Frequently Asked Questions

AfroPublish is a music publishing, distribution and licensing platform built for African artists, producers, songwriters and labels. You can upload your music, distribute it to DSPs like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Boomplay and Audiomack, licence beats and sync rights, and track royalties — all in one place.

AfroPublish is operated by Starlight Group SA (Pty) Ltd, a private company registered in the Republic of South Africa.

AfroPublish is available worldwide. Our content, support and distribution focus is on artists across Botswana, South Africa, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Nigeria and the broader African market, but artists from anywhere are welcome to sign up.

Click Sign up at the top of the site, enter your email and a password, and verify the email we send you. You’ll then complete a short onboarding to set your stage name, country, language and primary genre.

Yes — you must be at least 18, or the age of majority in your country, to use AfroPublish. If you’re younger, ask a parent or guardian to sign up on your behalf.

Go to Settings › Account and use the “Delete account” option, or email support@afropublish.com. We’ll honour the request, subject to retention obligations described in our Privacy Policy.

AfroPublish currently runs on a Free tier only. You can sign up, upload music, prepare releases, build a presave page and use the platform without paying a subscription. Paid plans (Pro and Label) are marked “Coming Soon” and cannot yet be purchased.

We’re finalising our payment integration with Paystack. We’ll email registered users when paid plans are live, and you’ll only be charged if you actively select and pay for one. There is no free trial that auto-converts to a paid plan.

Yes. Our intent is to keep a meaningful Free tier so artists who are just starting out can still distribute, build a presave audience and earn from licence sales without a subscription.

Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Boomplay, Audiomack and a growing list of others through our distribution-partner integration. Each release lets you choose which DSPs to deliver to.

Most DSPs review new releases within 1–7 days. Some require longer, especially around major holidays. We notify you when each DSP confirms delivery.

Until our distribution-partner integration is fully live, releases you submit are stored, validated and queued. We’ll notify you when delivery actually begins. If a release has been queued for an unusually long time, email support@afropublish.com.

Yes — from the release detail page, click Request takedown. Note that DSPs typically take several days to action a takedown, and that streaming royalties already accrued before takedown remain yours.

You list each track with one or more licence tiers (Basic, Premium, Exclusive, or your own custom tier). Buyers purchase the tier they need; the licence is issued in your name with the terms displayed at checkout. Files (MP3, WAV, stems) are made available for download according to the licence selected.

The Exclusive licence transfers exclusive use to the Buyer (within the territory and duration specified). After an Exclusive sale, the track is automatically removed from the marketplace and you cannot grant further licences for it.

The fee is shown at the point of sale and on each transaction line in your earnings dashboard. The remaining net amount is credited to your AfroPublish balance.

DSPs report streams and royalties on monthly or quarterly cycles. Once we receive a report, we reconcile it, apply our platform fee and any currency conversion, and publish your statement in your dashboard.

Set up your payout details in Settings › Payout. Once your balance crosses the minimum payout threshold and you’re within the payout window, we’ll process the payment to your configured method. Active payouts depend on our payment integration being live.

You’re responsible for declaring and paying taxes on amounts you receive through AfroPublish. Where withholding tax is required by law, we may deduct it before paying you. Talk to a tax advisor in your country if you’re unsure.

Yes. AfroPublish does not take ownership of your masters, compositions or any other rights. We only take a limited licence to host, distribute and process your music for the purpose of providing the Platform — explained in clause 5 of our Terms of Use.

Only if you have the rights to do so — for example as a label representing the artist, a publisher representing the songwriter, or under a written licence/assignment. Uploading music you don’t have the rights to is a serious breach of our Terms and may lead to account termination, withheld royalties and DSP penalties.

Send a takedown notice to legal@afropublish.com including the information described in clause 10 of our Terms of Use. We’ll review and act promptly on valid notices.

For most issues, open a ticket from Settings › Support in your dashboard. For general questions you can also email support@afropublish.com. Privacy and data requests go to privacy@afropublish.com; takedown notices and copyright matters go to legal@afropublish.com.

Our team is based in South Africa and aims to respond on business days. We’ll always confirm receipt within 1 business day, even if a full response takes longer.