is why it moves by country and month, and why your deal matters more than the rate. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industrystreamingspotifyroyalties https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/spotify-artificial-streaming-penalty-fee-explained https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/spotify-artificial-streaming-penalty-fee-explained Since April 2024 Spotify has charged labels and distributors a fee per track when it finds flagrant artificial streaming, and the big distributors pass it straight to artists, at about €10 per flagged track per month. Here is how the penalty works, how artists who never bought a bot get caught, and how to vet a promoter before you pay one. Thu, 03 Sep 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industrystreamingspotifyartificial-streaming https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/canada-drops-streamer-contribution-music-funds https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/canada-drops-streamer-contribution-music-funds Ottawa has told the Federal Court of Appeal it plans to scrap the rule that large foreign streamers pay 5% of their Canadian revenue into Canadian content funds, and replace it with government money. The 31 August payment date came and went with no new transfers. For music, that means FACTOR, Musicaction and the funds behind early-career artists swap a levy that grew with streaming for a budget line that can be cut. Wed, 02 Sep 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industrypolicycanadastreamingartist-fundingspotify https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/spotify-discovery-mode-explained-commission-payola https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/spotify-discovery-mode-explained-commission-payola Discovery Mode lets you flag songs for Spotify Radio, Autoplay and some Mixes, and Spotify keeps 30% of the recording royalties from streams there. Here is the maths on when that pays, and why a listener lawsuit calling it payola went to private arbitration instead. Wed, 02 Sep 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industrystreamingspotifyroyalties https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/spotify-india-loud-and-clear-2026-regional-royalties https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/spotify-india-loud-and-clear-2026-regional-royalties Spotify's India Loud & Clear report says royalties generated by Indian artists rose 29% in 2025, led by Telugu (up more than 120%), with over 40% of that money coming from listeners abroad. At home, only about 14.4 million of India's 178 million audio streamers pay, so how much of the growth reaches regional independents depends on their deals and their publishing paperwork. Wed, 02 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industryindiaspotifyroyaltiesstreamingregional-music https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/2027-release-checklist-guides-in-one-page https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/2027-release-checklist-guides-in-one-page We spent a month writing practical guides on releasing music, from registering a song to reading the statement that pays for it. This is the short version, in the order you will need it, with each step pointing back to the guide and the official page behind it. Tue, 25 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers workflowsrelease-planningmetadatamasteringspotifyapple-musicroyalties https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/gdpr-access-request-artists-dpdp-act-india https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/gdpr-access-request-artists-dpdp-act-india Article 15 of the GDPR lets you ask any platform what personal data it holds about you, why, and who it went to. Here is a template request, what Spotify, SoundCloud and two distributors say they will give you, and why India's own access right is not in force until mid-2027. Thu, 20 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers artist-rightsprivacygdprdpdp-actaispotifysoundclouddistribution https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/spotify-marquee-showcase-discovery-mode-compared https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/spotify-marquee-showcase-discovery-mode-compared Spotify sells promotion three ways: two click-priced display formats and a commission on royalties. Here is what each costs, who can use it, and the numbers that tell you whether it paid off, including the break-even point Spotify's own reports leave out. Thu, 13 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industryspotifymarketingstreamingguides https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/pitching-spotify-editors-500-characters https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/pitching-spotify-editors-500-characters Spotify lets you pitch one unreleased song at a time to its editors, and a pitch made 7 days out puts that song in your followers' Release Radar. Here are the rules as Spotify states them, the fields that matter, a template and three invented example pitches. Wed, 12 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers workflowsspotifyplaylistsrelease-planning https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/spotify-ai-persona-badge-identity https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/spotify-ai-persona-badge-identity Spotify will badge artist profiles whose public identity looks like a photorealistic AI-generated person, and keep those profiles out of editorial and algorithmic recommendations by default. The badge says nothing about how the music was made. For artists, that means the face on the profile now matters more to discovery than the method behind the track. Tue, 11 Aug 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicspotifystreaming https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/spotify-release-week-countdown-pages-pre-saves-canvas https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/spotify-release-week-countdown-pages-pre-saves-canvas Spotify's Countdown Pages give an album or EP a pre-save page, countdown