You may have missed what PRWeb quietly announced on their website around the time of the launch of Billboard Publicity Wire.  They’ve ended their free press release distribution service.

While that’s unfortunate because it was really the best free press release service, their basic levels of paid service are budget friendly and well designed.  This move, which follows their acquisition by Vocus and their recent deal with Business Wire, opens up the field for other free press release distribution services.  It will be interesting to see who steps up.

I used the Billboard Publicity Wire services for my recent hip hop domain auction press release and found that what they’re actually offering are PRWeb’s paid service plus a listing on Billboard Publicity Wire which is hosted at PRWeb.  My understanding is that there is no presence on Billboard’s own websites and that any reference in the Billboard Publicity Wire service descriptions to appearing on Billboard’s site refer to the Publicity Wire site.

Nevertheless, I think the BPW site does add value without extra expense and will become quite prominent in the future because it creates a specific spot for music related press releases.

One oddity is that the categories for the subsections and RSS feeds listed on the BPW press release submission form are different from the categories available via PR Web’s submission form.  This difference meant that my recent release did not turn up in one of the PR Web categories that I would have chosen at PRWeb.  I’ll check with them to see if they have any clarification on that point and get back to you but everything else looks pretty solid and straightforward.