You've finished a record, or a few songs you're happy with, and you'd like to start selling them online. On Spotify, a track earns nothing until it has had 1,000 streams in the past 12 months, whereas a fan who buys your album for $10 pays you on the day.
Selling your music online can mean two different things. A distributor sends your release to Spotify, Apple Music and the download stores, and those services pay you per stream or download. Selling direct means fans pay you a price you set and get the files, through Bandcamp, a marketplace or your own checkout.
This guide explains how to sell music online both ways, compares the places you can sell direct, including what you keep on a $10 album, and shows how to sell the files from your own checkout.
Quick answer: There are two ways to sell music online. A distributor such as DistroKid puts your release on Spotify and the download stores for a yearly fee, and they pay you per stream or download. To sell direct to fans at a price you set, you can use Bandcamp, Gumroad or Payhip, which host the page and deliver the files, or your own checkout with a tool like Checkout Page. On a $10 album, you keep about $8 on Bandcamp and $9.41 from your own checkout.
Where to sell your music online
Your music can reach listeners through the streaming services and download stores, through a shop where fans buy it direct, or both. Where to sell music online depends on whether you want streams or sales, whether your fans already know where to find you and how much of each sale you want to keep.
Streaming and download stores versus selling direct
A distributor is a company that delivers your release to the streaming services and download stores on your behalf. You upload the audio and artwork once, pay a yearly fee or a fee per release, and the distributor sends your music to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and the rest. When someone streams or buys your music, the store pays the distributor, which then passes the money on to you.
Streaming services pay per play at rates they set, and download stores sell within their own price bands, so you have little say over the price. Distribution puts your music where people who don't know you yet are already listening. It's also how independent artists get onto Spotify.
When you sell direct, a fan comes to your page, pays a price you've set and downloads the files, so you keep most of the money and get the buyer's email address. You bring buyers to your page yourself, usually through social media, your mailing list and people who come to your gigs.
You can use a distributor and sell direct at the same time, with the same release. The rest of this guide is about selling direct.
Where to sell your music direct
Each place that sells music direct to fans handles the page, the payment and the download, for a share of the sale or a monthly fee.
- Bandcamp: the best-known shop for independent music. Fans can stream your release on the site, you can let them name their price, and Bandcamp makes the download formats from one lossless upload. Bandcamp takes 15% of digital sales plus payment processing, and waives its share on Bandcamp Fridays, set days through the year.
- Gumroad and Payhip: general marketplaces for digital products. They give you a product page and deliver the files after payment, for a percentage of each sale. Gumroad Discover, Gumroad's marketplace, can bring in some buyers; otherwise, you bring people to your page yourself.
- Bandzoogle and similar site builders: build you a whole band website with a shop inside it, for a monthly fee.
Alternatively, you can sell from your own checkout page and share it in your newsletter, on your website or through the link in your social media bio. You set the prices and bundles, the buyer's details go into your own customer list, and there's no platform fee on the sale.
With Checkout Page, the files go to the fan automatically after payment, and the money goes directly into your own Stripe account.
How tax works when you sell music online
For digital products such as downloads, EU and UK VAT is generally due at the rate of the country where the buyer lives, and in the US, whether sales tax applies depends on the state. Some platforms calculate, collect and pay this tax on your behalf. With others, you're responsible for registering, collecting, reporting and paying it.
A merchant of record is the business that sells to the buyer and takes on those tax duties. Here's who handles it on each route:
- Bandcamp: calculates, collects and pays sales tax in the countries and US states it lists, and says it's your responsibility elsewhere.
- Gumroad: acts as the merchant of record for sales made through its platform.
- Payhip: takes responsibility for EU and UK VAT on digital products, and collects and pays US sales tax as a marketplace facilitator. In Canada it handles GST/HST and PST, but you still deal with Quebec's QST yourself.
If you sell through your own checkout, you generally remain responsible for your tax obligations as the seller. Checkout Page can calculate and add tax at checkout through Stripe Tax. You're still responsible for registering, filing returns and paying any tax due.
Here's how the routes compare on one $10 album download.
