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News and guides
What happened, what it means, and what to do.
Music-business news explained for people releasing their own music, and the how-to videos that go with it. Every news post is sourced; every guide ends with something you can do this week. There is a video of each one if you would rather watch it.
Your Distributor Can Pull Your Music On A Claim. Not A Ruling.
DistroKid artists found songs gone from Spotify and Apple Music. The clause that allowed it is in most distribution agreements, and you agreed to it.
How Independent Artists Turn Casual Listeners Into Superfans
A stream is a listener you'll probably never meet. Three things turn one into someone who shows up for every release.
YouTube Is Now Labelling Music As AI — And You Don't Set The Flag
The label comes from a metadata field on the delivery, not from your account. Send nothing and YouTube reads it as unknown, then decides from its own signals.
Who Actually Owns Your Link in Bio?
Three smart link services disappeared and the links survived while the data didn't. Now the link is being bundled into distribution software. Five things to check — including on mine.
Italy Is Investigating Suno's Terms. Here's What You Agreed To.
Not copyright, not training data — the contract you clicked through. Six things the regulator is looking at, and five questions worth asking of anything you make music with.
The Release Day Checklist: 13 Steps From 4 Weeks Out to 1 Week After
Most releases don't fall flat on release day. They fall flat four weeks before it. Every step, and exactly when to do it.
A Man Got 18 Months for Fake Streams. Here's What It Took From You.
The first criminal streaming-fraud sentence in the US, and the reason it comes out of the same pot that pays you.
How to Launch a Release Like a Label (Full droplr Walkthrough)
The whole thing, start to finish: a pre-save that becomes a smart link on release day, download gates, the promo plan, and a fan list you keep.
Looking for the written guides?
Royalties in Australia, choosing a distributor, the six-week release plan and what the words in a contract mean all live in Knowledge.