How to distribute your music for free

Streaming services do not take uploads from individual artists. A distributor sits in between: you give it your audio, artwork and details once, and it delivers them to the stores in the format each one requires, registers the release, collects the money the stores pay and passes your share to you.

Distributors earn in one of three ways: a yearly subscription, a fee for each release, or a percentage of what your music earns. A free distributor takes only the percentage.

• Your song as a WAV file, at least 16-bit / 44.1 kHz. Many distributors do not accept MP3.
• Square cover art, at least 3000 × 3000 pixels, with no logos, website addresses or social handles on it.
• The details: title, artist name, genre, language, and who wrote, produced and performed each track.
• A release date at least 7 days away — four weeks if you want a chance at editorial playlists.

1. Create an account with a distributor that charges nothing upfront.
2. Upload the audio and cover art and fill in the details and credits.
3. Choose a release date and submit. The distributor checks the release, and some, including MOOZLO, have a person review it.
4. Once approved, the release is delivered to the stores, which publish on their own schedule, usually within a few days.
5. Stores report your streams about two months later, and your earnings are paid out once they reach the distributor's minimum.

• What share of earnings you keep, and whether there is any fee on top.
• Whether your releases stay up if you stop paying or leave.
• Whether you can release under your own label name and as many artist names as you need.
• How and when you are paid, the minimum payout, and which currencies are supported.
• Whether YouTube Content ID is included or costs extra.
• Who owns the rights. You should: the distributor should only be licensed to deliver and collect, non-exclusively.

MOOZLO is free: unlimited releases, your own label name and YouTube Content ID, and you keep 85% of what your music earns. See how the free distributors compare in our comparison guide.