UPDATE 2019: Google Play has been shut down. BUT there are still a ton of places to submit your music. Check out this post.

I have been asked to do this since I am getting pretty deep into music on Google Play.  Having the list of free albums and by also using Google Play to distribute my own band's music, it seemed logical to do a complete how to on registering your band with Google and getting music up in the Play Store.  I'm gonna break this down in to easy steps that you should be able to follow along with and start sharing your great music.

Step 1 Check out the licensing agreement and terms of service.  They are very simple and easy to understand.  The big thing is that Google only takes 30% of sales.  And if your album is free, no fees whatsoever.

Step 2 Find your band name.  Just enter it and we'll see if it has already been taken.

Step 3 If Google Play already recognizes your band it will be on this list.  If it doesn't then we move on to step 4.

Step 4 At the bottom of the page you'll find a link to create the store page for your band.  Make sure the band name is spelled correctly and click on “Create This Artist”.

Step 5 Google Play wants to verify that the account you are currently logged into is the right one.  If you have the right account, go ahead and click on continue.

Step 6 At this step we decide if you are the actual artist or a representative for the artist.  You will also agree to the terms of service with the two check boxes.

Step 7 Here is where you actually pay to register your band name.  This is a $25 one time fee and also helps to verify the authority to register the name.

Step 8 This part is very important.  When you first register your name with Google Play, you want to get as much information in as possible.  This is another step in helping to verify that you are for sure the artist and will also help them to find similar bands to recommend.

Step 9 When you click on publish, it will take Google Play a few days to verify all the information and get the Artist Page live.  You'll know when it is as it will say “Your Store Page Is Published”.  We can move ahead at this point and click on “Upload and Edit Music”

Step 10 This is where we select to create a new album.  Any previously uploaded albums will show up here and you can edit the information and prices at any time.

Step 11 This is your album information.  Keep things as relevant as possible as this will help people to find your album in the store.

Step 12 After entering the album information you get to upload your master files.  Google only accepts .wav and .flac.  This is because of the loss of data in other formats.  These files give you the best options for streaming and download files later.

Step 13 Navigate to the folder where your files are and highlight them all in one shot.

Step 14 Browse through the files once quick at this point and make sure you have them all and don't have any extras.  If everything looks good go ahead and click on “Start Upload”.

Step 15 Once they are uploaded you'll want to clean up the track information and set the prices on each track. You can also add extra genres for any oddball tracks you might have in the collection.

Step 16 At this point you can also upload album cover art.  Do this by clicking on the square where the album cover is and selecting the file you want to use.  This needs to be a square image and of a decent quality to look nice in people's collections.

Step 17 When you are finished organizing the tracks and get all the information straight, click on publish album.  The album will also go through a verification process before it will go live in the store.  This too only takes a couple of days to happen.

When your album is finalized and published you'll get a store page for your band and your album.  You can see my published project to see how it looks. Dead Girl Sorry live on Meet The Music.