Apple Music is a subscription-based music streaming service, similar to Spotify. Offering access to over 50 million songs, Apple Music For Artists was originally launched back in January 2018. Out of beta, it is now accessible and gives a detailed dashboard aimed at musicians!
As a musician, Apple Music For Artists can help you manage your music career. It is packed with features, and you can even use Shazam data to check plays, daily listeners and album purchases (including data as far back as June 2015!)
In this article, we will take a look at what Apple Music for independent artists and signed alike is and how to set up your profile on it.
Be sure to stick around until the very end so you don’t miss out on any key information.
What Is Apple Music For Artists?
According to Apple, it is:
‘Everything you need to understand your music’s impact across Apple Music.’
Apple Music For Artists is a dashboard that gives you useful data on your tracks in Apple Music. Apple Music connects you with your fans in the music industry and is a great tool to help with the management of your music career. It is basically Apple Music’s version of Google Analytics.
To be clear, Apple Music is not the same as iTunes for artists. Apple Music is a streaming service that provides listeners with music on Apple Music with on-demand features and is Apple’s version of Spotify or Tidal so different streaming platforms altogether.
As a rival to Spotify For Artists and even YouTube For Artists, Apple Music officially launched its own artist hub, Apple Music For Artists with pre-saves and other features to support your release. You can access data including stats from more than 100 cities and countries.
You can analyze your listeners to see which songs/albums are performing the best and locate exactly where your music is played the most. It has additional features such as planning out tour routes and allowing you to customise setlists.
To find out more about getting your music onto Apple Music, check out our guide on How To Upload Your Music To Apple Music.
What Does Apple Music For Artists Offer?
Apple Music For Artists provides a lot more data to musicians compared to a regular Apple Music account. Artists can easily access the dashboard to see song plays, radio spins and purchases.
Every time one of your subscribers starts a song from their playlist or library and listens for 30 seconds or more, it is counted as a play. A radio spin is counted if someone listens to your track for 30 seconds plus on an Apple Music radio station.
Their in-house team curate official Apple music playlists, which are extremely hard to get your track included on.
Any time a customer buys your release from the iTunes store, you will see it counted in purchases.
How Does Apple Music For Artists Work?
When your songs become available for listening on Apple Music, you gain access to Apple Music For Artists for free. With Apple Music For Artists, your Apple Music account not only gives you a chance to hear your sound but a platform where you can understand your fans.
With Apple Music, listeners leave a trail behind them and Apple Music For Artists will allow you to see what your fans listening behaviours are. The app gives you relevant information that you need to help provide music to your fans that they are going to enjoy.
Clearly monitor your week-by-week growth, and set alerts to be notified when there are significant changes to your data such as spikes in streams.
Also, you can access the main statistics on your ‘Overview’ page, or access comprehensive information on your releases in the ‘Trends’ and ‘Places’ pages.
Under ‘Trends’, you can examine how each of your songs are performing – as well as the types of fans listening. See fan data with regards to age range, country and plays by playlist.
You can view your stats as either graphs or maps. This will give you an insight into where to tour, or who you should target through social media ads when you decide to release a new track.
Getting Set Up On Apple Music For Artists
How to check apple music stats for artists:
As you now know, Apple Music For Artists is more about checking your stats to see what your fans like, and how they consume your music.
You first need to verify your identity or relationship to the artist.
Provide as much information as possible to speed up verification, such as links to social media and distributor accounts (Twitter, Facebook, TuneCore etc).
- To claim your Apple Music For Artists page, sign in to Apple Music using your Apple ID. If you don’t have an Apple ID, you can easily create one.
- Click ‘Request Artist Access’.
- To make sure you claim the correct artist page, copy and paste your iTunes Store artist page link into the search, or search for your artist page by artist name.
- Select one of your albums to verify that you are claiming the correct page.
- Choose your Role.
- Fill out the requested application fields. For faster verification, sign in to your social media, distributor, or Shazam For Artists accounts. The more information you are able to provide, the easier it will be to verify your relationship with the artist you are claiming.
If you already have a manager, you can add them as an administrator to your profile so they can view your stats. Artists and artist managers with Administrator access are responsible for reviewing additional access requests.
Managing Apple Music For Artists
Not sure how to manage your account?
You can always access statistics through distribution platforms such as CD Baby and TuneCore.
CD Baby
When you distribute your music through CD Baby, it will already appear on Apple Music. Join CD Baby to get quicker verification for Apple Music For Artists.
CD Baby works directly with Apple, so you will be the first to access new tools. As well as having everything you need in order to understand your music’s influence across Apple Music and iTunes.
Claim a profile to be able to express your visual brand and see real-time results for your music promotion. You will also be able to upload and change your bio/profile pic.
You can access your Apple Music For Artists through your CD Baby Dashboard. Click on Tools and Promotion and Request Access Now, or simply click here.
You just need the same Apple ID (email address) that you use to purchase music and download apps from your iTunes Store. Be patient, as it may take a couple of days to gain access to your artist profile page.
TuneCore
TuneCore artists can gain access to new, detailed and helpful data sets and analytics which give an insight into the following:
- See who is streaming your music
- View which location your fans are listening from
- Milestones your tracks are reaching
- Streaming, radio and download data
Upload a personalised artist photo and download the Apple Music For Artists app (available on iOS) to monitor your music’s performance on the go.
Gain faster access by authenticating your artist profile when signing up by using your TuneCore account email address and password.
Apple Music Distribution Through Мusic Gateway!
Мusic Gateway are one of Apple Music’s approved partners!
Our incredible music distribution service gets your music onto all major platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. What’s more, you keep 100% of your sales and we don’t get a penny from you.
We also master your music for free to make sure that you sound the best you can before your release. With a free account, you get 2 free songs to start with and you get more based on your plan.
In addition, we offer exclusive sync licensing opportunities and free sync representation. As well as press, blog, and music promotion. Hopefully, you’ll love what we can do for your career and will want to use some of these other amazing services!
Promotion And Branding
As a budding artist, it is really important to do some promotion. Once you have accessed your Apple Music For Artists account, you will have a clear idea of who you want to target.
Using this information, you can create a playlist. Artists have been known to make a living off royalties when tracks land in a popular playlist.
If you don’t have the time to promote your music yourself then why not use Мusic Gateway? We can provide all of the tools that you need in order to get your music heard. We have delivered thousands of weekly playlist streams and are established as a trusted partner for digital platforms.
With 30 years of combined industry experience, we help ensure music is heard by working with each artist to carefully plan a campaign which delivers results.
Not only can we help with streaming promotion but also radio, TV and artist development.
Final Thoughts
Apple Music For Artists allows you to access more data. This can ultimately help guide you in which direction you want to go. When creating a new song, think about the people who are most likely to listen to it.
As an artist, your aim is to satisfy your listeners. Using Apple Music For Artists is a great way to analyse and stay connected to what your fans expect.
After all, what’s the point in creating an indie-rock album if the people who listen to you prefer classical music? It is important to consider this if you are wanting to sell more and have a wider reach.
By using what you have learnt from Apple Music For Artists, you are able to give your fans what they want.
So, what are you waiting for? Get your Apple Music For Artists account today! Most importantly though, don’t forget us here at Мusic Gateway!
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