How To Sell Music On Amazon Music

Amazon is the largest e-commerce platform in the world, and when it comes to music, it has multiple offerings for consumers. Amazon Music, formerly Amazon MP3, is Amazon's basic streaming service that features more than 100 million songs from both major label and independent artists. Amazon Music is available to everyone, regardless if you have an Amazon Prime account or not. In 2014, Amazon launched Music Prime, which became an add-on for Amazon Prime members and allowed Prime members to stream songs, music playlists, and personalized streaming stations ad-free, with the option to listen to music offline.

In 2016, Amazon launched Music Unlimited, its music streaming service that currently competes with popular music streaming sites like Spotify and Apple Music. Like Spotify and Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited offers a 100 million song music library that can be streamed on-demand and ad-free. It also features a recommendations engine based on algorithms that provides users with recommended artists, songs, and curated playlists.

Furthermore, in 2019 Amazon decided to enter the HD streaming market with Amazon Music HD, a premium-quality music streaming service that offers the same music library of 100 million songs in HD streaming quality, and millions of songs in Ultra HD streaming quality, the highest quality streaming audio available, along with all of the offerings of Music Unlimited and Music Prime.

In November 2022, Amazon Prime members enjoyed an increase from 2 million to 100 million songs in shuffle mode, ad-free, and at no additional cost to their membership.

Now, with this wide array of options for listeners to consume music on Amazon, how do artists upload their music and make money on Amazon? It may seem complicated, but don't worry, we're here to break it down for you step-by-step.

Just like with other streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, Amazon Music gives you the ability to claim your artist profile via Amazon Music for Artists. From your artist profile you can get verified, add artist images, and access a global view of your streams and performance data across curated playlists and stations.

One feature that is unique to Amazon Music for Artists is the Daily Voice Index. This feature allows artists to view the data for how their music is performing with Alexa, Amazon's virtual assistant AI technology, including insights into voice requests by artist, album, song, and lyrics.

In order to claim your Amazon Music artist profile, follow these steps:

1. Download the app from the App Store or Google Play

2. Open the app and fill out all fields on the verification page, including Company (if you do not have a record or management company, simply put your band or artist name in this field)

3. Claim your artist profile by clicking ‘Submit’

4. Wait for the confirmation email.

5. Open the app to access your Amazon Music artist account

Claiming your artist profile on any music streaming platform will help you build your fanbase, pitch your music for playlists, gain insight into how your music is performing, and allow you to grow within the platform.

Operated by the worldwide leading e-commerce platform, Amazon MP3, which was launched in 2007, was the first online music shop to sell digital music from both major and independent labels without digital rights management (DRM) from the four major music labels (EMI, Universal, Warner, and Sony BMG), as well as many independent labels.

DRM restrictions limited both the number of devices that could play songs and the kinds of devices that could read the files. With the DRM restrictions lifted, when customers purchased music from Amazon Music, they could use the audio files however and wherever they wanted. However, by 2011 this policy had changed as Amazon began to embed embed "Record Company Required Metadata" into tracks on its platform, which included unique identifiers.

Amazon Music is currently available in 49 countries, with the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan as its top markets.

As the leading e-commerce platform in the United States and in most of the world, Amazon reported roughly 310 million active customer accounts in 2022, and because Amazon customers have their payment details saved in their account, your music is only one click away from those users. This is why Amazon Music can become a valuable new revenue stream for independent musicians.