Freecords, the free distributor - anyone tried this?

[Overtherainbow]

Disclaimer: I have a stake in this, so a bit of a self-ad, but I believe this is the way forward for the industry and especially for the artists.

The goal is to remove as many middle men as possible between the artist and the consumer.

The claim: "World first and only free distribution, 100% royalties to the artists, no hidden fees or subscriptions, take down content whenever. Distribution takes 11 days. No catch".

https://www.freecords.com/about

We operate on low margins to make this real, so a bit rough around the edges, but the main functionality is already there. We review the community's Feedback and Suggestions weekly.
Coming soon: direct-to-client sales, donations and personal merch shops.

Enjoy and please let me know what you think!

Ed.

[Michael L]

“I think” it’s a good concept but you need to name the principals of the business and their track record (“musicians” is not reassuring), how you will operate this data-intensive business accurately at scale, and how you will not get bought or close in a few years.

[VOODOO U]

The claim: "World first and only free distribution, 100% royalties to the artists, no hidden fees or subscriptions, take down content whenever. Distribution takes 11 days. No catch

Can the artist/band select which platforms/stores the music gets distributed to?

[donkey tugger]

Not at all suggesting there's anything underhand or deceitful, but I think people will ask how, if 100% of the streaming royalties go to artists, then how the service is actually funded?

Might be on there but I couldn't see it in the FAQs or anywhere?

[Michael L]

If you read the Legal documents, there are a LOT of Terms and Conditions regarding fees, pricing, licensing, commissions, minimum payments, etc. which can change at any time. Also, they collect all your income and deduct their fees. If you make no income the fees are still payable.

Huge red flags here!

Just as a small example among many:

“4.7 We may decide not to charge you initially for the use of the Service and any optional service, however, You authorize Us to deduct the corresponding amounts from your future payments.

“In the event that after one year from the start of the relationship, You have distributed Your Content on credit, without having generated enough sales to pay back the outstanding balance, We reserve the right to request the payment of the outstanding balance.”

Seems the marketing slogans on the website do not fully reflect the many, many conditions and agreements in the Legal documents.

[vurt]

If you read the Legal documents, there are a LOT of Terms and Conditions regarding fees, pricing, licensing, commissions, minimum payments, etc. which can change at any time. Also, they collect all your income and deduct their fees. If you make no income the fees are still payable.

Huge red flags here!

Just as a small example among many:

“4.7 We may decide not to charge you initially for the use of the Service and any optional service, however, You authorize Us to deduct the corresponding amounts from your future payments.

“In the event that after one year from the start of the relationship, You have distributed Your Content on credit, without having generated enough sales to pay back the outstanding balance, We reserve the right to request the payment of the outstanding balance.”

Seems the marketing slogans on the website do not fullyreflect the Legal documents.

so not "free" then

[donkey tugger]

If you read the Legal documents, there are a LOT of Terms and Conditions regarding fees, pricing, licensing, commissions, minimum payments, etc. which can change at any time. Also, they collect all your income and deduct their fees. If you make no income the fees are still payable.

Huge red flags here!

Just as a small example among many:

“4.7 We may decide not to charge you initially for the use of the Service and any optional service, however, You authorize Us to deduct the corresponding amounts from your future payments.

“In the event that after one year from the start of the relationship, You have distributed Your Content on credit, without having generated enough sales to pay back the outstanding balance, We reserve the right to request the payment of the outstanding balance.”

Seems the marketing slogans on the website do not fully reflect the many, many conditions and agreements in the Legal documents.

Ah, cheers!

[Michael L]

Here’s a direct link to the above Terms for your reading pleasure, eg 3.1:
You shall pay all the applicable fees for the Services rendered by Us, as described below.
https://www.freecords.com/terms-of-use-distribution

There is another set of Terms here.
https://www.freecords.com/terms-of-use

It includes:
“ By posting or distributing User Content to or through the Site, you grant us, our affiliates and subsidiaries a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferrable, perpetual and irrevocable right to use, display, perform, reproduce, distribute, publish, modify, adapt, host, translate, and create derivative works from such User Content on the Site, in the manner in and for the purposes for which the Site from time to time uses such User Content and for promotion of the Site and its content;

“Freecords may license music that is uploaded to its platform and charge fees from the licensees. This is done solely for the purpose of promoting the company, the artist who uploaded the music and their songs. The net income received will be split according to an 85%/15% split in the favor of the artist.”

Apparently you can see current fees once you create an Account:

4.1 By using the Service, You shall pay to Us the fees corresponding to the Services contracted, which can be found at any time in the Profile > Pricing" section of your Account.

[gullfo]

based on this last post - it seems likely they'd also sell your material to AI companies to train their systems as well. i guess reading the T&C before signing a legal contract is still a good idea even in the 21st century...

[Overtherainbow]

“I think” it’s a good concept but you need to name the principals of the business and their track record (“musicians” is not reassuring), how you will operate this data-intensive business accurately at scale, and how you will not get bought or close in a few years.

A very interesting point on integrity - thank you!

