How to Evaluate a Music Distribution Platform for a Record Label: The Infrastructure Checklist

The first catalog you try to move is the evaluation. A store list and an annual fee do not tell you whether the ISRCs you already assigned will still identify the same recordings, whether the new partner can send the DDEX versions your stores ingest, or whether royalty files will land in a form you can split and pay against.

Run the checks in that order. Identifiers, then delivery rails, then money, then the move itself. After that, the label operations a single-artist tool never had to build: more than one label name, collaborator splits, a review layer, and a payout path you can actually close.

Keep the identifiers that already exist

Stores do not match a catalog by the name of your distributor. They match a recording by its ISRC and a product by its UPC or GTIN. If those codes change on a transfer, the new delivery is a new object. Playlists, saves, and stream history sit with the old object.

IFPI, which runs the International ISRC Agency, is blunt about this. An ISRC stays with the recording for its life, including after the owner changes, and it must not be reused. The code is ISO 3901. It identifies the sound recording, not the album, not the distributor, and not the contract you signed this year. The US ISRC Agency says the same thing in one line: never assign the same ISRC to two recordings, and never assign a new one to a recording that already has one.

UPCs follow GS1’s GTIN rules. After December 2018, an allocated GTIN is not to be given to a different trade item.

Ask the platform, in writing, who owns the codes they issue, and whether you can take them with you. Most of the time the answer is yes. When it is no, the move resets the public identity of the catalog. That is not a paperwork inconvenience. It is the difference between a transfer and a re-release.

On LabelGrid catalog management, you enter the ISRCs and UPCs you already hold. The same codes, with matching artist names, titles, and original release dates, are what the stores use to merge the new delivery with the live one. The help article on transferring your catalog is the working sequence.

Ask which DDEX ERN versions they actually send

DDEX ERN is the message suite labels and distributors use to tell a store what a release is, which recordings and images it contains, and the commercial terms under which it may go live. “We support DDEX” is not a version. An ERN exchange is agreed at a specific version, because 4.3 is not fully backwards compatible with earlier ones.

Two lines are still in production. The ERN 3.8 series and the ERN 4.x series. DDEX published ERN 4.3 on 1 December 2022 as a cumulative update from 4.2. The formal release notes say 4.3 is not fully backwards compatible with earlier versions, which is why both lines persist. The current Part 1 of ERN is 4.3.2. DDEX advises implementers to use the most recent 4.3.x, while stores that have not migrated still take 3.8.2.

LabelGrid sends and accepts ERN 3.8.2, 4.3.0, 4.3.1, and 4.3.2. It is not a DDEX consortium member. Outbound delivery to stores is formatted for you on every distributing plan. An inbound DDEX drop (SFTP or S3, for a catalog you already produce as ERN) is available on Custom Distribution and on the API plans, not on Solo, Basic, or Pro.

Audio is the other half of the same delivery. Spotify’s own spec prefers FLAC and accepts WAV. Apple’s Digital Masters program is built around 24-bit sources. A platform that only takes a lossy file is asking the store to transcode from a weaker master. LabelGrid takes lossless masters (WAV, or FLAC at 16-bit; a 24-bit master goes in as WAV) and includes Dolby Atmos / Spatial Audio, Hi-Res Audio, and Apple Motion Artworks on every distributing plan, with no per-track add-on for those.

Follow the money on two clocks

Labels mix up two reporting cycles that do not share a clock. Streaming analytics (plays, listeners, a skip rate) arrive on a store’s own feed, usually one to three days behind on the daily reporters, and each metric in LabelGrid carries its own reported-through date so a still-filling day does not read as a drop. Settled royalty statements are a different file. That file typically lands one to three months after the streaming month, which is when LabelGrid first sees the numbers. Processing happens on receipt, and payout follows on the next billing cycle. There is no faster royalty SLA to buy, because the wait is the store’s settlement, not a queue we sit on.

Then read the retention against the plan it belongs to, and against the kind of income. As of September 2026 on LabelGrid plans:

• Solo is $99 per year, one label, 100 tracks, 85% of standard DSP earnings, 7-day free trial. No automated splits, no Artist Payouts.
• Basic is $199 per year, three labels, 200 tracks, 85% of standard DSP earnings, with automated splits and Artist Payouts.
• Pro is $499 per year, five labels, 500 tracks, 90% of standard DSP earnings. Track overage is $0.15 per track per year.
• Custom Distribution starts at $999 per year, 50 labels, 2,000 tracks as the default allowance (the ceiling is raised in a custom deal, up to unlimited), 95% on LabelGrid’s own DSP deals, and 100% on royalties collected through your own direct deals. It is a 2-year commitment, billed yearly. It has no API.

