The 10 Best Music Hosting Sites
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User-friendliness, creator support, revenue share, and audience reach have been assessed to bring you this comprehensive guide to the best sites for hosting your music.
Here’s our list of the 10 best music hosting sites for musicians and bands:
1. SoundCloud
Best Hosting Sites
Soundcloud is free both for creators and users. Consequently, the platform has a large audience and is perfect for musicians starting their journey.
You don’t lose anything posting on Soundcloud, so why not try it out? The service is user-friendly.
All you have to do is register, and within minutes your music is available to the world. Soundcloud’s community is generally more beneficial to new artists than other platforms such as Apple Music.
Soundcloud is popular not only among creators and users, but it’s also constantly monitored by talent scouts.
Plenty of famous hip-hop artists, such as Lil Peep and 21 Savage, started on this platform. They were discovered by record labels and launched successful music careers.
Soundcloud isn’t just a streaming service. It’s a network, a community of people who want to hear and share new music.
The platform’s suggestion algorithm is based on plays and level of engagement.
In other words, to get popular on Soundcloud, you need to engage with your fans or other creators. There are also plenty of musicians who are happy to do a share for share.
To monetize music on Soundcloud, artists need to be eligible. The requirements are simple – 100% original tracks, no copyright strikes, and at least 500 streams in the past month.
To start earning, creators must sign a Premier membership agreement ranging from $8 to $16 monthly. In addition, musicians can get up to 55% net income for tracks uploaded.
Pros
Beginner-friendly
Monitored by talent scouts
Free to upload and listen
Strong community
Cons
The exact rate of pay is unclear
Better for gaining an audience than earning
2. Bandcamp
Bandcamp Music Hosting Site
Bandcamp is a platform created for fans to support their favorite artists directly.
Bands and solo musicians can sell their releases and merch, sharing 15% from digital and 10% from physical product sales with the service.
On average, 82% of profit goes to creators, and the remaining covers payment processing costs and Bandcamp’s revenue share.
Artists can upload up to 180 minutes of music for free on Bandcamp. But, then, they have to pay for membership at $19.95 monthly or $15 if billed annually.
Anyone can add a purchase link to their track, though monetization similar to that on Soundcloud is available for eligible creators only.
Although Bandcamp does have some basic social networking functionality, it’s merely an e-commerce site.
People can engage in comments and like posts, which is likely sufficient for most users. However, it doesn’t compare to Soundcloud’s or Spotify’s advanced social features.
One thing we like about Bandcamp is that artists can host ticketed live streams. When a creator launches the stream, fans automatically get notified by email.
The same thing happens when new tracks are released.
Bandcamp also offers a free vinyl pressing service. Anyone can release vinyl with no upfront investment.
Pros
The largest portion of the revenue goes to artists
Free vinyl pressing service
Ticketed live streams
180 free upload minutes
Cons
The lack of advanced social features
3. Bandzoogle
music hosting sites
Bandzoogle isn’t a traditional music streaming service. It’s a musician-tailored website building and management platform that also helps artists create and sell merch.
The platform offers a wide range of flexible design tools to make a custom band site.
A drag-and-drop editor is user-friendly, and all templates are fully responsive. Your website can be integrated with music streaming services such as Soundcloud or Bandcamp.
Bandzoogle won’t help you reach a new audience as Soundcloud or Spotify would, but it’s a great addition to other services that help keep your existing fans engaged.
Bandzoogle provides artists with all the necessary e-commerce tools to start gaining revenue. Furthermore, they don’t charge any commission on sales.
In other words, artists have complete freedom when it comes to earning on their websites.
Additionally, the platform offers fan mailing tools, social media integrations, and advanced analytics. A domain name is free as long as you’re a member.
Bandzoogle partners with on-demand printing service Printful to help artists create merchandise.
Artists can easily add over 200 customizable merch templates to their sites, from phone covers to drinkware.
Printful then prints, packs, and ships the order right to the end customer.
