What does self-releasing mean?

Putting music out yourself instead of signing it to a record label. You use a digital distributor to deliver your tracks to Spotify, Apple Music and the rest. You keep your masters and most of the money – and you carry the cost, risk and work a label would otherwise take on.

Do you keep your masters if you self-release?

Yes. With distributors like DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby and AWAL, the artist keeps ownership of their master recordings. That's the core difference from a traditional record deal, where the label usually owns the masters, often for the life of copyright.

How much do music distributors cost?

Two models. Subscription distributors (DistroKid, TuneCore) charge a flat annual fee and take ~0% of royalties. Commission distributors take a cut instead – CD Baby keeps around 9%, AWAL's entry tier around 15% in exchange for more services. Figures change often; check each distributor's current pricing.

Self-releasing: going independent

Self-releasing means putting music out yourself, through a distributor, instead of signing to a label. You keep your masters and a far bigger share of the money – and you take on every job a label would otherwise do. It's never been more viable, and it's never been more work. Pricing below is illustrative and shifts often.

What self-releasing actually is

A self-releasing artist puts their own music out rather than signing it to a label. To get tracks onto Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube and the rest, they use a digital distributor – the technical pipeline to the platforms. The distributor is not a label: it delivers your music and collects your streaming money, but it doesn’t own your recordings and it doesn’t fund or market you. You (and your team) run the release.

The distributors, and how they charge

There are two broad pricing models, and the difference is who takes a cut of your royalties.

Subscription (you keep ~100% of royalties). DistroKid and TuneCore charge a flat annual fee for unlimited uploads and take roughly 0% commission – you keep essentially all your streaming income. Watch the add-ons (things like YouTube Content ID, splits and video distribution cost extra).
Commission (they take a percentage). CD Baby charges a one-time fee per release with no annual subscription, but keeps around 9% of your distribution revenue. AWAL takes a bigger share (its entry tier around 15%) but is selective and bundles in more services – a rep, marketing and playlist pitching – sitting closer to “label services” than pure distribution.

The load-bearing point: across all of them, the artist keeps their masters. What differs is the fee model and how much service is bundled in. (Distributor pricing and plan names change frequently – check the current terms before you commit.)

What a label does that you now have to

In a traditional record deal, the label owns or controls the masters (often for the life of copyright) and pays the artist a royalty – commonly cited around 15–20% of revenue – in exchange for doing, and paying for, a long list of jobs:

Financing – advances for recording, marketing and touring (recoupable against your royalties).
A&R – developing the artist, song selection, pairing you with producers.
Marketing and promotion – the campaign, PR, radio, and playlist pitching.

Self-release and every one of those becomes your job to do or to pay for, à la carte. That’s the whole trade-off in one line: keep the ownership and the bigger share, but carry the cost, the risk and the work.

The modern reality

Staying independent has never been more viable. Distributors and à-la-carte services now cover nearly every function a label once monopolized – distribution, publishing admin, sync, analytics, Content ID. But the money and the risk move up front and onto the artist and team. “Independent” doesn’t mean “alone”: the model is to assemble the services you need yourself – a distributor, a publicist, playlist pitching, marketing – rather than hand the whole career to one label.

The manager's role in a self-release

When there’s no label, the manager and the artist are the label. That means choosing the distributor, owning the release plan, assembling the paid services, and – critically – keeping the money organized, because every income stream now reports back to you instead of to a label that nets it out. It’s more control and more upside, in exchange for being the back office. The same masters that make self-releasing attractive are the asset you’re building by keeping them.

Common questions

What does self-releasing mean?: Putting music out yourself instead of signing it to a record label. You use a digital distributor to deliver your tracks to Spotify, Apple Music and the rest. You keep your masters and most of the money – and you carry the cost, risk and work a label would otherwise take on.
Do you keep your masters if you self-release?: Yes. With distributors like DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby and AWAL, the artist keeps ownership of their master recordings. That's the core difference from a traditional record deal, where the label usually owns the masters, often for the life of copyright.
How much do music distributors cost?: Two models. Subscription distributors (DistroKid, TuneCore) charge a flat annual fee and take ~0% of royalties. Commission distributors take a cut instead – CD Baby keeps around 9%, AWAL's entry tier around 15% in exchange for more services. Figures change often; check each distributor's current pricing.