How to Upload Your Music Online in Kenya for Free

Short answer: create a free Ziki account, tap Upload, pick your MP3 and add a title, genre and cover art. Your song goes live with its own page you can share anywhere, and you choose whether it's free or for sale. For an overview of everything Ziki gives artists, see Ziki for artists.

You don't need a distributor, a label or a card to get started. If you have a finished MP3 and a phone, you can have a song online in a few minutes.

Before you upload

• A finished MP3. Up to 8 MB for a free song, or up to 15 MB and at least 60 seconds for a song you sell. Export at a good quality so it sounds right on phone speakers and in earphones. The free loudness checker tells you if your master is too quiet or too loud.
• Cover art. JPG, PNG or WebP, at least 360×360 pixels and up to 5 MB. Square works best; if yours isn't, you crop it while uploading. No artwork yet? Try the free cover art maker.
• Your song details. If your MP3 already has its title, genre and artwork saved in the file, Ziki fills those in for you. You can set them with the MP3 tag editor.
• The rights. Only upload music you own or have permission to release: no uncleared samples, covers or other people's tracks. If you recorded on a leased beat, credit the producer.

Step by step

1. Create a free account with your email or Google, and add a profile photo, bio and your social links.
2. Tap Upload and choose: a free song, a song or beat for sale, or an album or EP (2 to 30 tracks).
3. Add your MP3. While it uploads, check the title, genre, description and cover art.
4. Optional extras: paste a YouTube link to show your video on the track page, and tick "AI-assisted" if AI helped make the track.
5. Release it now, or pick a date and time to schedule it. Scheduled songs show a countdown page until they go live.
6. Share the link to your track page on WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and X.

Free or for sale?

Free tracks are the easiest way to build an audience. Listeners can stream, and you choose whether they can download. If you sell, you set the price in KES (from Ksh 50), buyers pay with M-Pesa or a card, and your track is listed in the Ziki Marketplace.

On a Ksh 1,000 sale	You keep
Basic account (free)	Ksh 900 (10% commission, payment fee included)
Ziki PRO	About Ksh 960–985 (no commission, only the payment processor's fee)

You withdraw what you've earned to M-Pesa from Settings → Payments. Producers sell beats the same way: see our guide to selling beats.

Get found after you upload

• Genre pages and playlists. Every track appears on its genre page, so listeners browsing Hip Hop or Gengetone can find it, and genre playlists pick it up too.
• Charts. Songs people play climb the weekly Ziki charts.
• Your artist page collects all your songs in one place, so new fans can hear more and follow you.
• Link in bio. You get a free page at ziki.co.ke/bio/your-name with your music and your other platforms, ready to paste into your social profiles.
• Your dashboard shows plays over time and which tracks are growing, so you know what to push.

Keep going

One song rarely builds a following. Upload consistently, share every release, and point fans to your artist page so they can follow you and hear the next one first. When you're ready to earn more, read how independent artists actually get paid.