Music distribution companies play a vital role in releasing your music digitally and reaching a large audience. Without a good music distributor, you’d have trouble getting your tracks on the world’s main distribution platforms and streaming services.
However, paying for a proper digital music distribution service can be too expensive for some.
That’s why we’ve collected and reviewed the five best free music distribution platforms to help launch your music career in Nigeria.
WHAT ARE THE BEST FREE MUSIC DISTRIBUTION SERVICES?
At a glance, here is a list of the very best free music distribution services you can get. We’ll cover them in more depth below:
- InterSpace Distribution
- Highvibes Distribution
- TuneCore
- Cidar Africa
- Fresh Tunes
- AWAL
- Stem
1. INTERSPACE DISTRIBUTION (OUR PICK)
PROS
- Unlimited distribution
- Great marketing tools & analytics
- Quick processing time
- SoundCloud and YouTube monetization
- Allows for cover tracks
CONS
- 30% commission rate
- No publishing royalties
- Limited to uploading either WAV or FLAC files.
InterSpace Distribution is the best free music distribution service on offer, with an unlimited cap on releases and artists. They only take a 30% commission of artists’ royalties, which isn’t great but isn’t awful either, considering the platform is free to use.
On their website, you can also find most of the features typically found on paid distribution platforms. InterSpace Distribution has a typical processing time of 2-5 days for releases – super fast!
They also offer monetization methods for YouTube and SoundCloud, and, mind-blowingly, you can even monetize and distribute covers of existing songs.
2. Highvibes Distribution
PROS
- 75% royalties to artists
- Releases music to all major streaming platforms
- Easy-to-use desktop website and mobile app
CONS
- Limit of 12 releases per year
- 30% Tax Withholding
- Reviews suggest long waiting times to hear back from customer service
Highvibes Distribution is one of the best free digital music distribution services on offer. For free, you can drop 12 releases per year to all major streaming platforms, and artists keep 75% of their royalties.
However, the shortcomings of Highvibes Distribution’s free services are the 12-releases-per-year limit and the poor customer service reviews.
With Highvibes Distribution’s free distribution service, the waiting time is four weeks for your music to be processed and released to platforms – a boring wait to say the least. Likewise, their customer service team also comes with the burden of incredibly long waiting times.
On a brighter note, if you are lucky enough to be hand-picked by Amuse’s label, you could be given many marketing tools and great features for artist growth.
3. TUNECORE
PROS
- Unlimited distribution to social media sites
- Access to playlist opportunities
- Collects both master royalties and publishing royalties
CONS
- 20% commission rate
- Does not distribute to major streaming services unless the artist subscribes to the paid version of TuneCore
- Reviews suggest long waiting times to hear back from customer service
TuneCore is one of the leading music distributor giants. Their free distribution service, titled ‘New Artist’ mode, is a great way to dip your toes into the music distribution world.
With ‘New Artist,’ you have access to unlimited music releases to music targeted at social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
There is no annual fee or a fee per release, which is excellent considering what you’re getting. Even their specially-designed competitive pricing for the paid version of TuneCore is very affordable ($30 USD per full album).
After a while, you might find yourself wanting to upgrade to be able to distribute music to the world’s most major streaming platforms and take advantage of TuneCore’s full distribution potential.
4. CIDAR AFRICA
PROS
- Extremely affordable distribution to major streaming services (99¢ per release)
- Regular discounts on specialist creator tools and promo services
- Great marketing tools & analytics
- Allows for cover tracks
CONS
- Costs 99 cents per release
- 30% commission rate
Cidar Africa is entirely free but offers a pocket-change rate of only for specific Artists. They allow you to distribute to all major streaming platforms and also offer music licensing (an additional fee of $10 on most other distribution services).
Cidar Africa’s team personally guarantees that your music stays available in all stores and streaming platforms for life. The trade-off is that they take 30% of your royalties.
5. FRESHTUNES
PROS
- Unlimited digital music distribution
- 100% royalties to the artist
- Free profiles for up to 4 artists at once
- Great promo tools
CONS
- 2-week average processing time
- Marketing tools & analytics aren’t very good
- Reviews suggest a $25 customer service fee
FreshTunes offer unlimited music distribution to all major streaming platforms, e.g., Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music, and artists keep 100% of royalties.
They even offer professional feedback services and promotional deals, which are accessible at an additional cost.
They offer a direct and reliable way to distribute your music for free. The main highlights of using Fresh Tunes are that you keep all your earned royalties, unlimited distribution, and your music doesn’t get taken down after a time limit like some ‘pay-to-stay’ distribution services.
The Achilles heel of using this service is that their customer service and live chat support features cost money – 25 hard-earned dollars per support ticket.
So, if you’re already an artist with a relatively big presence, it’s worth checking the services out and maybe even writing the team a casual introductory line.
DO MUSIC DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES OWN YOUR MUSIC?
Most music distribution companies will take a small-to-medium cut of your royalty payments each time you earn from monetizing your music through a performing rights organization.
This is only fair, as they are distributing our music worldwide in the first place.
However, music distributors DO NOT own any intellectual property belonging to your releases. That means that they do not own the rights to the music and cannot, under any circumstance, claim that the music itself belongs to them.
Some big digital music distribution services like CD Baby bear contractual agreements over their users, which allow the music distributor to edit manually, cut up, re-structure, and/or advertise your music without the artist’s permission. This is usually fine and actually helps promote your music!
For example, if the music distributor is approached by a production company that loves your song and wants a cut-down or stripped-back version of it, the distributor can actually save you the editing and administrative work by getting the edit done by an in-house member of their team.
Don’t worry – if you’re lucky enough to have your work appear in the work of production companies through your distributor, you’ll still get paid!
These special payments are called synchronization royalties, and they operate as per the original music distributor agreement you signed upon releasing your track to streaming platforms.
Read More: InterSpace Distribution: The Nigerian music distribution company building structures to help Artists
PAID VS. UNPAID MUSIC DISTRIBUTION: WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
Let’s face it: there are some giant music distribution companies out there that can spark awesome career growth for you and pretty much guarantee your music will engage a wider audience, but most of these are purchase-based or subscription-based platforms.
The obvious benefit of unpaid distribution is… yep, it’s unpaid! You could save quite a lot of money by using a free music distribution service, especially if you’re looking to release large volumes of tracks or albums over a short amount of time.
However, the reach and growth factors of these platforms are often fairly limited and stand independently from many of the music industry’s most popular distribution services.
By contrast, paid distribution platforms like CD Baby, DistroKid, and TuneCore Pro (the paid version of TuneCore Free) can grow your fanbase much quicker and more effectively than unpaid platforms can, sometimes triggering huge blasts of exposure for your release catalog.
A lot of these paid distribution platforms also have business deals with huge streaming companies like Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer, which can lead to excellent promotional tools being offered on the platforms’ websites.
One of CD Baby’s tools, for example, is ‘CD Baby’s Spotify For Artists, which includes a facility for pitching your music directly to the curators of Spotify’s biggest official editorial playlists. Each track on these playlists easily amass millions of listens within weeks.
Keep creating and releasing, and most importantly, keep having fun! Happy distributing!
