How to release a ghazal as an independent artist in India

How to release a ghazal as an independent artist in India

An original ghazal is a recording like any other once it reaches a streaming platform. Before that it is an unusual thing to release. It has a poet who may not be the singer, a composer who may be a third person, and a form that most playlist editors have never programmed. This guide takes the release in order: who puts it on the platforms, what that costs in money and in rights, and the four things a ghazal needs that a pop single does not.

The three routes to the platforms

Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and JioSaavn do not take uploads from individual artists. A company between you and the platforms delivers the files, the artwork and the metadata, and collects the money. There are three kinds of company that do this, and the choice between them is the real decision in a release.

A distributor delivers what you give it and takes either a fee or a share. You keep the recording, the decisions and the work. An artist services company does the same delivery and adds people: pitching, marketing and strategy, often for a commission.

A label chooses what it releases and usually produces or finishes the recording. It puts the track out under its own name and takes a share of the income, on terms that differ from label to label. The guide to label versus distributor goes through the money and the rights in detail. The short version follows.

Route one: a distributor

This is the route for an artist who has a finished master and wants every decision and every rupee. You upload the file, the artwork and the credits, choose a release date, and the distributor delivers to the platforms and pays what comes back. Three distributors are used widely by independent artists in India, and they charge in different ways.

The arithmetic is simple. A subscription suits an artist who releases often, because a year of singles costs the same as one. A one-time fee suits an artist with one ghazal and no plan for the next, because nothing renews. The commission model costs nothing up front and a little of everything later. All three issue the ISRC and UPC codes a release needs at no charge, so you never have to buy codes yourself.

The distributor route leaves two things undone. Nobody pitches the ghazal to anyone, and nobody checks the credits. Both are yours.

Route two: artist services

Artist services companies sit between a distributor and a label. You keep your master. They deliver it, and they add a team for pitching, marketing and planning, usually for a percentage.

Believe, the French company that owns TuneCore, describes its India arm as offering artist development services to independent artists and labels, with TuneCore as its self-serve route. The Orchard, owned by Sony, states in its terms that it does not accept unsolicited recordings. Virgin Music Group describes itself as a partner to independent music companies and artists who need a standalone team.

The pattern matters more than the names. These companies choose their artists. An artist with one ghazal and no audience will usually be sent to the self-serve distributor the same company owns. An artist with a following and a catalogue gets a conversation. Treat artist services as a second release's option, not a first release's.

Route three: a small label

A label makes the release its own. It chooses the song, often produces or finishes the recording, releases it under the label's name with the label's credits, and takes a share of what it earns. In return you get hands: production, a mix and a master, artwork, a video if the label makes them, a release page, and someone whose job it is to get the ghazal heard. The price is a share of the income and some of the decisions, under terms that are different at every label.

For a ghazal the question is narrower than for a pop single. Most Indian independent labels are built around hip-hop, indie pop or electronic music, and their audiences follow. A ghazal in that catalogue is an orphan. The labels worth a ghazal artist's time are the few that already release ghazals, semi-classical and classical music, because their listeners came for exactly that. The guide to independent labels for ghazal and semi-classical music lists the ones whose own websites say so, with what each one says about submissions.

BeatRootRaga is one of them, and this site belongs to it, so here is the position in the same terms we would ask of any other label. The label releases ghazals, Indian classical, acoustic covers and indie originals, and names the poet, the composer and the singer on every release.

Ownership of a master follows who paid for the recording. A track the label produces belongs to the label. A finished recording you bring stays yours and is released under a licence. The term, the split and the schedule are written into each agreement, which you read before you sign. Submitting a track commits you to nothing until then.

What a ghazal needs that a pop single does not

Whichever route you take, four things decide whether the release is done properly. They are easy to skip and expensive to fix after the release date.

Permission for the words

A ghazal is a poem first. Under India's Copyright Act a literary work stays in copyright for the author's life and sixty years after. If the poet is alive, or died less than sixty years ago, you need the rights holder's permission to set and record the words. If you wrote them, you hold them. If the poet is Ghalib or Mir, the words are in the public domain.

The cover tutorial on this site explains the same rule for film songs. Settle this before you spend a rupee on recording. No distributor or label can release a setting of words you do not have the right to use.

Credits for three people

A pop single often has one credited songwriter. A ghazal has a poet and a composer, and usually a singer who is neither. Every platform has fields for this. Apple Music's style guide separates the Composer role for the music from the Lyrics role for the words, and tells labels to use Songwriter only when the two cannot be separated.

Spotify shows whatever credits the distributor sends, and nothing if the distributor sends none. Enter the poet as lyricist and the composer as composer, with real names, at upload. The crediting guide shows the fields in each platform.

Registration for the royalties the platforms do not pay

Streaming pays the owner of the recording. It does not pay the writers of the words and the music for the public performance of the song, which is a separate right. In India that right is collected by the Indian Performing Right Society, which admits lyricists and composers as members and registers their works. The composer and the poet, or the poet's estate, each register. The IPRS guide covers the fee, the eligibility rule and the process.

A release date with room in it

Spotify asks for a release to be delivered at least seven days before its date so editors can hear it, and only an unreleased song pitched in that window reaches followers' Release Radar. Distributors need a few days of their own before that. Set the date three to four weeks out, finish the master first, and use the time to pitch. A ghazal benefits from this more than most songs, because the editors who programme classical and semi-classical playlists are few and worth a direct note.

A release in order

• Settle the words: your own, public domain, or written permission from the rights holder.
• Finish the recording and master it for streaming; the mastering guides on this site cover the targets.
• Choose the route: distributor for control, a ghazal-friendly label for hands, artist services once you have a catalogue.
• Enter the credits with real names: poet as lyricist, composer as composer, singer as performer.
• Register the composer and the poet with IPRS if they are not members already.
• Set the release date three to four weeks out and pitch within Spotify's seven-day window.
• Put the video on YouTube with the same credits in the description, since in India many listeners find a ghazal there first.

None of this is hard. All of it is skipped more often than it is done, and a ghazal with a missing poet credit or an unregistered composer earns less than it should for years. Do it once, in order, and the next release is a copy of the first.