Arabic & Khaleeji, in practice
Arabic music is not one market. Khaleeji from the Gulf, Egyptian pop and mahraganat, Levantine pop, Iraqi and Maghrebi records, and a fast-growing Arabic rap scene all move differently. Mazufa distributes across them, artists keep ownership of their masters, and access runs by invitation with human review.
Regional scenes, not one Arabic market
Khaleeji covers the Gulf states and carries its own rhythms, dialects and wedding-and-majlis repertoire. Egyptian pop sits apart from mahraganat, the street electronic sound built on autotuned vocals and hard percussion. Levantine pop from Lebanon, Syria and Jordan leans orchestral and romantic, while Iraqi records keep a distinct vocal and rhythmic identity. Across North Africa, Moroccan and Algerian styles including rai and chaabi form another world again. Arabic rap and trap now runs through Cairo, Riyadh, Jeddah, Casablanca and the diaspora. Tarab and classical repertoire remains a live catalogue with a serious listenership.
Singles, seasons and the Ramadan calendar
Most of the region is single-led, with albums reserved for established repertoire artists and for tarab or live projects. Two calendar pressures dominate: Ramadan, when programming and listening habits shift sharply and content is planned months ahead, and the wedding and festival seasons that follow Eid. Summer singles aimed at Gulf audiences are their own tradition. Live recordings of long-form performances still find an audience, and they need the same clearance work as studio material. Plan several months back from any seasonal window, subject to current availability and platform rules.
Arabic script, transliteration and credits
Deliver the Arabic title in Arabic script and a Latin transliteration in the alternate title field rather than jamming both into one string. Type the Arabic properly instead of pasting reversed characters from design software, and let the store handle right-to-left rendering; never insert manual direction marks or flip word order yourself. Punctuation and brackets belong at the logical end of the string, not the visual one. Tag language as Arabic, with a regional variant where the store offers it. Composer and lyricist credits carry real weight here, so name the writer and the composer, not just the singer.
How the region tags and files it
Global services usually offer broad buckets such as Arabic pop, Arabic hip hop and world, sometimes with a Khaleeji option, so Egyptian shaabi, mahraganat and rai often end up flattened. Regional services including Anghami and Deezer's Arabic catalogue carry finer taxonomies, Arabic-script metadata and dialect-aware editorial, which is where careful script tagging pays off. Search behaviour matters too: listeners type both script and transliteration, and a missing alternate title makes you unfindable to half your audience. Seasonal editorial exists around Ramadan and Eid, but no placement or editorial support can be promised.
Capture, mastering and old recordings
Vocal performance is the centre of most of this repertoire, so masters usually stay a little more open than club genres, often around minus ten to minus eight LUFS integrated, with layered ad-libs and long reverb tails needing headroom. Oud, qanun and nay recordings suffer under heavy limiting; mahraganat and Arabic trap sit far louder and denser by design. Sampling an older tarab or film recording needs both the master owner and the publisher or writers' estate, and rights on that catalogue are often held by a company rather than the family. Artwork should carry Arabic typography that stays legible small.
Arabic & Khaleeji questions
Should my title be in Arabic script or Latin letters?
Use both, in the right fields. Put the Arabic script in the main title field so the record reads correctly for listeners in the region, and add a Latin transliteration in the alternate or translated title field so search still finds you outside it. Do not merge the two with a slash in one line. Keep the same transliteration spelling across your whole catalogue, because inconsistent spelling splits your discography and your search results.
My Arabic text keeps appearing reversed. What is wrong?
Almost always the text was copied out of design software that had already broken the characters apart for layout, so what you pasted is not real Arabic text any more. Type or paste from a plain text editor instead, save as UTF-8, and let the store render right-to-left itself. Do not add invisible direction characters and do not reverse the words by hand. Check the result on a phone before approving delivery.
How do I credit the composer and lyricist properly?
Name them explicitly. In much of this repertoire the composer and the lyricist are as important as the performer, and leaving them in a description rather than the credit fields means their publishing may never be matched. List composer, lyricist and arranger separately, register the work with the relevant society, and agree the publishing split in writing before release. If a song is a known standard, the original writer's share still applies to your version.
Can I sample an old tarab or classic film recording?
Only with clearance from two sides: the owner of that specific recording and the publisher or estate behind the composition. Much of that catalogue sits with companies rather than families, so the request goes through a rights department and can take time. Replaying the melody with your own musicians removes the recording side but still needs the publishing side. Do not schedule a release date until the written permission is in hand.
How should a Khaleeji record be tagged for stores outside the region?
Choose Khaleeji where the service offers it, and Arabic pop where it does not, rather than defaulting to world. Keep the dialect and region in your pitch text so anyone reading it understands what the record is. Deliver Arabic script and transliteration together so both search paths work. Regional and global services categorise differently, and tagging accurately on each is the part you control; no placement can be promised.
What does Mazufa do for an Arabic-language release?
Mazufa is an independent label and a free distribution platform. You keep ownership of your masters and the company takes 0% commission, with no per-release charge. Access is invite-only and every application is read by a person. Practically, we handle script and transliteration fields, composer and lyricist credits, language tagging, version naming and delivery to available stores, subject to current availability and platform rules.