UGC and Content ID (YouTube Content ID, TikTok, Facebook/Instagram) retain 80% on every plan. That 20% is not folded into the 85%, 90%, or 95% standard-DSP rate. A $100 YouTube Content ID line pays $80 on Solo and $80 on Pro. 100% of standard DSP royalties exists only when you bring your own DSP deals and LabelGrid delivers them as SOBO, which requires Custom Distribution or an API plan. YouTube Content ID delivery itself is included on every distributing plan.

Payouts go out monthly, in USD, via Wise, into the bank currency you set. LabelGrid does not charge a payout, processing, withdrawal, or per-transfer fee. Your bank may. There is no minimum threshold live today; sub-threshold balances, if a threshold is later shown in the Dashboard, carry forward. Royalty accounting is part of the platform. There is no cheaper delivery-only tier that turns it off.

Run the catalog-move test

Availability is controlled by whichever distributor currently holds the delivery. At the DDEX layer, a takedown is signalled in the DealList section of the release message, and a separate PurgeReleaseMessage removes a release from the store entirely. A clean switch is a sequence, not an atomic handoff.

1. Upload to the new platform first, with the same ISRCs and UPCs and matching metadata. Do not take the old delivery down yet.
2. Wait until the new delivery shows as live on the stores you care about. Timing varies by store and is not guaranteed.
3. Only then request takedown from the old distributor, including Content ID if they hold it.
4. Expect a short overlap. Duplicate warnings in that window are normal. Plan two to four weeks end to end, because the old takedown often takes one to three weeks by itself.

Taking the old delivery down first opens a gap. Spotify’s own help notes that a taken-down track goes unplayable unless another version of it is live. That is the failure the sequence exists to avoid.

LabelGrid distribution is not exclusive. You can leave some releases with another partner and bring the rest. You cannot leave the same release live through two distributors as a permanent setup. Beatport is the one store-level exception: a Beatport label reports at label level, so the whole label moves and the existing Beatport catalog has to be re-delivered. That is Beatport’s constraint, not a LabelGrid exclusivity clause.

Label operations a single-artist tool skips

A record label is not one artist uploading under one name. Score the platform on the jobs that appear the week after the first release lands.

Your label name, not the distributor’s, should print on the store page. LabelGrid puts the customer’s label name on the release. Solo holds one label, Basic three, Pro five, Custom Distribution fifty.

Collaborator splits are a plan line, not a given. Automated royalty splits and Artist Payouts start at Basic. Solo does not have them. If you pay producers, featured artists, or a roster from the same account, Basic is the floor, not an upsell for “advanced analytics.” Analytics, including advanced analytics, is already on every tier.

Ask who reviews a release before it goes to stores, and on which deals. LabelGrid runs metadata, audio, rights, and policy review on distribution that uses LabelGrid’s DSP deals. Submit at least two weeks out so that review has a buffer. Publishing administration is not offered today. Neighbouring-rights registration with a CMO is not offered either. Neither is a plan lever. Changing plan does not add them.

One login per account, on every plan, including Pro and Custom. There are no seats and no second user scoped to one label. That is a product gap, not a tier you have not bought. Sharing the password is on you. A second label with its own login is a second account.

Who owns the pipe, and can you build on it

Ownership of the distributor is now an infrastructure question. LabelGrid is independently owned, with no major-label parent and no DSP parent. The company was formed in 2017 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It is a Spotify Preferred Provider in the delivery-platform category, listed on Spotify’s provider directory. It is a Merlin Network member. Those are credentials. They are not a promise about a specific rate, route, or deal you did not sign.

If you need to put a branded product on top of the delivery layer, that is an API job, not a dashboard theme. Engine, LabelGrid’s REST API, is available now on the API plans, billed yearly on a two-year commitment, with a sandbox that does not create real releases. There is no per-release or per-delivery fee on those plans. Reselling under your own brand is a B2B right of Engine customers. The self-serve artist and label plans are not a reseller licence.

For the label that just needs the dashboard, start on Solo, Basic, or Pro. Custom Distribution is the dashboard plan past Pro (more labels, more tracks, own DSP deals, retention above 90%). It is not self-serve at signup, and it has no API. The comparison that belongs on a label evaluation is LabelGrid for labels against the jobs above, not a store-count race. Distribution is the delivery surface. Pricing is public and yearly, in USD.

Frequently Asked Questions

Start with one live release

Pick a release that is already on the stores. Create an account at app.labelgrid.com, move to a paid plan and complete KYC verification (the 7-day trial is dashboard access only and cannot deliver to stores), then upload that release with the ISRCs and UPCs it already has. Watch the per-store delivery status. If the codes match and the metadata matches, you are looking at the same recording, not a duplicate. The working steps live in Transferring Your Catalog. Plan pages and the trial are on pricing.