Among the hundred most beautiful words of the English language is enlisted “Epiphany”, a moment of sudden and great revelation or realisation and Kandarp knew this was it, the name of his venture, for that is what it is – Epiphany India. While his ex-colleagues and peers (each of them a well wisher) were still gazing in disbelief, awaiting an announcement of the next employment Kandarp would take up, for the whole scenario might have looked surreal to most tamed minds, here he was, having a love affair with the unknown. Each new experience smiling at the monotony of past, each new connection defining new shades of grey, some eventually finding their share of light and the others merging into the darkness beneath as skies embrace us. Together, our two babies one in the womb and the other just-born, began to undergo meiosis and mitosis- growing, multiplying, characteristics getting defined, each one fulfilling us in their own capacity.
Well, what only looked like a distant yet clear dream until recently, is today a brand in its own right with a considerable market share that recently celebrated its fourth anniversary. Each year has been a landmark in this roller coaster ride of a journey for each member of Epiphany India, the first year filled with exhausting days and sleepless nights, the birth of our second child, new beginnings all around. The second year brought about confidence, consistency and commitment. The third year, redefined assurance for a dreamer. In the fourth year unprecedented strength has been bestowed upon us by the supreme conscience. It is the sempiternal metamorphosis of a tamed mind into a free spirit, that binds these years together. Challenges have not left him at peace, but the power of dreaming and determination to fulfill the deeply cherished dream- To create what you love and to love what you create has kept the man behind EI at pace with success.
An organisation is as powerful, excellent and charismatic as its people and Epiphany India is no exception. It is for the people that have invested themselves into it that the enterprise has grown over immensely in the recent years. Having begun at small assignments here and there, our immense scalability and expanse, the fact that our dreams are soaring high and are painted in rainbow colours is only to be attributed to our associates who put their faith in and self in us with all their might. Riya Mukherjee, also his former Boss, doubtlessly stands foremost among those who gave wings to our dreamer, who has always proudly boasted that no one plays with sound like Kandarp and has put in his kitty some of the best works he has accomplished so far- production of her much celebrated show globally- Riya’s Retro, Kahaanibaz with Ashish Vidyarthi (Gaana), Spot Dada for Audible Suno being just a couple of those. Further, Ranjeet Kumar Gupta, a young entrepreneur is the man who has thoroughly endeavored to make us technically strong and is essentially the man behind enabling Epiphany India for excellence in videography assignments, and Prashant Singh, a zealous learner and an ardent giver- dreaming others’ dreams may sound unreal but he has done that. It is truly because of these two wonderful people that Epiphany India has accomplished massive projects like a nationwide launch campaign for a giant like Samsung in its very third year.
A big Thank you for journeying along. It is only heartwarming that Epiphany India is not only about just one dreamer anymore, but so many of us dreaming the same dream together – CREATIVITY.
Mahima Singh
Director, Legal Affairs (and Kandarp’s spouse)
EPIPHANY INDIA
The next thought that comes to mind is – ‘What is the next step, after I make my song?’.
Digitization of music has made it easy for musicians to think of one definite answer to this question – Release my music online! A lot of musicians and artists have started making original music because of this motivation of releasing their music online. And for some, like me, this motivation has helped in reviving some old tracks! I have recently released my first single online. And indeed, it is a great feeling to see your song on platforms like Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music etc. In this blog, I will try to help musicians who are still struggling to release their music online, by writing about my experiences and other details involved in this process.
So, first things first. You can’t upload your music directly to any of these platforms. You need to go through a music aggregator or a music distributor. If you search online, you will get a lot of results and all of them might be a little confusing. I have shortlisted a few, based on my research and experiences. But before we go there, here is a small checklist for musicians:
- Lyrics of your song: Have you written your song yourself? Make sure your lyrics do not seem copied or ‘inspired’ by the lyrics of another song or multiple songs. If there is a lyricist other than you, ensure the same. However, if you are recreating a folk song, you can use the folk lyrics. If you are composing poetry written by someone else, please ask for their permission and give them due credits. Also, if you are using explicit lyrics, there will be an option to indicate that while uploading your music on the aggregator’s site.
- Composition of your song: Again, be original. In this case, credits will not work. Please be very careful of copyrights.
- Arrangement of your song: If you are recording live instruments, great! If you are using programmed music, please be sure of using licensed royalty free external loops and samples only. The best way is to create your beats and melodies from scratch. Do not use tracks from other websites, without a proper license.
- Cover art: Design an attractive and classy cover art for your song. This will be displayed on the platforms alongside your track. You can use free tools like Canva, Adobe Spark etc. or websites like coverartfactory.com to design this. 3000 X 3000 pixels is the recommended size. And there are some guidelines also. Don’t include any promotional or social media links in the art. Keep it as simple as you can. If you choose to put artists’ names in the cover art, make sure to spell them exactly the way you would be putting in the song details.
If you have completed this checklist, and you have the final export of your song, you are ready to release your song online! Let’s go to the final step: Choosing the aggregator!
Alright, you can now decide if you want to spend some money on releasing your song, or do it absolutely free. I am listing a few aggregators along with the pricing and other details:
Pricing: $19.99 (approx. INR 1500/-) to upload unlimited albums & songs for a year.
Major Stores: Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, Pandora, Amazon, Instagram, YouTube, Tidal, iHeartRadio, Deezer.
Royalty: Keep 100% of your earnings, get paid monthly.
Average time taken for release: 1 week.
Special features: Get paid when other people use your music in YouTube · Unlimited backups · Instant Spotify verified checkmark · Manage your Apple Music page · Get your credits & lyrics into stores · Get a YouTube Official Artist Channel.