Route | You keep on $10 | Who brings fans | Tax on the sale | How fans get it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Distributor (DistroKid and others) | No sale price; paid per stream or download | The streaming services | Not applicable (payouts) | Streaming and the stores |
Bandcamp | About $8.00 | Bandcamp's listeners, and you | Bandcamp, in listed places | Download, plus the Bandcamp app |
Gumroad, direct sale | $7.91 | You, plus Gumroad Discover | Gumroad, merchant of record | Download |
Payhip, free plan | $8.91 | You | Payhip (EU, UK, US, most of Canada) | Download |
Checkout Page | $9.41 | You | Yours; Stripe Tax can add it | Download |
One US card sale at $10, before any monthly plan, distributor fee, refunds or tax. Fees checked on each platform's own pages, 28 October to 2 November 2026. Bandcamp's row uses its 15% share plus typical processing. Gumroad, Payhip and Checkout Page include card processing of 2.9% + 30¢.
If you're starting out and nobody has heard of you yet, Bandcamp gives you a shop that fans already trust, and its listeners can find you. If you already reach people through Instagram, your mailing list or your shows, you can sell directly to them through your own checkout and keep more of each sale.
Our comparison of the best platforms to sell digital products has the longer list.
How to sell your music from your own checkout
The steps below use Checkout Page, but the process is much the same with other checkout tools.
Step 1: prepare the files
Export each track as a 320kbps MP3 for the standard download, and as WAV or FLAC if you want to offer a lossless version. Add the title, artist name and track number to each file's tags and name the files in order, so the album plays in the right sequence once it's downloaded.
Put each format in its own ZIP file, with the artwork inside, so the fan downloads one file per format. Buyers see your file names exactly as you saved them, so a ZIP called "salt-and-small-hours-mp3.zip" reads better than "final_mix_v3.zip".
If any of the songs is a cover, you need a license for the composition before you sell it; the FAQ at the end covers how that works. If a track uses a sample, you need permission from whoever owns the original recording and the song.
Step 2: create a checkout page
In your Checkout Page dashboard, create a new checkout page for the album. Give it the album's name and a description with the tracklist, a line or two about the record and the formats buyers can choose from.
There's no audio player on the checkout page, so add a link to the album on SoundCloud or Bandcamp in the description, and people can listen before they buy. The artwork goes in the page's image gallery.
Step 3: set the price
Set a one-time price for the album. On Checkout Page, you can put several prices on one product, so a pay what you want price can sit beside the fixed one. To sell a lossless version, add it as an option the fan can tick at checkout, such as "Add the lossless version, +$5", because each option can carry its own file. That way the lossless ZIP only goes to fans who paid for it.
Pay what you want with a minimum is Bandcamp's name-your-price idea on your own page. You can offer it as one of the prices, or make it the only price with a suggested amount.
Step 4: add the files
Go to Product → File downloads and upload the MP3 ZIP. The lossless ZIP goes on the option you added in Step 3, so only fans who choose it get that file. The help center recommends keeping each file under 1GB. A 45-minute album is about 110MB as 320kbps MP3 and about 480MB as 16-bit WAV, so both fit; a 24-bit album can go over 1GB, so use FLAC or split it into two ZIPs.
If you remaster a track or add a bonus track later, you can upload a new version of the file and every existing buyer gets it. It's worth emailing them to say so, because they won't know there's a new version unless you tell them.
Step 5: run a test payment
Switch the page to test mode and buy the album with a test card. Check that the right ZIPs appear on the confirmation screen and in the email, download them, and make sure the tracks play in order.
Then open the customer portal as the test buyer, so you've seen where fans go to download the files again later. Once everything works, switch test mode off so the page takes real payments.
Step 6: share the checkout
Publish the page and share the link wherever your fans already are. For example:
- The link in your Instagram or TikTok bio, because links in captions on those apps aren't clickable
- Your mailing list, with a line about the record and the price
- Your website, with the checkout embedded or opened from a button
- A QR code on the merch table at gigs, so people can buy the album on the spot
When you post a clip of a song, point people to the link in your bio.
Start selling your music for freeHow much to charge for your music
If you want to sell music online and make money from it, the price you set and the fees on each sale decide what reaches you. There's no published average price for an album download, so look at what artists in your genre charge on Bandcamp and price in the same range. Once the page is live, you can look at your sales and how much buyers pay above the minimum to decide whether to change the price.
Card fees include a fixed 30 cents per payment, so they take a bigger share of a cheap item. On a $1 single from your own checkout, you keep 67 cents, and Bandcamp's lower processing rate on small sales leaves you about 75 cents.
Singles suit a new release you want people to try. Selling songs together as an EP or album means you pay the fixed 30 cents once rather than on every song, so the fee per song on a $10 album is about 6 cents.
Albums with a lossless option let fans who care about sound quality pay more, as an extra they can add at checkout.