As to personas - I don't see how this information would be relevant, despite having good things to brag about. Spotify, for instance, was created by two guys with no relation to music whatsoever and with a history of having sold off every single thing they ever touched, which people could learn about only after Spotify was already well-established. However, they've created a good product that was needed by the industry at the time - and that's what's being judged and that's how we'd like people to judge Freecords - based on our actions.

As to integrity - Freecords was established in 2019 and all of our "free distribution" competitors have since died out, changed models or fallen into outright fraud. We have kept growing and are now confident enough in our service to have started being more public and to tell you about it here. We've just crossed 50'000 user threshold, while having been at 40'000 a little over a month ago. We are boostrapped and profitable which is painful in terms of scaling, but it should be telling that we are in for the long run and we're not going to sell. There's not much else I can provide as proof of our intentions, I'm afraid, other than our promise to remain closed-type and artist-centric.

[Overtherainbow]

The claim: "World first and only free distribution, 100% royalties to the artists, no hidden fees or subscriptions, take down content whenever. Distribution takes 11 days. No catch

Can the artist/band select which platforms/stores the music gets distributed to?

We have the technical ability, but not the operational capacity at this time, I'm afraid. What we can do is to distribute to the 140 platforms we support all at once, and then take down from particular platforms on request.

Here is the list of platforms we support:

Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music/Content ID, Kuack, Bitel Musica, Digicel d’Music, Audible Magic, Kolbi Musica, Movistar Musica, Orange, Virgin Lola Music, Viva Hype Music, Vodafone Music, Shazam, Claro Music, M’Beats, Brisanet Music, DigiMusic, Rappi Music, Altice Music, TIDAL, Line Music, Deedo, TrackDrip, Facebook/Instagram, Tencent, QQ/Kugou/Kuwo/WeSing/Joox, AudioMack, ByteDance TikTok/Resso, Jaxsta, Deezer, Napster, Telefonica, SFR, BMW, Huawei Music, Rakuten, Mora Qualitas, SONOS, SoundCloud Go, Anghami, AWA, MixCloud, Transsnet Boomplay, 7 Digital, Exlibris, Grandpad, NEC, Fan Label, Digster, eMusic, Global Eagle, Moodagent, Mus.uy, MuzArcade, Audiobyte Songclip, Trebel Music, Xite, Klassik Radio, Electric Jukebox/Roxi, Soundtrack Your Brand, Soundhound, Global Radio, Jazzed, Soundmouse, iMusica, BMW, Contestone/Ringbacktone, Now Music Al/Mtel/VIP, Slacker, KKBOX, Turkcell fizy, United Media Agency, JioSaavn, MusicJet, Gaana, Alibaba Music, Yandex Music, Zvooq, NetEase Cloud Music, Beatsource, YG Plus, Nuuday TDC/youSee, Spinlet, iHeartRadio, Hungama, Snap, J:COM, KDDI, RecoChoku, Vibes, Joox, Telmore, Muda, MePlaylist, BrandSpins, Broadtime, BYO, CUR Music, Freeform, Global Tel, Gruvr, ImageSound, Imbee, JoMedia, Keefe Group, LifeScape, MUMO, My Playlist, NicheStreem, NSM, R&R, RcdClub, Spark.dj, Speedy, Sounday, The First Club, ToonGoggles, Univision, You42, Zonga, Ardel, AirTel Wynk Music, Kakao Melon, Dwango, Jammer, Juddy, My Tuner, Peloton, Sirius XM Pandora.

[Overtherainbow]

Not at all suggesting there's anything underhand or deceitful, but I think people will ask how, if 100% of the streaming royalties go to artists, then how the service is actually funded?

Might be on there but I couldn't see it in the FAQs or anywhere?

Thank you for your questions! Our model is no secret - we compensate the distribution expenses via alternative revenue routes, which for now include the $3 monthly PRO subscription and a cut on AI mastering provided by Masterchannel. The PRO subscription we view more as a donation, of which we inform our users and which we oftentimes give out for free for several months a year, and it includes AI Cover Art generator powered by the latest DALL-E 3, AI Lyrics assistant and detailed revenue view for each platform. It's not required for distribution and receiving royalties, however.

[Michael L]

“I think” it’s a good concept but you need to name the principals of the business and their track record (“musicians” is not reassuring), how you will operate this data-intensive business accurately at scale, and how you will not get bought or close in a few years.

A very interesting point on integrity - thank you!

As to personas - I don't see how this information would be relevant

This information is relevant to integrity because you say upfront, "Freecords is a pioneering hybrid music platform designed by musicians for musicians." Your musician-persona is intended to give users confidence in the integrity of your business (cfr Derek Sivers/ CDBaby). That is why I asked the question.

Thank you for your other replies, and best wishes for your business.

[VOODOO U]

Here is the list of platforms we support:

Sirius XM Pandora.

I had no idea SiriusXM and Pandora took in music from unsigned artists.
Even if that's the case I figure there has got to be some kind of screening?
Can you see some amateur acoustic artist recording a one take on their phone actually getting played on Sirius?

[dexrow]

I don't see that charging $3 a month is free otherwise I would release something trough them to get the $1 and the perfomance rights exc... I just released through landr and I am getting sample disks and software as part of the license. I can do performance splits that are alot more favorable to the other artist since there is no $3 rule there although if I stop the subscription it goes to 85%