My comments: A great option if you plan to release many songs. Indian stores like JioSaavn, Wynk, Gaana etc. are not included. Release time is awesome. Integration with Spotify is also very good.
Pricing: $9.99 (approx. INR 800/-) per year, to upload one single. $29.99 (approx. INR 2400/-) per year for an album. Subsequent cost is $49.99 (approx. INR 4000/-) per year, from second year onwards.
Major Stores: Spotify, Apple Music, JioSaavn, TikTok, Pandora, Amazon, Instagram, YouTube, Tencent, Tidal, iHeartRadio, Deezer.
Royalty: Keep 100% of your earnings.
Average time taken for release: 1 week.
Special features: Apple ID mapping · Add contributors · Get your credits & lyrics into stores.
My comments: A great option if you plan to release a single. One Indian store, JioSaavn is included. Release time is awesome. Recently, Tunecore has arrived in India officially – www.tunecore.in – and their introductory offers are great for Indian musicians. INR 499/- per single for the first year and INR 999/- each following year. For an album the cost is INR 1499/- for the first year and INR 2899/- for each subsequent year. And JioSaavn is included in the stores list. So, this seems to be a great option for Indian musicians if they want to release a single.
Pricing: Amuse has two models: Free and Pro. The Pro model costs $5 (approx. INR 400/-) per month but you have to buy an annual plan.
Major Stores: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Tidal, Pandora, Napster, Claro-musica, emusic, Gracenote, Akazoo, KDigital, AWA, 7Digital, Spinlet, Dubset, zvooq, Bmat, Deezer, Napster, Google Play Music, Shazam
Royalty: They keep the first 5 dollars of the release profits per year. If it profits less than that, they won’t charge you or take it down. Anything above the 5-dollars-per-release-per-year is yours.
Average time taken for release: 3-4 weeks.
Special features: Get your own website with custom merch for your band. They take care of payment, production and global shipping. For free. This is a great feature to try even if you have already released your music through any distributor.
My comments: The free model is great if you are not looking for Indian stores and have a lot of patience (almost a month).
Soundrop markets itself as a cover distribution service. But there is also an option of distributing original music.
Pricing: They charge $9.99 (approx. INR 800/-) per cover song to secure the required license, and then keep 15% of the revenue you earn from digital music platforms. This price is one time. Original music distribution is free.
Major Stores: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube, Tidal, Deezer, Napster, Google Play Music, Shazam (TikTok and Instagram only for Pro)
Royalty: Keep 85% of your earnings for cover songs and 100% for original music.
Average time taken for release: 3-4 weeks (They have very strict guidelines and you might get notices to make some changes in the info entered by you, after their team inspects your song)
Special features: Automatic royalty splits, Lifetime assurance of cover songs not being taken down (I haven’t tried this, but this sounds really good!)
My comments: I used the free model to release my first single. Took around a month, got a couple of notices asking me to change something. The process was slow and slightly irritating, but they delivered perfectly in the end. I would like to explore the cover song distribution offered by them. If you have tried it, please share your experiences.
Pricing: They charge $9.99 (approx. INR 800/-) per cover song to secure the required license, and then keep 15% of the revenue you earn from digital music platforms. This price is one time. Original music distribution is free.
Major Stores: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube, Tidal, Deezer, Napster, Google Play Music, Shazam (TikTok and Instagram only for Pro)
Royalty: Keep 85% of your earnings for cover songs and 100% for original music.
Average time taken for release: 3-4 weeks (They have very strict guidelines and you might get notices to make some changes in the info entered by you, after their team inspects your song)
Special features: Automatic royalty splits, Lifetime assurance of cover songs not being taken down (I haven’t tried this, but this sounds really good!)
My comments: I really like the concept of free website and merch. Other than that, the waiting period might be long. But since it is free, worth a try. A detailed review by another artist is here.
OKListen is an Indian venture. It is a pro-musician digital platform that musicians could trust and a destination consumers could come to for discovering music and supporting the musicians they love. They have partnered with The Orchard for music distribution.
Pricing: INR 699/- plus taxes for a single and INR 1499/- plus taxes for an album.
Major Stores: Gaana, Saavn, Wynk, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, Tidal, Shazam
Royalty: Keep 85% of your earnings. Payouts happen every quarter.
Average time taken for release: 2-3 weeks
Special features: Youtube and Soundcloud content ID
My comments: This covers all major Indian music stores. It is a great option for INdian artists and the pricing is also one time. Artists can also sell their music directly on this website. So this one is a distributor as well as a marketplace!
Pricing: INR 1999/- for a single and INR 3999/- for an album. They have a cancellation cost of INR 1300/-.
Major Stores: Gaana, Saavn, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, Tidal, Shazam
Royalty: Keep 90% of your earnings.
Average time taken for release: 7-10 days
Special features: Youtube and Soundcloud content ID
My comments: Although their service is fast and they include almost all major stores, the cost is on the higher side. When contacted, they assured that they might also help artists in pitching their music to playlists of the major platforms. That is an added bonus!
There are many other aggregators and distributors. I have tried to enlist all the helpful details of a few here. Please let me know if you would like to add to the list based on your experiences.
Another point that I would like to include here is that if you are expecting to be rich with the royalty earned by releasing your music online, please don’t! The number of streams, the monetization policies, the agreement terms and conditions and the vast size of the digital music market market make it really really difficult for an artist to reap the monetary benefits as per their expectations. As an entrepreneur and an artist, I am working with my team to work out a feasible, practical and hassle-free model which actually helps musicians in earning money. I would love to hear views and suggestions from fellow artists and musicians. I hope you enjoyed reading this post. You can reach me at kandarp@epiphanyindia.com. Cheers!