Music distribution made easy

Hope Masike and Alexio Gwenzi-Copyright Academy

Many times a musician’s fans excitedly go on social media with their posts, look for their favourite musician’s music to add onto that post and get disappointed when they cannot find this music.

Popular platforms such as Tik Tok have become major music promotion hubs with many songs world over getting viral there first then subsequently benefiting from that hype on many other platforms like YouTube, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify and so forth.

Music marketing has changed rapidly over the years, shifting from traditional models that included mere Facebook post boostings to other new platforms and methods.

Unfortunately, not all musicians have moved with the times and managed to make their music available on all such modern and necessary platforms.

ZIMURA recognises these challenges that some musicians face.

In a musician’s thriving career, they would have a whole team that manages social media and/or distribution.

Unfortunately, the reality is that many musicians can not afford this, because of limited resources, lack of knowledge, and other incapacitations.

In the end they become their own booking agents, brand managers, publicists, and indeed marketers and music distributors.

This is not just a Zimbabwean phenomenon which we can only attribute to the country’s economic environment or the industry’s economic viability.

World over, there are perhaps more self-managed musicians than those with the correct and desired business structures.

This is why they were terms such as indie/independent musician that were coined. It means a musician who isn’t signed to any label and sometimes a musician who is also self-managed.

The indie musicians in Zimbabwe doesn’t have to walk it all alone though.

ZIMURA has established systems that can help its registered members to navigate some of these marketing and distribution challenges.

There are several distribution channels that a musician can choose from when they want to make their music available on online platforms, stores and otherwise.

These include the American Cdbaby, amuse, . . . Distrokid, Sounddrop (for cover musicians) and so forth.

ZIMURA has engaged Routenote as the online distributor they work with. Any musician registered with ZIMURA can walk into their offices with their music and get assistance with feeding it onto Routenote for worldwide distribution.

The advantages of taking this route are that a musician will get all the correct and legal assistance they require to upload their music and have it available for their fans on all major online platforms.

They do not have to figure out on their own how it’s done as ZIMURA can use it’s expertise to help them.

Getting assistance from ZIMURA is time and other resources efficient.

A musician who has internet challenges can use ZIMURA premises instead.

If the musician’s challenge is knowing which online distributor to use, ZIMURA can assist with that also.

Cherry on top of the cream is that a musician can kill two birds with one stone by also immediately registering their music copyright with ZIMURA at the same time.

This helps the musician because it ensures that their music is logged in correctly as it appears everywhere else online.

This submission of music to all major online platforms is done in the musician’s name, therefore, all the music rights remain with the musician.

The process is efficient as it will be done for the musician by people who are knowledgeable, skilled and used to doing this for many musicians.

It is also a service offered for free to all musicians who are registered with ZIMURA.

Musicians no longer have an excuse for failing to put their music on all online platforms as they can easily get assistance to do so in a few clicks.

Whether the challenge may not have been having a laptop to use or as intellectual as knowing how to do it, ZIMURA can do all that for any of its registered members.

Stay up to breast with modern distribution models by ensuring that your released album is available on all top music platforms for all your fans in any part of the world.

This is just a visit to ZIMURA offices away.