{"id":2020,"slug":"free-vs-paid-distribution-nigeria","title":"Free vs paid self-serve music distribution, 2026","source":"Published pricing and revenue-share pages of ONErpm, RouteNote, CD Baby, TuneCore, Amuse, DistroKid and InterSpace Distribution, retrieved August 2026","source_url":"https:\/\/support.routenote.com\/kb-article\/what-percentage-does-routenote-take\/","source_type":"official","method":"Nine self-serve distribution options, across seven companies, that a Nigerian artist can sign up for directly online without a label or manager, checked against each company's own pricing or royalty pages in August 2026: ONErpm (onerpm.com\/onerpm-answers-common-questions), RouteNote free and premium (support.routenote.com\/kb-article\/what-percentage-does-routenote-take, routenote.com\/pricing), CD Baby (cdbaby.com\/cd-baby-cost), TuneCore (tunecore.com\/pricing, tunecore.com), Amuse (amuse.io\/en\/pricing), DistroKid (distrokid.com\/pricing), and InterSpace Distribution, the one Nigeria-based company in the sample (interspacemusic.com\/pricing for the Artiste plan fee, interspacemusic.com\/distribution-agreement for both the free plan's 30 per cent service fee and the paid plans' 100 per cent retention, interspacemusic.com\/about for the company's own account of where it is based). InterSpace's Artist Plus plan is excluded because it prices three or more artists and is not comparable with the single-artist tiers of the other six companies. 'Model' is Free if there is no charge to distribute a release; upfront_usd is the year-one cost for a single release; platform_cut_pct is the share of streaming and download revenue the company keeps on top of any fee. UnitedMasters was excluded: its support pages returned a 403 to automated retrieval and its current royalty terms could not be confirmed first-hand for this piece.","unit":"usd_and_pct","license":"Afrobeats Wire's compilation and analysis are licensed CC BY 4.0. Rights in the underlying source data remain with the source named above.","confidence":"high","retrieved":"2026-08-21 02:15:23","n":9,"first_party":0,"columns":[{"key":"platform","label":"Platform","type":"text"},{"key":"model","label":"Model","type":"text"},{"key":"upfront_usd","label":"Year-one cost, USD","type":"number"},{"key":"platform_cut_pct","label":"Platform's cut, %","type":"number"},{"key":"artist_keep_pct","label":"Artist keeps, %","type":"number"}],"rows":[{"platform":"InterSpace Distribution (Free plan)","model":"Free","upfront_usd":0,"platform_cut_pct":30,"artist_keep_pct":70},{"platform":"ONErpm","model":"Free","upfront_usd":0,"platform_cut_pct":15,"artist_keep_pct":85},{"platform":"RouteNote (Free plan)","model":"Free","upfront_usd":0,"platform_cut_pct":15,"artist_keep_pct":85},{"platform":"CD Baby (single)","model":"Paid","upfront_usd":9.99,"platform_cut_pct":9,"artist_keep_pct":91},{"platform":"InterSpace Distribution (Artiste)","model":"Paid","upfront_usd":19,"platform_cut_pct":0,"artist_keep_pct":100},{"platform":"RouteNote (Premium, single)","model":"Paid","upfront_usd":10,"platform_cut_pct":0,"artist_keep_pct":100},{"platform":"TuneCore (Rising, unlimited)","model":"Paid","upfront_usd":24.99,"platform_cut_pct":0,"artist_keep_pct":100},{"platform":"Amuse (Artist)","model":"Paid","upfront_usd":23.99,"platform_cut_pct":0,"artist_keep_pct":100},{"platform":"DistroKid (Musician)","model":"Paid","upfront_usd":24.99,"platform_cut_pct":0,"artist_keep_pct":100}]}