Blog post

Upload and distribute guide

Uploading music to and distributing through: Freecords

Welcome to the upload guide, we wish you a warm welcome to Freecords!

This guide should help you with initial upload questions that many of you are asking, such as, can I distribute multiple artists, what file formats are supported and many others.

To get started, you need to be registered on our app.

You can do so by going to the following page: https://app.freecords.com/start

Once there, this is the screen you will see:

1. The first thing you need to do is select the “Are you an artist?” field

This enables our app to mark you as an artist and allow you to access artist-only features, such as music upload and distribution.

2. Then, please fill out the Artist Name field. This is also your username. Make sure it is exact as you would like it to appear on all music stores we distribute to, and our app. If you make a mistake, don’t worry, just contact us at: info@freecords.com and we will change it for you.

The artist name can be anything you like, just make sure it is not too generic. Generic artist names such as Apples, John, Mark, Car, Sun, etc. won’t be accepted by the stores.

For labels: If you are creating a label account, the Artist Name should be your label name.

3. Email address; Please make sure you inserted a correct e-mail. This is crucial, especially if you are distributing your music to other stores, we might have to contact you regarding your releases. 

4. Password: Enter your desired password that has to be at least 6 characters long, contain one uppercase letter and a number.

5. Finally, by creating an account you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions

6. Click on submit, which if you entered everything has turned from gray to gold.

Once registered, you should be on the Home Screen that will look similar to this (ours has some playlists already created): 

 To upload music, click on the Upload Music button in the top right corner

 Once you’ve pressed the button, you will be on this page: 

 To upload and distribute you need to:

1. Add artwork by clicking on the ”Add artwork +” button in the top left corner: 

Artwork guidelines:

Your artwork must not contain:

- Barcodes

- Store information

- Copyrighted images

- Pricing information

- Release dates

Also, it must be of sufficient quality and cannot be blurry. It also cannot be copyrighted. In the case your artwork contains any of the above, it will be denied and the song will be removed. Please make sure you follow these guidelines.

2. Name of the song

This is your song name, please do not enter your artist name again here, only the name of the song and featuring artists, if any. 

If there are artists that are featured, please insert them in the following format:

Song name ft. featuring artist 

Albums and EPs: In case your song is part of the album or an EP, and you want to upload multiple songs, you should also write your album name here, in the following format:

Song name – Album name

For labels: If your label account is uploading multiple artists, your song name should also contain the artist name in the following format Song name by Artist name.

3. Add song file

It is time to add your song file by clicking on the “Add Song +” button

As the text says, we support:

- .mp3

- .wav

- Or .flac files

Even if you are uploading .mp3, make sure it is of the highest possible quality and 320kbps minimum.

4. Filtering information: 

Please fill out all the filters accurately, they will help your song get discovered through our discovery function. Do not just put any random filtering, if we find that your filtering is incorrect, we will remove the song.

These are all the filters:

5. Choose whether you want the song to be distributed For Free or not by selecting the following field. (Recommended)

This is not compulsory, but we advise you to select it, especially if your song is not live with another distributor. Even if it is, it can’t hurt you to have it via multiple distributors to see which one offers you better conditions.

You can see what we offer here.

6. If you did choose distribution, you will also see the Composer field, that you should fill out with name and surname; and the option to add your Spotify profile. Don't worry if you don't have one, it will be made automatically.

This is the date when you would like your song to go live on stores.

Note: If you choose to put in the date, it has to be at least two weeks away from the upload date.

The field is not required, and if you do not have the desired date, we will release it as soon as possible, which is usually 2-3 days.

7. Finally, press the upload button, which has also turned gold if you filled out everything that’s necessary.

8. You should see a percentage progress bar if your song is being uploaded and once done, you should receive a GREEN popup saying the upload was successful.

To check whether your song can be listened, go back to home by clicking the arrow in the top left corner:

Once home, navigate to the Social tab:

You should see the following page: 

Click on “My Music” button:  

If your song was successfully uploaded, you should see it here. Also, if you have selected the “Distribute Song” field, the button next to the song will show “ i ”, like on the photo:  

If you did not select the field, the button will show a “Paper note and a $ sign” also located on the photo above:

In case you change your mind, you can distribute this song as well, by clicking the “Paper note and a $ sign” button.

Once clicked, it shows a popup:

Please Fill out the Composer information and

Press on “Confirm” and your song will be live shortly (2-3 days), and you will get a message that it was successful:

Note: Check your e-mail regularly for any moderation requests. All songs that are distributed with us have to go through a rigorous moderation process to ensure that your and the intellectual property of other artists is not being infringed upon.

In case you get a moderation request and do not reply, we will not be able to proceed with your distribution request.

 Pricing: Uploading and distributing with Freecords is Free.

We DO NOT charge anything for unlimited distribution, you will get 100% of your royalties.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to info@freecords.com

Edited on: 22nd of August, 2023.