Guidelines

Music Distribution Guidelines

9th of September, 2022.
5 min read

Introduction

Welcome to Freecords' Music Distribution Guidelines! Please follow these guidelines to ensure your music meets our standards and those of our partner platforms for a successful release.

Make sure your music is original and complies with intellectual property rights!

Prohibition of Artificial Streaming 

Using paid third-party services to guarantee streams is strictly prohibited as it is considered artificial streaming. This can lead to the removal of your music from outlets and significant losses.

Proof of Ownership 

Artists must be the original copyright holders or provide verifiable licenses and government-issued IDs for products containing the intellectual property of others.

Formatting Guidelines

1. Featuring Artists

To credit a featuring artist, use +Other Artist function during Song Upload.. Type “feat” or “with” in lowercase and within brackets, e.g., Good Day (feat. Mark Upperson) or Good Day (with Mark Upperson).

2. Remixes

Ensure remix titles include enough information to avoid duplication, e.g., Good Day (Extended Mix).

Please provide the original song’ licenses necessary for the commercial distribution of the remix to our support team before or immediately after you Uploaded the remix.

3. Cover Songs.

Ensure Cover Song titles include enough information to avoid misrepresentation, e.g., Take A Walk On The Wild Side (Lou Reed Cover).

Please provide the mechanical rights necessary for the commercial distribution of the Cover Song to our support team before or immediately after you Upload the Cover Song.

4. Classical Music Titles

Use the format [Name of Work] in [key], [catalogue number], [movement number], [movement title], e.g., Symphony No.7 in C major, Opus 21.

5. Capitalization for Parts and Volumes

Abbreviate to Vol. and Pt., e.g., Good Day, Vol. 1.

Cover Art Requirements

Cover Art should be in square dimensions, high-quality, and free of website and contact addresses, pricing, pornography, misleading information, copyrighted or watermarked materials, barcodes or logos.

Cover Art may not contain any additional text, other than the Song Title or Artist Name. For Albums, the Cover Art may also contain Album Name.

Additionally, for Singles, the Cover Art must be unique for each release. If you are using the same Cover Art repeatedly, make sure to add the respective Song Title to each Cover Art.

Cover Art should have a resolution of no less than 1000 by 1000 pixels.

Cover Art file size should be less than 25 MB.

Audio Requirements

Maximum duration of silence before or after audio content must be less than 15 seconds.

Audio must not end abruptly, such as midverse.

Track duration must be at least 60 seconds and no longer than 30 minutes

Generative AI Music

As of October 1st, 2024, we no longer accept fully AI-generated music. While we've historically supported AI-assisted music creation, recent abuses of AI-generated music for streaming fraud have posed serious challenges and jeopardized the integrity of our platform and the works of all artists we support. This change will not affect AI-assisted music uploads where AI was used to aid and enhance the creative process—only those where the audio was generated entirely by AI.

Objectionable Content 

Any form of hate speech, pornographic material, or content that glorifies harm, violence, or is otherwise objectionable or inappropriate will not be accepted.

Production Library Music 

We do not accept production library music, such as royalty-free or stock music, backing tracks, or continuous clips of noise generators and sound/audio effects.

Non-Musical Audio Content 

Storytelling, speech, spoken word audio, including podcasts, radio shows, album commentary, and audiobooks,  are not eligible for distribution.

Continuous clips of noise generators or functional noise recordings, like nature sounds, are not accepted unless they are artistically used and meet specific criteria.

Ambient Recording.

Streaming platforms and stores will not accept Ambient, Meditation, Yoga or Sleep Music Sound Recordings created using soundscapes and sound effects with little to no melody intended to be used as background music in spas, meditation and public spaces.

For support, click Contact Us in your Account Settings.