Amazon Music for Artists gives artists and their teams much more than streaming numbers.
You can manage your profile, see how people are finding your music, track Alexa requests, pitch new releases, monitor playlist activity and learn more about the people coming back to listen.
First, you need access.
What is Amazon Music for Artists?
Amazon Music for Artists is Amazon Music’s free dashboard for artists, managers, labels and distributors.
It is available on the web and through the Amazon Music for Artists app on iOS and Android.
Artists and managers can claim an individual artist profile. Labels and distributors have a different path that gives them access to the catalogs they represent.
1. Make sure your music is already on Amazon Music
You cannot claim a brand-new artist profile before that artist’s first release is publicly available on Amazon Music.
Your music distributor is the company that delivers your music and release information to services such as Amazon Music, Spotify and Apple Music.
Once the first release is live and the artist profile exists, you can start the claim process.
If your music is live but appears on the wrong artist profile, do not claim the wrong one just to get moving. Amazon Music for Artists includes a reporting process for correcting profile-mapping problems.
2. Sign in with an Amazon account
You can use Amazon Music for Artists on the web or download the mobile app.
Sign in with a regular Amazon account, meaning the same kind of account you would use for Amazon shopping or other Amazon services.
If you do not have one, create one before continuing.
Use an account you expect to keep under your control. The first person whose artist claim is approved becomes the Owner of that artist team.
Do not solve team access by passing one Amazon password around to five people. We will get to the better way in a minute.
3. Find and claim your artist profile
Once you are signed in:
- Search for the artist.
- Select the correct artist profile.
- Choose Claim or Claim This Artist.
- Complete the requested application information.
Take a second to make sure you have the right artist before submitting anything.
If another artist has the same or a similar name, compare the releases on the profile with your actual catalog.
4. Give Amazon enough information to verify you
Amazon needs to know that you are actually connected to the artist you are claiming.
Connecting the artist’s social media accounts during the claim process can help speed up verification.
If that is not possible, other useful information can include:
- the artist’s official website
- a social profile that clearly connects you to the artist
- a management company website showing the artist on its roster
- an email address that matches the artist, management company or other official organization
The easier you make the relationship to verify, the easier the claim is for Amazon to review.
5. Submit the claim
Once everything is complete, submit the artist claim for review.
Amazon will review the information and notify you when access is approved or if more information is needed.
I would not build your release schedule around a promised approval time. If you know you will need Amazon Music for Artists for an upcoming campaign, claim the profile before you are staring down release day.
6. Add your team instead of sharing passwords
Once the artist profile is claimed, Amazon Music for Artists gives you three levels of access.
- Owner: The first person with an approved artist claim. Owners have full access.
- Admin: Can manage the artist account, including adding or removing team members and assigning access.
- Viewer: Can see artist data but cannot make changes.
Owners and Admins can add team members through Settings and Manage Team Members.
Use that.
Do not give your manager, publicist, label, cousin and drummer the same Amazon login.
Individual access is easier to manage and much easier to remove when somebody no longer needs it.
While you are setting up access, protect the underlying account too. Our guide to two-factor authentication for musicians covers the basics.
7. Update your artist images
Once you have access, make sure the artist profile looks current.
Amazon Music for Artists lets you control the artist’s profile and background images.
Use a good, current photograph rather than whatever happened to be available when the first single came out three years ago.
If you need to refresh your photo library, our Academy guide to what makes a great artist press photo can help.
8. Look at the data
Amazon Music for Artists gives you much more information now than a simple stream count.
You can see:
- streams and listeners
- performance by song and album
- streams and listeners by territory
- where streams came from inside Amazon Music
- Amazon playlist and station activity
- Alexa Voice Requests
- Fans and Superfans
A Voice Request happens when somebody specifically asks Alexa to play your artist, song, album or even a song based on its lyrics.
Amazon also separates some listeners into Fans and Superfans based on how strongly and repeatedly they engage with your music.
That can be more useful than looking at one big listener number and calling it a day.
If you are trying to understand what all of that audience information means for your marketing, our guide to defining your target audience goes deeper into turning listener data into something useful.
9. Pitch new music
Amazon Music for Artists also lets eligible artist teams pitch new music for programming and playlist consideration.
Once a new release has been delivered to Amazon Music, it can appear under Profile & Tools in the New Releases section.
Owners and Admins can submit one track from an eligible single, EP or album.
Amazon currently accepts pitches for new, previously unreleased music through 14 days after the release date.
The pitch asks for more than “this song is really good.”
Amazon wants useful information about the track, artist, audience, collaborators and marketing plan.
That is why having a good story behind the song matters. Our guide to writing a useful song narrative explains how to give an editor context without sending them a word salad.
If Syntax is working your release, keep your team informed about what you are submitting so the artist and distributor are telling the same story.
10. Use the rest of the tools
Claiming the profile is only useful if you actually do something with it.
Amazon Music for Artists currently includes tools that can help you:
- create and share Hype Cards for releases and other milestones
- manage profile images
- monitor playlist additions
- see Alexa engagement
- track Fans and Superfans
- connect eligible merchandise to the artist profile
- download performance data for deeper analysis
Not every tool will matter for every artist.
Use the ones that actually fit your campaign.
Labels should not claim every artist individually
This is an important distinction.
If you are a record label or distributor, Amazon does not want you claiming every artist profile one at a time as though you are the artist or manager.
Amazon has separate label teams and distributor teams.
A label team can be connected to the catalog delivered through its distributor. That gives the label access to the artists and releases it represents, including new music as it is delivered.
If you are a Syntax Creative label and need Amazon Music for Artists access across your roster, talk to us. We can help with the label-team process.
Claim it, then use it
Setting up Amazon Music for Artists is not difficult.
Get the music live. Claim the correct artist. Give Amazon enough information to verify you. Add your team properly. Then start paying attention to what the dashboard is telling you.
The useful part is not having another login.
It is knowing more about what is happening with your music and having a few more tools to do something about it.
