About alonetone

What the heck is alonetone?

alonetone is a place for small label, DIY, bedroom and other musicians and bands to upload and share their mp3s for free.

We've been around since 2008.

If you make music (and own the rights to it) then this site is built for you.

So, it's free?

Yup!

We run on donations from people who believe the internet should provide free non-commercial spaces to artists.

Why alonetone instead of XYZ?

Most 'free' services where you can host your music run ads, sell user data, are funded by investors hoping to cash out at some point, or are flat out owned by media conglomerates.

In general, they are trying to make money off of your "content"...erm...music.

alonetone is a non-commercial alternative. Something that musicians can feel like they own.

Beyond that, we want to do it right.

Clean, only the essentials. Not too dorked-out. Easy to get around. Read more here.

Can I sell my music here?

Nope!

alonetone is for people who want to give our music away and share it freely. There are many places where you can try and sell your tunes (see: Bandcamp).

Who makes alonetone?

alonetone is run by ModernThings, a 501(c)(3) US-based non-profit.

It was conceived by and still built by Sudara.

montgomeru handles frontend coding.

We get regular design love from Samo.

After our initial launch in 2008, most features were inspired, recommended by, and built to please alonetoners who spoke up and provided their valuable feedback in chat and the forums.

How long will alonetone be free?

As long as alonetone exists.

We strongly believe there should be more free, non-commercial places to share music online. The ability to upload and share music without ads or payment will exist as long as we are around.

Who pays for all of this? Are you a startup?

Sudara has historically personally paid for all hosting, storage, design and development costs since 2008.

These can add up quickly, and it hasn't always been easy or sustainble!

In 2020, we started a patreon so the costs could be shared by the community. As of early 2021, server and storage costs are almost covered by other alonetoners.

In 2022, we founded a 501(c)(3) non profit so that we can accept donations worldwide. The goal is to more sustainably fund development costs.

You can make a US tax-deductible donation here.

Is alonetone open source?

Yup!

We are open-minded to contributions over at GitHub.

Thanks to the nice people at BrowserStack and Skylight for providing their services free for open source projects.