Free tools for artists and curators

Small tools built for artists and curators to help with music releases and promotion. Completely free forever.

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From the Artist Academy

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One free link for your music. Real money for your playlist.

Artists get a smartlink that takes every fan to their music, free forever. Curators get paid for the playlist they already run.

Create free smartlinkApply with a playlist

Which tools do artists and playlist curators need?

Fewer than you'd think, and most of them are free. You can record a track, master it, promote it, and run a playlist without paying for software. Here are the tools worth using at each stage, ours included, and what streams and playlists earn once you're up and running.

Free tools for making music

  • Recording and producing. GarageBand is free on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and BandLab is free in your browser and on your phone. Reaper gives you 60 days with every feature, and as of November 2026 a personal license costs $60 after that.
  • Editing audio. Audacity is a free editor for cleaning up vocals, cutting takes, and exporting files.
  • Mastering. BandLab masters tracks for free with a choice of four presets. Spotify adjusts playback to -14 dB LUFS and suggests mastering to that level, so check yours before you send it to your distributor.
  • Artwork. Canva's free plan has templates for cover art.
  • Distribution. You need a distributor to get your music onto Spotify, Apple Music, and the other platforms. Some charge by the year, some by the release, and some take a share of your royalties. Add up what each one costs for the number of tracks you release in a year.

Free tools for promoting music

  • Spotify for Artists. You see who's listening and which playlists sent them to you, and you can pitch an unreleased track to Spotify's editors at least 7 days before release. Apple Music for Artists gives you the same kind of numbers for your Apple Music listeners.
  • Smartlinks. A free smartlink for your release sends each fan to your track on the platform they use, and shows you views and clicks by platform, country, and source.
  • Deep playlist links. Our Spotify playlist deep link generator makes a link that opens on your track inside a playlist, and the playlist keeps playing after it. Use a playlist of your own, and fans go straight on to your other tracks.
  • Pre-saves. Spotify Countdown Pages and Apple Music pre-adds let fans line up a release before it's out. Our smartlinks page explains who qualifies and when a pre-save is worth running.
  • Short video. Instagram and TikTok cost nothing but your time. Post clips of the track, and tag each link so your stats show which post worked.

For the plan around these tools, read how to promote a new track and how to get on Spotify playlists, or start the free Artist Academy.

Free tools for managing a Spotify playlist

  • Spotify itself. A free account lets you write the title and description, upload a cover, reorder tracks, and invite collaborators. That's all most curators need for a weekly update.
  • Analyzing and sorting. Chosic has a free playlist analyzer and sorter, and Skiley sorts a playlist by BPM for free. Try them on a copy of your playlist first.
  • Moving a playlist to other platforms. Soundiiz and TuneMyMusic both have free plans that copy a playlist from Spotify to Apple Music, YouTube Music, and more. Each free plan has limits, so check them against the size of your playlist.
  • Sharing your playlist. A playlist smartlink gives you one link for your ads and bio, and it can open on a featured track. The deep link generator makes a plain Spotify link that does the same.

Your routine brings listeners back more than any tool does. Read how often to update a playlist and how to order the tracks in it, or start the free Curator Academy.

How much does Spotify pay per stream?

Spotify says it doesn't pay royalties per play or per stream. Each month, it works out your music's share of all streams and pays that share of its net revenue to whoever controls your recording, usually your label or distributor. They pay you under your contract with them.

Since Spotify publishes no rate, the common estimate comes from artists' royalty statements: $3 – $5 per 1,000 streams, or $0.003 – $0.005 per stream. Your number moves with the countries your listeners live in and whether they pay for Premium.

How much do artists make on Spotify?

To estimate your recording royalties, multiply your streams by 0.003 and by 0.005. Our Spotify royalty calculator runs the same math for any number:

  • 1,000 streams: $3 – $5
  • 10,000 streams: $30 – $50
  • 100,000 streams: $300 – $500
  • 1,000,000 streams: $3,000 – $5,000

That's before your distributor or label takes its share. A track also has to reach 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months, from a minimum number of unique listeners, to earn recording royalties at all. If you wrote the track, publishing royalties are separate money, and Spotify pays them to publishers, collecting societies, and mechanical agencies, so register your compositions.

Spotify's figures for 2025 show the top end: more than 13,800 artists generated at least $100,000 from Spotify alone, and more than 1,500 generated over $1 million. The 100,000th-highest earner generated more than $7,300. Those figures are royalties before anyone's share, and they leave out shows, merch, and every other platform.

How much can you earn from a Spotify playlist?

Spotify pays playlist owners nothing, however many followers you have. Stream money goes to the rights holders behind each track, so your own tracks on your own playlist are the only ones that earn you royalties. Curators earn from:

  • Artists. They pay for promotion around a track, such as your feedback and a promotional post.
  • Brands. They sponsor a playlist with an audience they want to reach.
  • Your listeners. They pay for what you build around the playlist, like a newsletter or merch.

Nobody publishes a reliable figure for what independent curators make. For most of them it's side income that grows with each strong playlist they run. To find your own rate, divide what you were paid last month by your hours, since one playlist done properly takes 3 – 4 hours a week. Artists pay for real listeners in a clear genre, so those two things move your number most. Read how much curators make and how to make money from your playlist for the full picture.

How to choose a free music tool

  • Check what it asks for. Read the permissions before you log in with Spotify. A playlist sorter needs access to your playlists and little else.
  • Check where the free plan stops. Track caps, link limits, and short stats history usually show up after you've started relying on a tool.
  • Walk away from bought numbers. Anything selling streams or followers is artificial streaming, which breaks Spotify's rules and puts your music at risk.

Free tools from Soundmango

Smartlinks are free forever, for artists and curators: as many as you like, stats kept for as long as the link exists, and no ads on your fan pages. The deep link generator needs no account, and nothing you paste leaves your browser. We're building more free tools for making and promoting music and managing playlists, so bookmark this page.

Artists: when you want your track heard by the people behind real playlists, a campaign on Soundmango gets you honest ratings and a promotional post, or your money back, and approved tracks have a 99% chance of landing on at least one playlist. Create your free smartlink to get started.

Curators: you listen first, each campaign takes a few minutes, and you're paid every month. Start earning from your playlist.