AudioSalad Alternative: Distribution and API Prices Published

Short answer: AudioSalad and LabelGrid sell the same shape of thing, described in their own FAQ as “a digital media and metadata management platform, delivery provider and distribution company”. What differs is how you buy it. AudioSalad is one platform, reached through their enquiry form and priced in the reply. LabelGrid sells three products you buy separately, with every distribution plan and every API tier priced on the pricing page; Imprint, our white-label portal for businesses that distribute under their own brand, has its pricing scoped at onboarding rather than published (talk to us about Imprint). Every AudioSalad value in the table below comes from one of their own published pages.

Which ERN versions can you send today?

AudioSalad’s FAQ describes it as “a proud member of the DDEX Consortium”; LabelGrid is not a member, and we do not contest their credential. On the versions themselves, their FAQ states that AudioSalad “currently supports DDEX ERN specifications 3.4.1, 3.71, 3.8.2. (with version 4.3 under development)”, while LabelGrid supports ERN 3.8.2, 4.3.0, 4.3.1 and 4.3.2. By their own account they sit at the table where the specifications are written, and by the same account we ship the newer message versions.

Products on one backend

DDEX ERN versions

100%

Yours on your own DSP deals, on Custom Distribution and the API tiers

Free-trial days on self-serve distribution plans

FROM THEIR OWN PAGES

Row by row, from published pages

Each AudioSalad value below is taken from one of their own published pages, linked beneath the table with the date we read them. Nine distinct documents were readable on 23 September 2026, and three of the URLs we asked for turned out to be fragments of a single services page, so one witness covers their white label, their API and their distribution rather than three. A dimension those nine pages do not state is left out rather than guessed at.

Feature	LabelGrid	AudioSalad
What the company sells	Three products on one backend: self-serve distribution for labels and artists, Imprint the white-label portal, and Engine the API	A metadata and media management platform, delivery provider and distributor
What it costs	Every self-serve distribution plan and every API tier is priced on the pricing page, including the Custom Distribution and API starting prices; Imprint is scoped at onboarding rather than published	Quote only — "contact us for pricing details"
What the price is metered by	Metered by catalogue here too, with the boundaries published: Solo and Basic step up a tier at their track and label limits, Pro adds $0.15 per track per year, Custom Distribution $0.25 per track per year up to 10,000 tracks, and the three standard API tiers add a monthly royalty-processing cap with no overage fee	Tiers metered by the number of assets under management
Your own DSP deals, or the platform's	The same two routes, with the rate published on each: you keep 95% of standard-DSP royalties earned through LabelGrid's own deals and 100% of what you earn on your own deals or SOBO, on Custom Distribution and the API tiers only; Solo, Basic and Pro keep 85%, 85% and 90% and have no SOBO route	Delivery on your own DSP deals, or distribution on theirs
DDEX ERN versions	LabelGrid supports DDEX ERN 3.8.2, 4.3.0, 4.3.1 and 4.3.2	ERN 3.4.1, 3.71, 3.8.2; "version 4.3 under development"
DDEX Consortium membership	LabelGrid is not a member of the DDEX Consortium	DDEX Consortium member
The API	Engine is a product in its own right with published tiers: public REST documentation anyone can read, plus a sandbox and an open-source MCP server (MIT, on the public MCP registry) that run on an API plan	API for headless content management, ingestion and delivery
The white-label product	Imprint puts the customer's own brand on their own domain; Imprint pricing is scoped at onboarding rather than published	Your logo, colour scheme and custom domain
Royalty reporting	Statements, payouts and royalty transparency in the platform, with automated splits from Basic up and on every API tier; Solo carries neither splits nor per-artist statements	Detailed royalty reporting for distribution clients, in a reporting portal
Where payees are set up	In LabelGrid, beside the catalogue and the statements: royalty accounting is a platform feature rather than a second product with its own login	Payee setup in a separate payments platform with its own login
How you evaluate it	A 7-day free trial on the self-serve distribution plans, and public API documentation with a sandbox on an API plan; the API tiers and third-party distribution go through onboarding screening and KYC/KYB here too	Fully functioning demo system, shown by their team on request

Each of the 11 AudioSalad values above is sourced from their own published pages, read 2026-09-23: audiosalad.com/faq/, audiosalad.com/payments-account-setup-help/, audiosalad.com/services/#white-label. Dimensions we could not source from one of their primary pages are omitted rather than guessed.

