Digital distribution. Marketing tools. Merchandise. These are some of the tools that musicians will need as they progress in their career. In many cases, these come with a price tag, but not all cases. This directory will list the free resources every musician needs.
Whether you’re an independent artist, music producer, beatmaker, or audio engineer, there are many free resources out there that will help you handle different aspects of the music business.
And this should start with your fans or customers. You will need a way to collect information (e.g. email addresses) on your fans, so you can effectively communicate to them and promote your music. This is something you can maintain through a service like Brevo, that allows for free unlimited uploads of your contacts.
Another resource that most musicians will need is merchandise. And when you dig through this comprehensive guide to free resources every musician needs below you will discover Printful. With Printful, you can create and design merchandise, add these products to your website, and they will handle the fulfillment and shipping. No upfront money, only profiting on each sale.
How about selling beats or getting your music distributed to online streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music? Yes, you can do both of these things for free as well.
These are the free resources every musician needs.
No matter what kind of music creator you are, you will need a database to store your fans, customers, and contacts. Brevo allows for you to have FREE unlimited contact uploads and is by far the easiest and most cost effective solution to do this. If you're interested in paying a small fee extra, you can also take advantage of their robust suite of marketing automation tools. Brevo is by far the best communication and CRM tool for any musician.
There's no debate, Airbit is the top online marketplace for producers to sell beats. And Airbit, is absolutely FREE for you to sign-up to. Having a free profile limits you to 10 beat uploads, but you will keep 100% of the revenue you generate from any beat you sell. As Airbit is the top website to sell beats on, I definitely recommend you opt for a paid upgrade which enables you to tap into a ton of features that will make your revenue skyrocket.
One of the best ways for musicians to earn revenue outside of selling their music is through merchandise. And when you think of merch as a musician, typically you'd think that this would mean you'd have to put up a lot of money up front. Design, inventory, fulfillment, shipping and handling. But this isn't the case in today's world. With Printful, you can create a robust merchandise store with no up-front costs. It's 100% FREE for you to create your store and you'll profit on every sale. Check out our full article on how Printful works and why it's the ideal choice for any musician who wants to sell merch.
So, name a platform that is one of the best to sell beats, sample packs, and merchandise. Sellfy. Sellfy doesn't just equip you with all the e-commerce tools you need to earn massive revenue from your music and brand as a musician, but it gives you robust marketing tools to promote it. There's a reason legendary super producer Boi1da uses Sellfy to sell his sample packs. Check it out for yourself with this amazing 14-day free trial.
Digital Distribution and Sync Licensing placements? For FREE? Yep. Songtradr has been absolutely killing it for independent musicians. Sure, there are some caveats to the FREE version of their site (they take a percentage of your royalties), but to have your music distributed to Spotify and Apple Music and other leading streaming services for no up front cost is amazing. Their PRO version allows you to keep all your royalties and gives you even more access to sync licensing placement opportunities, so if you have the budget you'll definitely want to upgrade!
If you're not familiar with Plugin Boutique, they're a leading distributor and developer of the world's leading audio plugins. And when it comes to essential VSTs to own, not everyone comes with a price tag. We've curated over 125 of the best free VSTs currently available and most them are hosted directly on the leading plugin marketplace. As you grow in your career as a music producer or engineer, you'll want to check out some of the paid ones as well. Their deals page will become a go to.
Splice is a name that most creators in the music industry are aware of, and that's for good reason. Their cloud-based subscription platform is leading the way when it comes to collecting the best library of sample and loops, presets, and more. And you can try this out for FREE. They also have a ton of the leading plugins available from their site. What's unique about that is you can try any of them out for FREE, and you don't have to purchase the plugins outright to continue to use them. Their rent-to-own business model is making the priciest plugins affordable for new or budget conscious producers.
Loopcloud is more than just your average sample pack marketplace. Loopcloud loads directly into your DAW of choice and allows you to manipulate billions of royalty-free samples to your taste. Unlock inspiration and eliminate beat block forever with Loopcloud.
When people think of playlist placements, typically Spotify comes to mind, but Apple Music Playlists need to be strongly considered by every independent musician. And one Apple Music Playlist submission is absolutely FREE for independent musicians for the epic Breaking Indie Music playlist. Go ahead and submit your best music.
Loopmasters is a top marketplace for purchasing sample packs. But did you know that you can download free samples and loops daily from Loopmasters as well? Check out our free guide on how to accomplish this, but don't stop there. If you're in the market for the freshest sample and loops, you'll definitely want to keep your ears glued to Loopmasters regularly.
