How to Upload Music to Securus Tablets

If you've been trying to figure out how to upload music to Securus tablets, you've probably hit a wall — there's no obvious "submit your song" button anywhere. That's not because you're missing it. Securus runs the tablets that incarcerated people use in a lot of U.S. facilities, and the people inside buy a real amount of music. But the way songs actually get into that library isn't an upload you do yourself. Here's the honest, plain-English answer — for the artist who wants in, and for the family member trying to get a loved one's music heard.

What is Securus — and is it the same as JPay?

This is the part that trips everyone up, so let's clear it first. Securus and JPay are not the same company, but they're related. Both are sister brands under the same parent, Aventiv Technologies. Securus introduced one of the first corrections-grade tablets and provides the JP-series devices you'll see inside, while JPay grew up as the email-and-payments side of the house. In practice, families and artists run into both names — sometimes for the same facility — which is exactly why the search results are so confusing.

On a Securus tablet, music sits in an on-device media store alongside movies, ebooks, games, and radio. Incarcerated buyers purchase individual tracks and albums right on the device. It's a genuine storefront with a paying, captive audience, and it sits right next to JPay and GTL/ViaPath as one of the major prison music networks.

How does music actually get on a Securus tablet?

Here's the straight answer: you don't upload to Securus yourself. There's no public artist portal where you log in and add your release. The media store's catalog is fed by an official, behind-the-scenes distribution pipeline — the same kind of specialized pipeline that feeds the other prison tablet networks. To get your song into the Securus media store, it has to be delivered through that pipeline by a distributor that actually reaches it.

So when people ask how to submit music to the Securus media store, the real question underneath is: which distributor carries the prison pipeline, and how do you route a release into it correctly? That's the whole game — and it's where most artists get stuck, because the route is not obvious and not advertised.

Does TuneCore (or DistroKid) distribute to prisons?

Short version: no. The big mainstream distributors — TuneCore, DistroKid, CD Baby — are built to push your music to Spotify, Apple Music, and the streaming world. That's what they're great at. But the prison tablet networks are a separate ecosystem with their own delivery requirements, and the mainstream distributors don't reliably reach them. Uploading to TuneCore will not land your song on a Securus tablet. (We dig into the same trap on the streaming side in our DistroKid and prisons breakdown.)

That gap is exactly why this corner of music is so wide open. Nearly two million people are incarcerated in the United States, and almost no independent artist is releasing to them. The audience is there. The competition is not.

What do artists get paid — and who owns the music?

Prison media stores pay artists on the music they sell, much like a download store does. The exact rate and reporting cadence vary by network and facility, and statements often arrive on a delay, so think of this as a steady back-catalog earner rather than a launch-week spike. Facility fees get added on top of the sale price, but the buyer pays those — not you.

On ownership: the music you bring — your own recordings, your own masters — stays yours. Distributing into the prison networks doesn't take your rights. That matters a lot for the families who reach out to us: a loved one inside can finally have their music released and heard, and the family keeps what's theirs.

The content rules (this is the step most releases never get past)

Prison media stores curate their catalogs and run strict content filters, and Securus is no exception. The single most important thing to understand: your audio can usually be explicit, but your metadata cannot be. Track titles, artist name, and cover art have to be clean — no profanity, no violence, gang, or weapon references — and artwork generally can't carry the Parental Advisory logo. Non-compliant releases tend to get rejected silently, so if you get it wrong, you often won't even be told why. We break down what gets flagged in what music gets rejected on prison kiosks. Get the metadata clean and the routing right, and you're in.

Securus distribution FAQ

How do you upload music to Securus tablets?
You don't upload directly — there's no artist portal. Music lands in the Securus media store through official distribution into the prison pipeline, delivered by a service that reaches it.

Are Securus and JPay the same?
No, but they're sister brands under the same parent, Aventiv Technologies. Securus provides the tablets; both names show up around facility music.

Does TuneCore distribute to prisons?
No. TuneCore and DistroKid serve streaming platforms, not the prison tablet networks. Reaching Securus takes a distributor built for the prison pipeline.

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