A 30-day free trial is available. Once it’s over, you have to purchase one of three membership options ranging from $8.29 to $16.63 monthly.
Pros
Handy website builder
Social integrations
Marketing and analytics tools
Partnership with Printful
0% commission fee
Cons
Not a music streaming service but rather a website management platform
4. Audiomack
music hosting sites
Audiomack is a music streaming service that’s free for creators. To start uploading music on Audiomack, artists must pass an authentication process.
At least two uploads and 1,000 total plays are required. In addition, the platform offers a range of marketing tools to help musicians gain a new audience.
You can notify fans by email about new releases and submit content for “Trending” consideration.
All creators on Audiomack can easily access fan data via the creator dashboard. It’s an advanced analytics tool that helps gain insight into your listeners.
Audiomack monetization program offers creators 50% of the revenue per stream. The revenue gained by the platform from advertising and subscriptions is divided by the total number of artists’ monthly streams.
Then, half of it is paid out to the creator. The best thing is, unlike Soundcloud, Audiomack doesn’t take any membership fee from musicians at all.
Pros
Completely free for creators
Analytics tools
50% revenue per stream rate
Marketing tools
Cons
The social tools aren’t as advanced as some offered by competitors
5. NoiseTrade
NoiseTrade Music Hosting Site
NoiseTrade is yet another platform dedicated to helping artists connect with their audience via weekly emailing campaigns. Today, NoiseTrade has a 1.3-million following. That’s 1.3 million potential fans.
The service provides users with marketing, analytics, and social tools entirely for free.
NoiseTrade doesn’t have a pay-per-stream monetization model, as it doesn’t ask for a subscription fee.
Instead, listeners can tip creators as much as they wish. As a result, 80% of the revenue goes to the artist, the rest to the platform.
Additionally, the service takes 5% for credit card transactions as a payment processing fee. Fans can also share their favorite music using handy social integrations.
To conclude, NoiseTrade marketing and monetization models are pretty unique.
It’s unlikely to make you famous and gain millions in revenue on its own; however, it’s a great platform to gain a new audience in addition to other music streaming services.
Pros
Free for creators and listeners
Email marketing campaigns
80% of revenue goes to the artist
Unique monetization model
Cons
No pay per stream monetization
6. Spotify
Spotify Music Hosting Site
Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming services today, counting over 345 million users in 178 countries. Thus, it’s a perfect platform to get discovered by a new audience that also offers tons of marketing tools.
Spotify’s personalized, artificial intelligence-created suggestion playlists are different for each listener. They often include relatively new artists, increasing their chances of success.
Plus, the platform regularly creates editorial playlists grouped by genres. Paid promotions are also available, such as full-screen recommendation campaigns or audio ads.
Spotify allows artists to customize the visual part of their profile fully. One of the features that stands out is Canvas.
It’s a short video loop creator that artists can add to their tracks instead of an album cover. In other words, you can showcase a part of your video clip right on Spotify.
Spotify also offers a range of analytics and social tools. Artists can get in-depth stats on their listeners and connect with them via email, messages, comments, or integrated social media.
Spotify isn’t too transparent about its payments for artists. There’s no fixed monetization rate. Instead, it’s calculated based on a scope of factors individually for every creator.
Although the complete list of factors isn’t disclosed, some of them include country of origin, advertising revenue, number of streams, and distribution contracts.
No monthly membership fees are required, though Spotify takes a 30% revenue share.
Pros
Huge audience
Great marketing tools
Flexible visual tools
In-depth listener analytics and social integrations
Cons
The payment rates are unclear
7. YouTube
YouTube Music Hosting Site
Everyone is familiar with YouTube. As with any social media platform, YouTube helps people connect and engage with their favorite content.
Anyone can post videos for free, whether it’s a high-quality music release or a short meme.
To start gaining a new audience, you only need to register. But if you’re an experienced artist with an existing following, YouTube Music has some valuable tools to offer.
YouTube’s Official Artist Channel brings together all content of a particular artist from different channels into one place.
