Spotify, Apple and YouTube tools
What's free, what costs money, and what you need before the paid tools will even take your booking.
Every store has a free artist dashboard, and you should claim all of them. They are also where the paid promotion lives, and each tool has a threshold you have to clear before you can use it.
Free, and worth doing on every release
- Spotify for Artists: pitch your song to editors at least seven days before release. It is free, and it also puts the song in your followers' Release Radar.
- Apple Music for Artists: analytics plus Shazam data you can't get anywhere else, promo images, and set lists from your gigs.
- YouTube Official Artist Channel: merges your channels into one with a music note and artist analytics. Your distributor requests it for you.
Paid, and only once you have an audience
Spotify's Campaign Kit (Showcase, Marquee and Discovery Mode) is self-serve: you don't need a label. You do need streams. Showcase starts at 1,000 streams in 28 days in that market, Marquee wants 5,000 monthly listeners, and Discovery Mode wants 25,000.
None of these fix a release nobody knows about. Get the pre-save page, the pitch and the fan list right first: they cost nothing and they're what the paid tools amplify.
The rest of this guide is inside droplr
Free accounts included. No card, and the knowledge board is open on every plan.
- The seven-day pitch rule and why Release Radar matters more than the editorial longshot
- Showcase, Marquee and Discovery Mode: thresholds, cost and how long each runs
- What Discovery Mode really costs you
- Apple Music for Artists and Shazam data
- Getting a YouTube Official Artist Channel
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Where this comes from
- Spotify for Artists — Campaign Kit
- Spotify — pitching to playlist editors
- Spotify — Marquee and Showcase eligibility
- Spotify — Discovery Mode
- Apple Music for Artists
- YouTube — Official Artist Channel
Facts checked 18 September 2026. General information for independent artists, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules, prices and deadlines change: check the official pages linked at the end, and get advice for your own situation.