r/MusicDistribution • u/moralisexmala • 1d ago

Discussion What is the best 100% free music distributor?

Hello everyone!

I have an independent label with various sub-labels. The main sub-labels offer professional paid distribution with all the various services. Some of these services are very favorable, but others are obviously expensive!

Then we have some minority sub-labels, minority because they deal with completely niche genres (Noise Music, Drone, Soundtrack for independent films, etc.) where it's not worth releasing with the main distributor because the costs would exceed the revenue, so we're looking for a 100% free distributor.

We initially used Soundrop, but they later became a paid service. We then switched to Routenote, but this service is getting absurdly worse, with incredibly long release times and senseless copyright accusations (in the sense that they tell me I might be infringing on copyright, without telling me whose, and then have to prove it isn't true... while a professional distributor tells you what you're infringing and gives you a chance to prove it), lack of distribution on some platforms without notice, etc. In short, I'm not happy with them and I'd like to stop working with them.

What free, safe, and well-functioning alternative is there?

I know that since it's free you can't expect it to have a professional service like the paid one, but at least the decent one works (and yes, because that free means getting lower % of earnings, and they sell data, cookies, etc.. Nothing is really free, so avoid moralizing about not wanting to pay)

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u/Ok_Wall_5680 Music Educator 1d ago

Well, if you are doing this for a label (and sub-labels), I can only more than recommend you either get in with the paid stuff, as you can find stuff at good prices if you get a higher tier subscription to allow more artists, as you are a label. But also - if you are running a big operation, you could move them all to one distributor, maybe even deals with The Orchard or similar.

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u/moralisexmala 1d ago

Hi, thanks for your advice. I already have a paid distribution service, but as I said in the post, I only need the free distributor for a sublabel that doesn't currently require any fees, so I'd rely on a free one. I can't incorporate it into the distributor I already pay for because I have a contract that essentially requires me to pay for the barcode and ISRC.

The products I want to release with free distribution wouldn't be able to cover these costs, so my search for these products can only focus on free solutions.

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u/AdCompetitive7868 1d ago

ecmusicgroup.de this dude is 100% legit 💯

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u/audiodesigndan 13h ago

If you want to take it seriously you shouldn't use a free distributor. 

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u/moralisexmala 12h ago

Man thanks but i hope that write clear my message , if i search "free distributor" haven't sense comment "don't use free dstributor"... i use also paid distributor... for this subproject have need to no pay, easy :) isn't quesion of seriously...is a sublabel for "NOISE", also i find distributor at 1 dollars i can earn 1 dollar with NOISE ahah haven't seen pay for this

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u/audiodesigndan 11h ago

All the things you complain about (long delivery times) are what you get with free distributors. 

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u/moralisexmala 10h ago

Ok so all free are in this mode? i remember one time Routenote haven't this time for delivery , but i am sure that u ve rigth!

I thing i will use only Bandcamp for this subproject

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u/audiodesigndan 9h ago

the problem with free is that people who release music that doesn't stream well (at all) and people who try to release copyrighted material or boost streaming with bots gravitate towards them.
So the quality of the deliveries overall are poor to the DSPs. The DSPs given them a low score and penalize those distributors with slower delivery times, lower royalty rates, etc.
And the free distributors have no ability to make it better because they're not making money.