The service then automatically organizes the content into new playlists, including songs, videos, and albums.
To become eligible for the program, you should have at least three releases, have no policy violations, and be a member of the YouTube Partner Program.
YouTube has a convenient live streaming service. Creators can stream for free or sell tickets as long as they are signed up to the YouTube Partner Program.
The feature is currently available in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Artists can gain revenue from ads served on their content. The requirements to start earning are at least 4,000 public watch hours in the last year, over 1,000 subscribers, and a linked AdSense account.
The rate of pay is the same as that of AdSense. It depends on how much a particular advertiser is willing to pay and the number of views.
Pros
Automatically generated playlists and ticketed live streams
Straightforward monetization model
A simple algorithm of the trending page
Free for creators
Great social tools
Cons
AdSense rate of pay isn’t high
8. Apple Music
Apple Music - Music Hosting Site
Apple Music is a top-rated music streaming service, but it’s only available for Apple users.
The platform counts 169,000 daily listeners on average. Creators can get in-depth insights into their fan and song data and fully customize their account appearance.
Trending artists’ pages and song suggestions improve discoverability.
Creators signed up to Apple Music can get access to Shazam. It’s a track recognizing tool by Apple Inc.
Users can record a short part of a song and instantly find out its name and artist. In addition, Shazam charts provide an overview of trending tracks by location.
Apple Music pays $0.01 per steam. This isn’t much unless you have a huge following, though artists can also gain revenue from music downloads.
Unfortunately, creators set the desired price on their albums, and iTunes takes only 30% of the revenue.
Pros
Shazam access
Detailed insights
70% of downloads revenue goes to the creator
Large audience
Cons
Only for Apple users
Low pay per stream rate
9. Tidal
music hosting sites
Tidal isn’t just another music streaming service. The platform was created for high-res audio lovers and is raising the industry bar higher than ever.
While standard audio quality is available, Tidal allows creators to upload HiFi and Master quality tracks. This ensures that tracks sound exactly as the artist intended, without any sound loss.
Tidal is a relatively new platform. Plus, it’s pretty costly for users compared to most alternatives. Consequently, the audience of Tidal is smaller than that of Spotify or YouTube, though it still exceeds millions of regular users.
Apart from track playlists, creators on Tidal can host live concerts and post videos.
Tidal Rising is a promotional program that’s offered to the best up-and-coming musicians.
Members of Tidal Rising are regularly featured on the front page, get free professional photoshoots, free tours and PR support, help in music video production, and much more.
Even a slight chance of getting noticed by Tidal scouts makes this platform worth posting on.
Last but not least, thanks to high subscription rates, Tidal also has the highest royalty rates out of all music streaming services. The platform pays on average $0.0125 per stream while remaining free for creators to post.
Pros
Tidal Rising program
Highest pay per stream rates
Creators can post videos and host concerts
High-resolution audio quality
Cons
Not as popular as some other platforms yet
10. Vimeo
music hosting sites
Vimeo is basically a YouTube analog that has grown nearly as large an audience as the original.
It enables creators with the necessary tools to share their content, engage with followers, and gain revenue. However, there’s no app explicitly dedicated to musicians.
Vimeo offers flexible and scalable monetization models. Artists can get paid per view through live stream monetization or subscriptions.
Creators can choose the most suitable for their content method and tailor it to their needs.
Paid memberships range from $7 to $75 monthly. Plans differ in available features, the number of users, and storage space. The platform offers a 30-day free trial.
Summary
Hopefully, our guide has helped you find the perfect music hosting sites to share your content on.
If you’re only starting out, you may try YouTube or Soundcloud. These platforms are free, have a massive audience, and offer great promotional tools.
However, our top pick is Tidal, both for new and established artists.
This service levels up the game, allowing musicians to upload tracks in the best possible quality and get the highest rates per stream.
Finally, the Tidal Rising program offers full support to new talent, equivalent to signing with a record label.
