Independent Music Artist Reg Checklist

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Hi, my nickname is Rai and I'm a songwriter (since 2022) and beginner producer (this year of 2024). In this entry, I will be sharing my learning of independent music distribution because labels are not needed that much nowadays. If there is anything else that you know and would be very kind to add, please let me know in the comments or IM me!

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Checklist:

1. Make sure you have the correct and suitable files. These will be HIGH QUALITY files for professionalism, listed in numbers 2 and 3. Stores will ONLY take these files, so make sure you stick to this list.
2. Master files - You must make sure you have lossless audio files from start to finish during production so there's no loss in data. I recommend WAVs for storing and FLACs for distribution and the highest lossless compression. FLACs are compatible with a lot of systems and are very efficient in decompressing like a ZIP file, except more optimized for audio. The reason why I am saying to keep a WAV copy is if you you need to use this audio file when mixing, remixing or editing, as well as distributing via CD. FLACs do not work during these processes because of how the audio is constantly needing to decompress and run all of these different commands, where as WAVs are like a Vinyl LP, except digital and always preserved. This file needs to be in a 44.1khz sample rate and in a bit-depth of 16-bit or 24-bit. Bit depths are the quantity of how many bits of binary code are used in a single sample of the audio to create the waveforms. 
3. Album art - Make sure that the album cover is in 300dpi (dots per inch) and 1500 X 1500 pixels in dimension. You may use photoshop, picsart, lightroom and other applications to assemble this art. DO NOT COPY anyone else's. Only take inspiration.
4. Upload your tracks to your distributer (I might use Routenote) and the longer it is up, the higher availability it will be in stores. This does not have to be release to the public yet however. You just need it up and scheduled for release for 4 weeks minimum ahead, so that it can be released at the perfect time that you promoted it to be.
5. For music videos, get those uploaded to a music distributer compatible with VEVO and merge it with your already existing YouTube account. PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM ONLY if you need to form an official artist YouTube page.

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