Starting your music career: what you actually need first

Prices were checked in October 2026. They change. If a number looks off, go by their site.

1. Join a PRO. Do it today.

A PRO is a performing rights organization. When your song plays on the radio, in a bar, on a stream, at a show, the PRO collects the performance royalty and pays the writers. No PRO, no check. In the US you pick one: BMI or ASCAP.

• BMI is free for songwriters. No application fee, no dues. That is the one I am with.
• ASCAP waived its writer application fee in 2023 and still lists writer membership as free. The $50 fee only applies if you join as a publisher on its own. ASCAP calls the waiver temporary, so check before you count on it.

Pick one. You can only be in one at a time. Sign up as a writer, get your IPI number, and register every song you release. That part is free at both.

2. Sign up with the MLC. Also free.

Your PRO does not pay mechanical royalties. Mechanicals are owed to the songwriter every time a song is reproduced, and on streaming every play counts. In the US those are collected by The MLC, the Mechanical Licensing Collective. Membership is free and they take no cut.

If you are not registered, your mechanicals sit in a pile of unmatched money. Register as a self-administered songwriter and add your songs.

3. Know what a publishing admin is, and whether you need one yet

The MLC only covers the US. Your song also earns everywhere else it streams, and every country has its own society. A publishing administrator like Songtrust registers your songs with those societies and collects the publisher share worldwide. Songtrust charges $100 per writer up front, then keeps 15% of performance royalties and 20% of mechanicals it collects.

On your first release you probably do not need it. Come back to it when a song is doing real numbers outside the US.

4. Pick a distributor

A distributor puts your song on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, TikTok and the rest. The three artists ask me about most:

• DistroKid. Musician $24.99 a year, Musician Plus $44.99, Ultimate $89.99. Unlimited uploads, you keep the royalties. Musician covers one artist name.
• TuneCore. Rising Artist $24.99 a year, Breakout Artist $44.99, Professional $54.99. You can also pay per release: a single is $24.99 a year, an album $44.99 the first year and $56.49 after that.
• UnitedMasters. DEBUT+ is $19.99 a year and SELECT is $59.99 a year, both with 100% of your royalties. There was a free tier that took a 10% cut; check their site for whether it still exists.

Any of them works. Pick a price you will not mind paying next year, because if you stop paying, most of them take the music down.

5. ISRC and UPC codes

Every recording gets an ISRC code. It is how the stores and SoundExchange tell songs apart. Every release gets a UPC. Do not buy these. Your distributor gives you both for free when you upload. Save them. You will need the ISRC for SoundExchange and for any sync deal later.

6. SoundExchange. Free, and most new artists skip it.

Your PRO pays the songwriter. SoundExchange pays the artist and the owner of the recording when it plays on digital radio: Pandora, SiriusXM, internet radio. If you released the song, that is you. Registering is free. Sign up once, add your ISRCs, get paid monthly.

7. Split sheets and the producer credit

Before you release a song on anybody's beat, do a split sheet. One page. Song title, every writer, their PRO, their IPI, their percentage. Everyone signs. Five minutes, and it ends every argument before it starts.

Here is how my leases fill it in. The song is a new composition. I wrote the music, you wrote the words and melody. Publishing splits 50/50: half the writer share and half the publisher share to me, the other half to you. Mechanicals split the same way. I register my half with BMI. You register yours with your PRO. Do not add my half to your distributor's publishing service; it only creates a conflict and holds up both of us getting paid.

The credit on the release reads Prod. by Let That Boy Cook. Put it in the credits at your distributor and in the description. It is in the license, and it is also how producers find out your song is doing numbers.

8. Claim your artist profiles

The day your first release is delivered, claim Spotify for Artists and Apple Music for Artists. Both are free. That is where your photo and bio go, where you pitch songs to Spotify's editors before release, and where you see who is listening. An unclaimed profile with no photo tells everyone you are not serious.

9. Cover art

Square. 3000 × 3000 pixels, JPG, RGB color. No web addresses, social handles, QR codes, streaming logos, prices, or stock photos you do not have a license for. The stores reject all of that. Keep any text readable at thumbnail size, because that is how most people see it.

10. Where the beat fits

None of the above matters without the right to use the beat. A lease is that right. On this site the Cook Up Lease is $50 and the Cook Unlimited Lease is $150, untagged MP3 + WAV in your inbox the second you pay, with a license PDF in your name. Which one you need is on the lease vs exclusive post, and the full terms are on the licensing page. If you want to practice the whole process first, the 25 free beats come with a license too.

If you want the release handled for you, the Rollout Kit is $125 and covers the promo posts, the release page and the EPK for one song.

11. Get a business email

Bookers, blogs and DJs look at the address before they read the message. you@yourname.com gets opened; a Gmail or Yahoo address with numbers in it gets skipped. A business email also keeps your bookings, your distributor and your PRO logins in one inbox that is not your personal one, and it is what goes on your press kit, your release page and your Spotify profile.

I use Neo for mine and for the artists I build websites for. It is a few dollars a month, it works with the domain you already own, and you can set it up in about ten minutes. That is my referral link: it costs you nothing extra and gives me a small credit if you sign up. If you do not have a domain yet, get the domain first (your artist name dot com), then the email on it.

The release checklist

1. Joined BMI or ASCAP as a writer. IPI number saved.
2. Registered with The MLC.
3. Registered with SoundExchange.
4. Beat lease bought. License PDF saved with the files.
5. Split sheet signed by every writer.
6. Song registered at your PRO and the MLC with every writer listed.
7. Distributor account open. WAV, 3000 × 3000 art, credits and "Prod. by Let That Boy Cook" entered.
8. ISRC and UPC copied from the distributor and saved.
9. Release scheduled at least two weeks out so you can pitch it in Spotify for Artists.
10. Spotify for Artists and Apple Music for Artists claimed, photo and bio up.

That is the whole setup. Everything on the list except the beat and the distributor is free, and steps one through three are done forever. From then on it is pick a beat, cut the record, split sheet, upload.