This guide is for independent musical artists who want to release or who currently have music on Digital Service Providers (“DSP”)–online platforms that distribute music for streams or downloads–and want some background on: (1) the process and copyright considerations, and/or (2) how to actually get streaming royalties.

The greatest barrier to earning money as a musical artist is not creation or distribution. Look at your streaming platform of choice. There is no shortage of music available for streaming or downloading.

However, I think it is incorrect to look at the ever-growing number of available-to-stream songs and conclude that creating music is “easy” or that there are “too many artists.”(1) The reality is that creating and distributing music is now more accessible. And that accessibility has shifted the barriers to monetizing music for artists.

I see two large, current barriers for musical artists. The first is “breaking through the noise” of all the available music out there to attract a healthy fan base. The second is navigating our U.S. copyright system particularly as it relates to owning music copyrights and obtaining music royalties.