How to Get Verified on Spotify and Apple Music

So after years of making tracks in the studio and sharing drafts here and there, I finally decided to do my own music distribution.

I mastered my track, entered my info and uploaded my album art. I hit send, got approved, and there it was! My track was all of sudden on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Deezer and other platforms.

Party!!!

Great. So now what? How do I edit my artist profile? I want to change my photo, edit my bio, and get control over how I’m represented on these platforms. It’s not like SoundCloud where you just log in, click edit and done.

Keeping control of your info online is important because it shows you’re active and makes your profile stand out. It’s also a way to give more to your fans.

How to do it? Get verified!

If you just released your music, you’re probably wondering how it’s done. Here’s how I got verified on Spotify and Apple Music in one week and took control of my artist profiles.

Hot Tip: LANDR is now a preferred partner with Spotify, making it faster and easier for LANDR Distribution users to claim and verify their profile.

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Why Get Verified?

So what’s all the fuss about those little blue checkmarks?

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The ‘verified’ checkmark says something: I’m legit, I’ve got the stamp of approval, I’m verified by the big folks and THIS IS MY MUSIC!

To be real, verification used to be unfair to emerging artists. You needed a lot of plays or followers to prove that you’re ‘worthy’ of the holy check mark. And we all know how hard it is to get those first 250 fans…

Fortunately, this changed recently. Spotify realized that it needed to start being more transparent, and give all artists the same tools to take control of their projects.

Here are the advantages to getting verified:

• Edit your artist profiles by changing your profile photo and other details
• Connect with your fans by posting playlists, tour dates or updates
• Get your stats and look at who is streaming your music and where
• Have a better shot at getting on a curated playlist by looking legit
• Get the opportunity to submit your tracks for official playlist review

So here’s what to do after you’ve released your music (doing this before releasing won’t work!) to get your blue checkmark:

Take Control of Your Spotify Artist Profile

LANDR Distribution is a preferred partner with Spotify, meaning that LANDR Distribution users can easily claim their profile after submitting and releasing tracks on Spotify.

All you need to is link your LANDR profile to your Spotify profile within LANDR’s distribution dashboard to instantly claim and verify your profile!

If you are not a LANDR user you must go to Spotify for Artists and click ‘Get Access.’ Enter your information and submit.

It might take longer than your excited-self would like (a few days or a week). Once they verify who you are, you get an email to confirm access to your artist profile.

Here’s what getting verified on Spotify allows you to do:

• Update your artist photo
• Add an Artist’s Pick (your latest release for instance)
• Add a featured playlist to your artist profile
• See stats: plays, countries and cities where your music is played, etc.

Get Access to Your Apple Music Artist Profile

Apple Music is updating its Artist Verification program. Apple Music Connect is becoming Apple Music for Artists, which is currently in beta.

Here’s how to get verified—straight from Apple’s guide:

1. Go to artists.apple.com.

2. Click Sign Up, and sign in with your Apple ID.

3. Click Request Artist Access and search for your artist page. You can also copy and paste your iTunes Store artist page link to search.

4. Verify that you are claiming the correct page by selecting one of your albums.

5. Choose your Role.

6. Fill out the requested application fields. The more information you are able to provide, the easier it will be to verify your relationship to the artist you are claiming.

It takes up to about a week to get verified.

Here’s what getting verified on Apple Music allows you to do:

• Share audio, videos, photos, and ideas with your fans
• Share your favorite playlists, albums, music videos, or songs from Apple Music to your fans

On Apple Music, a fan is anyone who bought your music, or added it to their library.

Anyone can view and play the content you upload to Connect—even on Apple Music for Android.

As an artist, you don’t need a subscription to Apple Music to post to your page. But you can only post from iPhone, iPad, iPod touch (through the Apple Music app) or Mac (through iTunes).

Here’s Apple’s guide on how to share content with your Apple Music fans.

Checkmark? Check!

Luckily, the verification process is now available to all of us.

It means that when you release your music, you get access to your artist profile on Spotify and Apple Music.

This lets you edit your photo, post your favourite playlists, and get promote your music to your fanbase.

The blue checkmark is the seal of approval that makes you look legit—even though we already knew you are. So get verified today, and make the most out of your music distribution!

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Leticia is a lover of acid basslines and hypnotic techno. She DJs and produces under the name softcoresoft. Writer at LANDR.

@Leticia Trandafir