Your Roadmap to Selling Music on Amazon

Amazon reigns as the world’s preeminent e-commerce juggernaut, boasting a diverse suite of music services tailored for audiophiles. Initially launched as Amazon MP3, the rebranded Amazon Music service now boasts a catalog exceeding 100 million tracks, spanning major labels as well as indie musicians.

The landscape of Amazon’s musical offerings underwent a notable expansion in November 2022 when Amazon Prime users were treated to an upgraded music catalog stretching from 2 million to a staggering 100 million songs, playable in shuffle mode without ads and included in their existing membership at no extra cost.

Navigating the waters of music upload and monetization on Amazon might appear daunting for artists, but fear not—our goal is to demystify the process with a clear, step-by-step guide.

How to Sell Your Music on Amazon?

If you’re looking to get your songs available on Amazon, here’s a streamlined guide to making it happen:

1. Select a Music Distribution Service: Choosing a reliable distribution partner is the first critical step. Look for distribution services affiliated with Merlin, which represents the world’s leading independent digital distributors.
   
   
2. Prepare Your Recordings: Ensure your music tracks are in a high-quality audio format like WAV or FLAC. Additionally, ready your album artwork by following Amazon’s specific requirements for high-resolution images.
   
   
3. Register with your Distributor: Head over to your chosen distributor’s website, sign up, and set up your account by closely following their setup guide. Provide detailed information about you and your music during the registration process.
   
   
4. Submit Your Music for Distribution: Transfer your music files and the details of your album or single to your distributor. They will handle the process of distributing your music to various outlets, Amazon included, on your behalf.

How to Increase Music Sales on Amazon?

1. Don’t Forget About Drives and Amazon Marketplace

CD Baby streamlines the process of selling your CDs on Amazon, hassle-free. Forget the fuss of handling shipping, packaging, returns, or any other mail-order challenges. Our service takes care of everything, ensuring your customers are delighted with their purchase. (This leaves you free to focus on what matters most – creating great music.)

2. Use Regional Restrictions to Your Advantage

It doesn’t take much effort from creators to upload music to Amazon Music, but that’s not all. Amazon may offer geo-blocking access to content. When used wisely, creators can determine which regions they are targeting and promote their tracks there. Global accessibility also has its advantages.

If the author wants to focus on a specific region, he should learn more about competition in this niche, cultural characteristics and other nuances. The easiest way to do this is change countries on the Amazon app. The next question is how to change location on Amazon and whether this can be done. Yes, but you need to get a new IP address. You can use a VPN for this and connect to a server in the target region. By doing this, you can see regional markets and improve your sales there.

3 Create Your Ecosystem

Musicians navigating the complexities of selling and distributing their merchandise can breathe a sigh of relief, as Amazon simplifies the burdensome logistics that follow a sale. These encompassing tasks such as generating shipping labels, providing customer support, and facilitating returns—all of which are responsibly recycled, including any production mishaps. Essentially, Amazon takes charge of the intricate faces involved in the online merchandising of your music, offering a straightforward approach for fan access.

How Much Does Amazon Music Pay?

Similar to its peers in the streaming landscape, Amazon disburses royalties through a per-stream payment model. Nevertheless, royalty figures may be reduced for streams originating from Amazon Prime accounts that are priced lower.

In addition, variables such as the geographic area of the listener impact the compensation, introducing a degree of variability to the earnings derived from each Amazon subscription type. Consequently, projecting the precise earnings from music streamed on Amazon can prove to be challenging.

Conclusion

Amazon Music has expanded its reach to 49 countries, with a spotlight on major markets such as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. With its status as a preeminent online retail giant, Amazon boasts an impressive user base of around 310 million active accounts as of 2023. The convenience of stored payment information for Amazon users translates to a seamless purchasing experience. For independent musicians seeking to diversify their income, Amazon Music presents a prime opportunity to tap into a new and lucrative revenue channel.