WHAT YOU CAN PRICE

What a buyer can check before making contact

Both companies meter the platform fee by catalogue size. Their FAQ says so plainly: “We have pricing tiers based on the number of assets under management”, and ours works the same way, so growing into a bigger bill is not a peculiarity of theirs. What differs is where the numbers live. Their FAQ answers “How much does AudioSalad Cost?” with “Please contact us for pricing details and information about our distribution deals”, and their nine distinct captured pages, read 23 September 2026, do not state a figure, a currency symbol or a rate. We publish the plan prices, the track and label boundaries each tier steps up at, and the per-track overage rates on the tiers that carry one, which is what you need to work out next year’s invoice rather than this month’s.

You can act on that without speaking to anyone: start a self-serve plan on a seven-day trial, or read the REST documentation. If you would rather be walked through it, their FAQ offers that route: “Yes we have a fully functioning demo system we would be happy to show you.”

Two honest limits on our side. Imprint is scoped at onboarding rather than published, so what this page claims about published pricing is a claim about distribution and the API ladder and not about the whole product. And a B2B account is a conversation with us too: the API tiers and third-party distribution go through onboarding screening and KYC/KYB, and the sandbox opens once a paid API plan is active.

What you can read today

Plan prices

Every distribution plan and every API tier is priced on the pricing page, Custom starting prices included.

What moves the bill

Track limits, label limits and per-track overage rates are published beside the plan they belong to.

Public API docs

The REST documentation reads without a sales call, and the sandbox opens once a paid API plan is active.

Scoped, and we say so

Imprint is scoped at onboarding, and the figures inside any custom deal stay with that customer.

YOUR SITE, YOUR TOOLS

Your catalogue on your own site

LabelGrid Tools, our WordPress plugin, syncs releases, artists and download gates into your own site every six hours, and builds release smart links, Spotify pre-saves, gated downloads and advertising conversion events. It is available to every account at no extra cost and needs no API plan. Gated downloads and download contests are the plugin’s own; smart links and pre-saves also have endpoints on the public API, so the plugin is one route to them rather than the only one. The same catalogue is reachable from our open-source MCP server and our CLI, which run on the same public API and need an API plan.

See the WordPress plugin

FOR LABELS AND ARTISTS

Releasing a catalogue of your own

If the catalogue is yours, the self-serve plans are the whole story and their prices are on the pricing page. You keep 85% of standard-DSP royalties on Solo and Basic and 90% on Pro, and the label limit rises with the plan: one on Solo, three on Basic, five on Pro. Each label carries its own profile, genres, P-line and C-line, outlet selection and statement line. Automated splits and per-artist statements start at Basic rather than Solo, which is the main reason to move up early. Every self-serve plan starts with a seven-day free trial.

What arrives with the plan is worth reading before the headline rate is. Spatial audio is one place the two companies simply match: Dolby Atmos mixes and high-resolution masters are delivered on every LabelGrid distribution plan at no extra charge, and their own FAQ lists “Dolby Atmos (Spacial Audio)” among the core formats they support, so it is not a reason to pick either of us. The rest of what the plan carries is ours to state. ISRC and UPC codes are issued automatically here as you create a release, and they are yours to keep if you later leave. YouTube Content ID registration is available on every distribution plan, with 80% of the Content ID and UGC revenue earned through LabelGrid's deals going to you and a 20% fee on that revenue. Every release is reviewed by a person for quality, metadata and rights before it goes out, unless the account distributes only through its own direct deals.

AudioSalad will talk to a catalogue of any size, and their own enquiry form says so: the options run from “Under 100 releases” to “Over 10,000 releases” and include “We have no music - yet!”. The difference for this reader is the route rather than the size of buyer either company will talk to.