videos and a push notification on release day, but only if you clear 3,000 monthly active listeners and deliver early. Here is who qualifies, what fans see, how Canvas fits in, and a week-by-week checklist. Tue, 11 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers workflowsspotifyrelease-strategypre-savecanvas https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/velvet-sundown-one-year-ai-labelling-test-case https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/velvet-sundown-one-year-ai-labelling-test-case A year after an AI-generated "band" reached more than a million Spotify listeners, its audience has collapsed and Spotify has written rules for synthetic identities. The real cost has landed elsewhere, on a small human band with a similar name that had to pay for a trademark to fight an AI lookalike. Mon, 10 Aug 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicspotifyartist-rightsstreaming https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/loudness-normalisation-explained-lufs-spotify-apple-youtube https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/loudness-normalisation-explained-lufs-spotify-apple-youtube Spotify plays music at -14 LUFS by default and turns louder masters down, so a -8 LUFS master buys you no extra volume, only less dynamic range and more risk of encoding distortion. Here is what Spotify, Apple and YouTube actually document, what they leave out, and how to make mastering decisions with that in mind. Thu, 06 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers workflowsmasteringloudnessspotifyapple-musicyoutube https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/how-to-disclose-ai-use-ddex-containsai-spotify-ai-credits https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/how-to-disclose-ai-use-ddex-containsai-spotify-ai-credits Spotify's AI Credits run on a DDEX standard that records AI use per role and per file, as None, Partly or All. You can only use it through a distributor that supports it, so here is how to credit AI and human work separately, step by step, with a template you can copy. Mon, 03 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers workflowsaiai-musicmetadataspotifyddexcredits https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/07/murphy-campbell-ai-voice-clone-uk-personality-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/07/murphy-campbell-ai-voice-clone-uk-personality-rights AI covers built from North Carolina folk singer Murphy Campbell's YouTube performances appeared on streaming services under her name, then her own videos of public-domain songs were hit with copyright claims. The Musicians' Union now uses her case to argue for UK personality rights. Her story suggests a right on paper is only the first of three things artists need. Mon, 20 Jul 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers artist-rightsai-musicdeepfakespersonality-rightsukmusicians-unionspotifyyoutube https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/06/spotify-music-pro-reserved-tickets-superfan-artists https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/06/spotify-music-pro-reserved-tickets-superfan-artists Spotify's reported "Music Pro" superfan add-on, at up to $5.99 a month extra, has still not launched in the West. Instead, Reserved went live in the US on 18 June 2026: two tickets per tour held for top fans, inside ordinary Premium, through Live Nation. Here is what is confirmed, what is only reported, and what artists can actually do. Thu, 18 Jun 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industryspotifyticketingsuperfanslive-nation https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/05/brazil-mexico-spotify-royalties-2025-loud-and-clear https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/05/brazil-mexico-spotify-royalties-2025-loud-and-clear Spotify says Brazilian artists generated about R$2bn on the service in 2025 and Mexican artists about MX$8.2bn. Both numbers are real growth, but they measure money paid to rights holders, not to artists, and Mexico's headline "more than half from abroad" is close to Spotify's own global average. Mon, 11 May 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industryspotifyroyaltiesartist-rightsstreamingbrazilmexicolatin-america https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/04/protect-name-face-youtube-likeness-spotify-profile-protection-isni https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/04/protect-name-face-youtube-likeness-spotify-profile-protection-isni YouTube now offers likeness detection to talent agencies, managers and the celebrities they represent, as well as eligible creators. Spotify is beta-testing a way to review releases that use your name. Neither one travels across platforms, so here is how to set up both, and where an ISNI fits. Tue, 21 Apr 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers artist-rightsyoutubespotifydeepfakesisniguides https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/03/nigeria-spotify-60-billion-naira-per-stream-gap https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/03/nigeria-spotify-60-billion-naira-per-stream-gap Spotify says Nigerian artists generated more than ₦60bn on its service in 2025 from 30.3 billion streams. The total is real, but roughly ₦2 a stream and a Premium price near $1 a month suggest much of that money comes from listeners abroad. Spotify's plan is to sign up more payers, not raise prices. Mon, 16 Mar 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industrystreamingnigeriaroyaltiesspotify https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2025/09/spotify-lossless-what-to-deliver-masters https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2025/09/spotify-lossless-what-to-deliver-masters Spotify Premium now streams up to 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC. Whether your listeners hear your real master depends on the file you hand your distributor, and some distributors still cap uploads at 16-bit. Wed, 10 Sep 2025 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers workflowsspotifylosslessmasteringdistribution