Pay what you want with a low minimum suits a release you mainly want heard, or a back catalog. Set the minimum at the amount you'd be happy with and let fans round up.
How fans get your music
After paying, fans see the download links on the confirmation screen and receive them again by email. Each file is a direct download, so if you zipped the album by format in Step 1, the fan gets one ZIP for each format they bought.
With Checkout Page, the files also stay in the customer portal, where fans can download them again if they get a new phone or lose the originals. The files are tied to the fan's email address, so they sign in with that to find them.
Can fans share your files?
Yes, once a fan has downloaded an MP3, they can send it to anyone, and no download platform can stop that. Bandcamp, Gumroad, Payhip and your own checkout all deliver plain files without copy protection, so they play on any device.
A line on the checkout page saying the download is for personal use tells buyers what you expect.
If a track is being shared widely, you can give people more reason to buy it, such as the lossless files, a bonus track or the artwork at full size.
What it costs to sell music online
The platform's cut is only part of the cost. You also pay processing fees, any monthly plan and, if you use a distributor, its yearly fee.
- Distributors: DistroKid's Musician plan is $24.99 a year for one artist and unlimited songs, with Musician Plus at $44.99 and Ultimate at $89.99. The stores then pay per stream or download, at rates the stores set.
- Bandcamp: 15% of digital sales, dropping to 10% once you've sold $5,000 in the past 12 months, and 10% of physical sales. Payment processing is separate and, in Bandcamp's words, typically 4 to 6%.
- Gumroad: 10% plus 50 cents on direct sales, with card processing on top, and 30% on sales that come through Gumroad Discover, which includes processing. Our breakdown of Gumroad fees has the detail.
- Payhip: 5% of each sale on the free plan, 2% on the $29-a-month plan and nothing on the $99-a-month plan, with PayPal or Stripe processing on top.
Selling from your own checkout means paying the processor directly, which on a US Stripe account is 2.9% plus 30 cents per card payment, though Stripe's fees vary by country and card type.
On the $10 album in the comparison table, your own checkout leaves you with about $1.40 more than Bandcamp and $1.50 more than a direct Gumroad sale. Once Bandcamp's lower 10% rate applies, the difference is about 90 cents an album.
Checkout Page is free up to $3K in monthly sales. Paid plans are a monthly price based on your sales volume. Stripe's processing fees apply.
On the free plan, your pages pause once you pass $3K in a 30-day period and reopen when the period resets or you upgrade.
The Stripe fee calculator estimates the processing fees for your own price and volume.
Sell more than music
The same checkout account can sell other things to the people who buy your records. For example:
- A fan membership with early access to new songs, demos and a monthly video
- Tickets for your gigs, sold from an event page in the same account
- Merch such as T-shirts or vinyl, with the buyer's shipping address collected at checkout
- Lessons or songwriting sessions, booked and paid for in advance
If you'd like to try it, you can start selling your music on the free plan and upgrade once your sales pass $3K a month.
How to sell music online FAQ
How much money can you make from selling a song?
It depends on where you sell it and what you charge. On a $1 single, you'd keep about 75 cents on Bandcamp and about 67 cents from your own checkout, because card fees include a fixed 30 cents. On Spotify, a track only earns royalties once it has had 1,000 streams in the past 12 months.
What is the best place to sell my music online?
Bandcamp suits artists who want a shop that fans already know and browse, and it handles sales tax in the places it lists. Your own checkout suits artists who already reach fans through social media, a mailing list or gigs, and you keep about $9.41 of a $10 album. You can use both, with the same release in each place.
Can you sell music on Spotify?
No, Spotify streams music rather than selling downloads, and it pays per play. To get your music onto Spotify, you upload it through a distributor such as DistroKid, which charges a yearly fee and passes on what Spotify pays. To sell downloads to fans at a price you set, you can use Bandcamp, Gumroad, Payhip or your own checkout.
Is Bandcamp worth it?
Bandcamp takes 15% of digital sales, or 10% once you've sold $5,000 in the past 12 months, plus 4 to 6% processing, so you keep about $8 of a $10 album. It waives its share on Bandcamp Fridays. In return, fans can stream and buy in a shop they know, and Bandcamp handles sales tax where it lists.
Can you sell cover songs?
Yes, with a license. In the US, Section 115 of copyright law lets anyone record and sell a song once it has been released there with the songwriter's permission, as long as the basic melody and character stay the same. Licensing services handle the paperwork for a fee. The original recording needs separate permission. This isn't legal advice.