In every distribution plan

Outlets you pick

Delivery to all major DSPs, download stores and social apps, with any outlet deselectable per release.

Codes included

ISRC and UPC codes are issued as you create a release, and they stay yours if you move on.

Content ID

Registration on every distribution plan: you keep 80% of the Content ID and UGC revenue earned through LabelGrid's deals, with a 20% fee.

Human release review

Quality, metadata and rights are checked before delivery unless your account distributes only through its own direct deals.

FOR WHITE-LABEL OPERATORS

Whose brand the portal carries

Both companies put your brand on the front, so branding is not the interesting part of this comparison. What a sourced page can cover is their published description, our account structure, and what happens when your business outgrows the published ladder.

What AudioSalad publishes

Their services page describes a branded dashboard: “Use your logo, color scheme, and custom domain”, and “Invite users into your branded dashboard, where they can manage content, deliver music, and collaborate”, all under your identity. That is a user-invite model, stated in their own words. Their nine distinct captured pages, read 23 September 2026, do not state whether separate end-customer workspaces or self-serve signup on your own domain sit behind it, so we make no claim about it either way.

How Imprint is built

Imprint is our white-label portal: your brand on your own domain, with every end customer in a workspace of its own. A workspace is one label with its own portal login and its own members, and an artist who wants a label of their own can sign up on your domain and become their own end customer. On Imprint a label also gets an artist layer beneath it, each tier with its own login and its own console. Imprint is scoped at onboarding.

When the ladder runs out

The published plans are the floor of a conversation rather than its ceiling. Custom Distribution starts at 2,000 tracks and the cap is raised in the deal, up to unlimited. Caps, ceilings, platform fees and packaging are negotiable: an operation running thousands of single-label artists can negotiate bulk label pricing, for instance. The route is public and the figures inside any one deal are not, which is the same shape as their quotation.

What our model costs you is worth naming. A workspace for every label suits a reseller whose customers are labels. On a self-serve plan, an artist without a label of their own is a contributor credit rather than an account; on Imprint a label gets an artist layer beneath it, each tier with its own login and its own console. Only you, as the operator, see across all of them.

FOR API BUILDERS

Buying the API as a product

AudioSalad describe a “Powerful API for headless content management, ingestion, and delivery” that lets a developer “retrieve metadata and media assets, remotely trigger ingestions and deliveries, return delivery statuses, and more”. So the question is not whether they have one. It is what you can settle before you buy: their nine distinct captured pages, read 23 September 2026, do not mention published API pricing, a sandbox, rate limits, webhooks or an MCP server, which is an observation about their published material and nothing more. Engine is priced as a product in its own right, four tiers on the pricing page, so you can size the API against a number without asking anyone.

Our meters are published and worth reading before you commit. Each standard tier carries a track limit, a number of active label portals, and a monthly royalty-processing cap. The label-portal count is 5 on Starter, 25 on Growth, 100 on Scale and unlimited on Custom API, and every active label in the account counts, including your own. The cap is $35,000, $115,000 and $350,000 a month across the three standard tiers, with no overage fee: sustained excess is a conversation about the next tier. Each standard tier can add one pack of extra portals through support, fixed at 5 on Starter, 10 on Growth and 25 on Scale, and past that one pack the answer is the next tier.

On DDEX, direction matters. We deliver releases and takedowns over the ERN message suite on every distribution plan, and ERN import, either a one-time catalogue import or a continuous feed over SFTP or S3, runs on the API tiers and on Custom Distribution, switched on by support with technical onboarding and a one-time setup fee. The four supported versions are the same in both directions. Documentation is public, and the sandbox opens once a paid API plan is active; the seven-day trial belongs to the self-serve distribution plans and does not reach it.

The API ladder

Published tiers

Starter, Growth, Scale and Custom API are priced on the pricing page, starting prices included.

Label portals, counted

The API limit counts active label portals, your own included: 5, 25, 100, then unlimited on Custom API.

Cap without overage

Monthly royalty processing caps at $35,000, $115,000 or $350,000, with a tier conversation instead of a fee.

Open-source tooling

Our MCP server is MIT-licensed on the public registry, with a CLI on the same public API.

