I received this email in my inbox the other day:
I was like, Whoa! I guess my music is officially up on YouTube. Well, some of it anyway.
Figured this email would be a funny way to announce that my music is finally up on all major streaming platforms. In case you’re too hipster for Spotify or Apple Music, I’m also on stores I’ve never heard of:
So, what took me so long?
I’ve actually wanted to put my music online for a while now, but I didn’t think it was worth paying for. Back when I was looking up how to get my music on streaming services, the cost seemed prohibitive. Since I knew I wasn’t going to make any money from my music, I decided to put it off.
Fast forward to a couple of months ago, and I discovered Routenote – a free alternative to CD Baby, DistroKid, etc. Did my research and figured it would be worth checking out. I created a profile and, to test it out, uploaded the demos I’ve recorded over the past year to see how the process went.
Fortunately, it was quite straightforward. Just prepare all the files, make sure they’re in the right order and in 320kbps MP3 format, and have all your song titles and album info ready. After that, it’s mostly a matter of filling in text boxes.
In fact, the hardest part for me was hunting down a 3000×3000 image suitable for the album art.
(Oh, and getting some nice photos for my Spotify profile. I’ve uploaded something temporary for now, but I’ll change it in the future.)
After that, you just submit everything, cross your fingers and wait.
What I learnt: it takes over a month to get your music up if you use Routenote. Since they offer a free distribution service, they have a massive backlog. So if you’re on a deadline, I wouldn’t recommend it. But if you’re not (like me) and aren’t in a rush, I feel it’s a pretty good service.
With their free plan, they take a 15% cut of your streaming revenue. You also have the option to pay $30 to upgrade your album if you ever want to keep 100% of your streaming revenue instead. It’s $10 for a single and $20 for an EP. You know, in case your numbers are doing really well (not like me lol).
In the future, I might try other services if I need to get something up urgently, but in the meantime, this will do.
If you want to listen to my 2026 demos, they’re available now on:
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube and everywhere else… just search for 2storeyheart.
Here’s a teaser of what’s in the queue:
My SoundCloud is still active if you want to listen to my older stuff.
Also, I had no issues disputing the claim 😮💨
Give me a follow to stay in the loop. Lots more to come!
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