Free music distribution sites: Choose the best for your music : Blog

You just recorded an amazing song! But what's the next step? Simple: music distribution to digital streaming platforms. You need to choose one of the best free music distribution sites for your music. These services spread tracks in streaming platforms and online stores. Nowadays, this is crucial for a song to get popular; Spotify alone has more than 500 million users. Besides that, they take care of all the bureaucracy of payments, metadata, and more. When an artist has a good music distributor, they can focus on what really matters: making art.

How to pick one of the free music distribution sites

Choosing a music distribution service involves many variables. But the most important one is the cost of the service. As an independent artist, you should always look for a company that respects your rights and has the best cost benefit. Another aspect to take a close look at is the quantity and quality of platforms and stores the distributor offers. Remember that the musician should have its personal goals in mind. Not everybody wants or needs the same things. You want your track to go viral on social media? Want to chart high on Spotify and Billboard? Give preference to spaces that can give the maximum of possibilities for your career plans. Although, it's not just about numbers: you must be aware of the company’s values. Having a partner who understands the art world and truly cares about your music is fundamental. Don’t forget to check if the chosen service is connected to what is new and indispensable, like pre-saves, websites, and analytical metrics.

Which is the best music distributor?

Okay, now you know why you should have a distributor. Let’s meet some free music distribution sites and pick the best one! There are several alternatives: Magroove, Amuse, United Masters, One RPM, Freshtune, and others. Magroove delivers your tracks to highly accessed digital service providers (DSPs) like Spotify, Youtube Music, iTunes, Deezer, Tidal, Amazon MP3, Google Play Music, iHeart Radio, Pandora, Shazam, AWA, SoundCloud, and many others. The company also put your song on social media libraries like TikTok and Facebook. Amuse and United Masters have less platform options in their lists but distribute to important ones like Spotify and Deezer. On the other hand, ONErpm mostly targets the Latin American market, offering a shorter list when it comes to the distribution companies that could take your music to global recognition. FreshTunes also only lists up to 29 partner platforms where your tracks will be available.

Which of the free music distribution sites is cheaper?

When it comes to prices, Magroove also scores higher: it is free and you get to keep 100% of the royalties. Unlike other platforms that charge upfront, the cost only gets charged if the artist makes money from the digital royalties, with a collection of USD 5 a year per release. Amuse provides both free and paid plans for artists but their business model is based on royalty sharing. This means they keep a portion for your earnings. Their paid plans are annual and also can end up being expensive for independent musicians. United Masters offers a free plan as well for new artists, yet you can keep just 90% of your royalties in this option. In order to have all of them, you need to select a paid annual plan. ONErpm has free alternatives but the difference appears when we talk about fees. They always take 15% commission on your music, no matter how much you’re making from the royalties. The commission percentage can be even bigger when applied to videos or ringtones. When it comes to FreshTunes, you will need to sign a paid plan. The cheapest one costs USD 25 in a one-time payment. There are also more expensive plans, in which the artist pays USD 10 monthly. But it is not just that: the company will take a 20% commission from your revenue in the first plan, and then 10% from the second. Tunecore is another option for music distribution but upon payment of an annual subscription ranging from USD 14,99 per year to USD 49,99 per year for unlimited launches. If you do not have a lot of new projects for this period of time – or if your music does not make as much profit yet – it might be a financial loss. Service is only free for a plan that covers just releases on social media. The firm will give you 100% of your royalties.

Why is Magroove is the top option?

After comparing different music distributors, Magroove proves to be the best not just for the amount of platforms and stores it reaches but for its prices too. The service only charges if the musician makes money from the digital royalties, with a collection of USD 5 a year for every release. It can be either a song or a whole album or EP and prices are one of the lowest in the market. If the artist receives less profit than USD 5, the company does not take the release down or charge in any way. For example, if you have released three EPs, you will be charged USD 15 per year if you make that value from royalties. Above USD 15, it is all yours. The same would apply if you had released just one single, one album and one EP, a total of three releases. If you’ve made less than USD 5 per release, you are not going to be charged for the service. The app organizes the user's earnings in tabs that gather all the money earned with its services. Another key point is that the artist keeps 100% of its royalties from all plays and downloads. Why are they so important? Well, if someone uses and enjoys a musical product, they must pay an amount of money to the artist - basically, this is the royalty. It is fundamental to preserve your rights as the owner of your work. Magroove does not take any rights to the song and is paperwork free too. There are no legal attachments. You can upload unlimited songs for free and the company will also generate the International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) if you don’t have one already. This is an unique identifier that can be permanently encoded into a recording or music video. Without an ISRC issued and attributed to your song, it does not have any trail where to forward the royalties to, so it could be played for free indiscriminately.

How can you distribute with Magroove?

Being part of Magroove is simple and uncomplicated. The idea is to let the artist focus on what really matters: music! Here is a step by step:

Prepare your files: choose a record and make a cover.
Create a Magroove for Artists account: it is easy, you can sign up with a Facebook, Spotify or Google account.
Fill the form in five quick steps.
Then pick a release date.
Now just click on submit and Magroove will send your tracks to more than 40 digital platforms!

Which features does Magroove provide?

Magroove also offers important tools to boost your release for free, while other distributors charge for most of them. For example, you can build an entire new online store to sell band merch. The company provides free custom products, automatic production, payments and global shipping. The musician can upload their own design, name their prices, create unlimited stores, show music videos, tour agenda and more. All of this with the lowest fees in the market.

The firm also has features like link trees, which are useful to facilitate public access to important artist links, such as the official website, online ticket sales, social networks and others. Magroove gives access to the famous Spotify pre-saves as well. The mechanism became popular in the last few years and helps to increase engagement and boost new songs. That happens because it guarantees the song will automatically be in the library or playlist of the listeners who signed up to pre-save. Magroove provides full analytics reports about the music stats, which is helpful to measure each release performance and organize strategies. If a single or an album is not going well on those numbers, the musician can think about ways to improve its audience or go for a new project. FreshTunes also offers this tool, but as a paid one. The platform makes available a website builder to help artists to have their own web pages as well. Today, music industry contacts don’t have time to research every professional, so it is fundamental they can find a biography, achievements and news together, in a summarized way. And there's more: the company has a discovery app. When you distribute your music with the service, your track is automatically uploaded to Magroove Discovery and reaches more listeners than ever before. There is also an Artist Hub section filled with informational articles to advise you regarding the music scenario worldwide.