Free sample packs, plugins, and more? Yup. Producer Spot is a site that every music producer needs to get acquainted with if they haven't done so already. Built with the producer in mind, if you're looking for some inspiration for you music making, look no further.
All the sound kits and sample packs you an imagine and some unique and innovative VSTs packed into one amazing website. You may start with some of the free downloads, but end up giving some of the paid items a try in the near future.
Native Instruments is a leading brand and manufacturer in the music technology industry. Their software paid with their hardware products have made them a player in the industry for years, so it's no surprise they give back to the music community with some free stuff too. Take Komplete Start, their free production suite, for instance. Get going with these 2,000+ free sounds to start cooking up with.
Reason is a DAW that some of the best producers in the industry have been making beats on for years. And now you can get the DAW as a subscription, so you don't have to pay one big fee. This is absolutely FREE for you to try. And don't worry if you're already a user of another DAW, you can use the Reason rack extension as a plugin and take advantage of their iconic virtual instruments, effects and players.
Did you know that 1,000 streams of your song on Spotify couldn't get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks? Well it's true. And Millennial Mind Sync's award winning Streaming Royalty Calculator will help you forecast your revenue. Just plug-in your digital distribution service, the streaming platform and the number of streams and you'll easily be able to forecast your revenue. You'll want to bookmark this one.
As a member of RouteNote, you can distribute your music to all the major streaming services for absolutely FREE. They'll even assist you with collecting the money owed to you when your music is used in YouTube videos through the YouTube Content ID system. Another great option if you don't want to pay an up-front fee to get your music distribute to all major platforms.
A great way for musicians to earn income outside of selling their music is through their brand and a special skill they have. Monetizing this through a course you can market is an excellent way to extend your skillset. Thinkific is a leading platform to help you do just that. Create a custom course with ease and start earning passive income. Best part? You can try Thinkific for absolutely FREE.
Sync Licensing is one of the most lucrative opportunities for independent musicians and that's why the #1 Amazon Music Business charting book, The Secret Sauce for Placing Your Music In Television & Film, is helping thousands of independent musicians secure placements. And if you read that book, you understand crafting the perfect pitch email to the Music Supervisor of the project is critical. This Music Supervisor Pitch Generator will get you started in doing just that.
If you're selling beats, you're likely familiar with the marketing tactic of Type Beats. But have you ever wanted to check out the demand for Type Beats? With our Type Beat Market Watch, you're able to search by an artist name and see the search demand for Type Beats of that particular artist. It's FREE and a revolutionary way for you to spot trends in the market and increase your beat sales.
Did you know you can easily find rappers who are looking to buy beats? Circleboom enables music producers to do just that. Check out this free guide we put together on how any beatmaker can accomplish this. And Circleboom is FREE for you to try, so start curating your own list of rappers searching for beats.
At the core of any musicians brand is their website. With Bluehost you get the cheapest hosting and that can come with a FREE domain. If you're looking for an optimal way to capture your presence online Bluehost is a great starting point. Owning your platform is so important.
Cymatics is another insane marketplace for the music producer community. They have a ton of FREE stuff for you too. Free sample packs and even free plugins. Origin - Vintage Plugin is one that every Lo-Fi producer should own.
Remove.bg is an amazing AI tool that you can do to instantly remove the background of any image. This is insanely useful if you're designing your own Album Artwork, or for designing your own merchandise, and a handful of other reason. Just simply drag and drop any image into the page and it will instantly work its magic. Excellent stuff.
Reaper is one of the most in depth and customizable DAW's on the market. And you can evaluate it in full for 60 days. But the great thing about Reaper is that even after the evaluation period ends, you're able to use Reaper in full forever. Of course, it's only right for you to pay the full price which is insanely cheap anyway if you plan on using it, but if not you'll be able to use this DAW for FREE. Who's down with the Reaper?
If your music is out on digital radio like SiriusXM or sites that have some sort of auto-shuffle like Pandora, then you may have royalties to collect through SoundExchange. These plays are non-interactive in the sense that listeners don’t get to pick exactly what song they're listening to, just a genre or something similar and then music gets served up automatically.
SoundExchange is free to sign-up for and easy for any independent musician to administrate on their own.
Putting the free resources every musician needs to work
Now that you have digested this comprehensive guide to free resources for musicians, it’s time to put them to work.
But as you progress in your career, you’ll also realize that there are many paid resources that are extremely valuable. For music producers or sound designers these might be platforms to sell beats or sample packs, or shopping for music plugins. For artists and bands, it may be all about building your brand up.
Now it’s time to scale your career in music!
