We’re here to help artists maintain control of their art: to own their music, to self-produce and self-promote their careers, and to engage directly with you, their community. By purchasing music via our Fair Trade model, you are transforming the way music is traded across the globe.

Want to help make the Music Industry a place for Fair Trade?

As the market leader in Fair Trade Music, it has been important for us to help define the meaning of Fair Trade as it applies to the music industry. Fair Trade is not limited to the amount of money earned by the artist, but depends on a range of contributing factors that provide for a thriving and sustainable music economy.

1. Fair Share
We use a 'Fair Trade' and 'Equal Exchange' agreement giving our artists an equal share of revenue from their music sales: whenever we work directly with an independent artist they earn 50% from every sale. When you buy music downloads from an independent artist on our site, they get half of your money. This is a far greater share than the typical 8% - 12% that they can earn from standard music industry contracts.

2. Pro-Artist
By working with Afropop Worldwide, artists retain control over their music and their careers. Artists continue to own the copyright (author's rights) to their music. Our agreements are non-exclusive. Artists are given a range of marketing tools allowing them to self-market and self-promote.
Each artist is given:

- Their own artist page with their own domain
- RSS feeds of their blog for posting news
- Streaming audio and video hosting
- Embedded player that allows artists to sell music on their own site
- Featured placement on our network of media partners.

Learn how to submit your music to us on our musicians' page.

3. Pro-Consumer
Afropop Worldwide has become the leading global music download service by providing easy access to all the great, but hard-to-find, music from around the world. We’ve created the most unique and broadest based international music catalog with a social conscience – served the way you like it, via the Internet. You own the music – there are no digital rights management restrictions placed on the music files you buy – and we’ve made it easy to share your music passions with others. 

4. Supporting the Independent Producer
It is just as important to apply fair trade practices to support other music industry players such as small independent producers who continue to play vital roles in the digital music age. We are working with independent producers to create digital-only releases which are bringing new projects to market at a fraction of the cost, and at far less risk, than producing a CD. Some of these same producers also sign up new artists to our catalog and are able to share in their earnings similar to traditional A&R agents.

5. Supporting Public Media
Afropop Worldwide has partnered with non-profit public media who are often the only outlet for diverse international music. Our partners include:

- National Geographic
- Link TV
- Afropop Worldwide
- Mondomix

When you purchase music downloads through any of our partner stores, they receive a percentage of your money. This gives our public media partners an opportunity of earning a significant new revenue stream from their audiences.

6. Transparency
Music industry agreements should be clear and open. We want to bring an end to hidden fees and costs that have been borne by artists and placed them in situations where they ended up owing labels money after tours. Afropop Worldwide displays our artist agreements online and we've worked hard to simplify these agreements so that a lawyer is not needed to understand the basic terms. Afropop Worldwide has built our business on a platform of open-source software (the ultimate in transparency), which allows us to easily scale and create collaborative partnerships with other like-minded companies.

7. Sustainable Development
In Fair Trade arrangements, artists and producers no longer need large amounts of capital to access a global market. Afropop Worldwide is working directly with self-produced music from around the globe, giving artists the opportunity to take advantage of our global platform for online promotion, marketing and distribution. Under our direct-to-artist licensing, musicians in developing countries are earning revenue from their download sales that significantly increases their standard of living. For example, in Mali, West Africa, where 80% of the population lives on less than $1 per day, an annual income from download sales of even as little as $250 can provide rice for a family of 10 for a full year.