The artist's guide to getting on JPAY, GTL & the federal prison network.
There's a paying audience of nearly two million listeners that almost no independent artist is reaching. This free preview shows you the market, the money, and the rules. The full playbook shows you exactly how to get in.
A Done Deal Digital Field Guide
Free Preview
Incarcerated people buy music — on tablets and kiosks inside facilities — and they pay iTunes-level prices for it. It's a real, paying audience with almost zero independent competition.
The catch: getting your music accepted onto the prison kiosks is a maze of strict content filters, secret rules, and shifting distributor pipelines. One wrong word in a track title and your whole release is silently blocked.
This free preview gives you the three things that decide whether it's worth your time:
What JPAY, GTL & TRULINCS are, and how big the audience really is.
What buyers pay per album and per track — who covers the facility's fees, and what stays yours.
The compliance rules that decide if your release gets in or gets blocked — the first two, free.
The full step-by-step submission walkthroughs, the verified distributor pipeline map, artwork specs, and the FAQ — that's the paid guide. This preview is the part that tells you whether to bother. (Spoiler: most artists should.)
Preview · Part 1
Across the U.S., correctional facilities sell music through three closed networks. Your release has to clear each one's content filter before a single copy can sell inside.
À-la-carte downloads on prison tablets/kiosks. Owned by Securus/Aventiv. Catalog tops 10 million tracks, updated nightly.
Subscription streaming curated for corrections (GTL rebranded to ViaPath in 2022).
The Federal Bureau of Prisons system — reached through its own pipeline.
JPay alone serves 1.6 million+ incarcerated people across 30+ states. Add GTL/ViaPath and you're looking at the large majority of U.S. facilities.
Your actual audio can contain profanity. Only the visible details around your release have to be clean — the music itself stays exactly as you made it. That distinction is the whole game (Part 3).
✔ Independently verified against the platforms' own public store documentation. The full guide shows you exactly how to confirm your release is live — from the outside, before you spend a dime.
Preview · Part 2
The economics are simple and artist-friendly — buyers pay iTunes-style prices, and you keep your masters.
| What sells | What buyers pay |
|---|---|
| Full album | iTunes-style album price |
| Individual track | iTunes-style track price |
| What stays yours | Your masters & publishing |
The facility adds its own fees on top, paid by the buyer at purchase — those don't come out of your cut. What you take home depends on the path you pick, and your exact terms go in writing before you pay.
a single around $1.99, bought outright, and you're selling into an audience with limited entertainment options and almost no competition from other independents. One placed album can quietly earn for years.
Prices shown are the published kiosk-program pricing for buyers; exact artist terms vary by route and go in writing before you pay. The full guide breaks down each route's actual terms.
Preview · Part 3 · The part that gets releases blocked
Get one of these wrong and your release is silently rejected — no warning, no refund of your time. The first two are free, right here. The other four — and the one-click mistake behind the #1 rejection — are in the guide.
Songs may contain profanity. But no curse words in track titles, the artist name, or the artwork.
Keep titles clear of violence, gang, and weapon references. Words that commonly get a release blocked:
GunKnifeBombGangKillMurderDeathMafia
The naming rules that pass — and the everyday title habits that get a release silently rejected. Full detail in the guide.
Get this wrong once and it costs you on every drop after — most artists never see it coming. Full detail in the guide.
One overlooked source can block your account and lose pending sales. Full detail in the guide.
The exact specs — plus the single logo that gets otherwise-clean art rejected. Full detail in the guide.
There's a single toggle your distributor asks about that silently blocks your release even when your audio is clean. Answer it wrong and you're done before you start — the full guide shows you exactly how to handle it.
The free preview ends here
The full Sell Your Music in Prisons playbook is the complete, step-by-step system — verified June 2026 and kept current for life.
Instant download · PDF · works on any device
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Drop your email and we'll send occasional tips on getting your music in prisons — plus a heads-up when the distribution routes change.
Let Done Deal Digital handle it for you. The distributor pipelines shift constantly — store names change, brands get bought, routes open and close. Most artists don't want to babysit that. We'll prep your metadata to spec, route your release to the right kiosk pipeline, and keep it compliant — so you just make music and collect. See the done-for-you service →