WHERE THEY WIN

Where AudioSalad is the better choice

One card, because one is what the evidence supports on both sides. A short honest list is worth more than a symmetrical one.

A seat at the DDEX table

Their FAQ states that “AudioSalad is a proud member of the DDEX Consortium”. LabelGrid is not a member. We implement the standard and support ERN 3.8.2, 4.3.0, 4.3.1 and 4.3.2, but implementing a specification and sitting in the room where it is written are different things. If your rights holders, your board or your compliance team want a delivery partner that states that membership, that is a straightforward reason to choose AudioSalad; confirm it with them as you would any credential.

We keep this section in every comparison we publish; a comparison you cannot trust is worth nothing.

WHICH ONE TO PICK

Choosing between the two

Choose AudioSalad if the DDEX Consortium membership their FAQ states is something you need from a delivery partner rather than something you would merely like to see. Choose them if you would rather have a deal shaped in a conversation than a ladder you read off a page, and if being walked through the product by their team is how you prefer to evaluate software: their FAQ offers “a fully functioning demo system” on request. Choose them if your ingest is already built around their own XML specification, which their services page names beside spreadsheet bulk ingest and DDEX as one of the routes into their dashboard.

Their published buyer list reads almost exactly like ours, which is why this page is a like-for-like comparison rather than a category argument. Their FAQ names “record labels, artists, music managers, music publishers, content administrators, distributors and more”, and their enquiry form adds Distributor, Music Supervisor/Sync and Music/Media Group to the same list. Both companies sell to the business that releases other people’s music, which is why the deciding factors tend to be the ones in the panel beside this paragraph.

Choose LabelGrid if

You price it before making contact

Every distribution plan and API tier is published, with the boundaries and overage rates beside it.

You need ERN 4.3 now

We support 3.8.2, 4.3.0, 4.3.1 and 4.3.2; their FAQ puts version 4.3 under development.

Accounting in one place

Statements and payouts sit beside the catalogue, not behind a second login, with automated splits from Basic up.

You want the API itself

Engine is a product with its own tiers, public documentation and open-source client tooling.

QUESTIONS TO ASK

Seven questions for any platform here

Ask us these as well. The answers tell you more than any comparison table, including this one.

01Ask which meter your bill sits on, where the boundary is, and what the next unit costs once you cross it. A price with no meter beside it is half a quotation.

02Ask for the price in writing before the first conversation, and check whether every tier is published or only the entry point, because the tier you grow into is the one that decides the budget.

03Ask which DDEX ERN versions the platform sends to your DSPs today, and which versions are described as under development rather than shipping.

04Ask whether DDEX or SFTP catalogue import is available on the plan you are actually buying, what switching it on costs, and whether a continuous feed is supported or only a one-time load.

05Ask whether release review is included, who performs it, and whether it runs on every plan or only where a person is attached to the account.

06Ask where payees are created and statements are read: inside the platform holding your catalogue, or in a second system with its own login and its own account naming rules.

07Ask whether a sandbox exists, at what point in the contract it opens, and whether the client libraries and AI tooling are open source so your engineers can read them.

Questions buyers ask about both

Who owns AudioSalad, and who runs LabelGrid?

Their about page states “Founded in New York City in 2014” and that “In 2023, AudioSalad joined the SESAC Music Group”, which is where that trail stops on their own material. The same page says “AudioSalad is Headquartered in New York, with offices in Los Angeles and London.” Their privacy policy is issued by “AudioSalad LLC”. LabelGrid has been going since 2017 and is based in Denver, Colorado. Neither an older founding date nor a bigger parent tells you what either platform does.

Is AudioSalad a good alternative to LabelGrid?

For most buyers in this category they are a genuine alternative, because the two products cover the same ground. Their FAQ describes AudioSalad as “a digital media and metadata management platform, delivery provider and distribution company” used by “record labels, artists, music managers, music publishers, content administrators, distributors and more”, and their enquiry form offers Record Label, Distributor, Artist/Band, Artist Management, Music Supervisor/Sync and Music/Media Group as buyer types. LabelGrid sells to the same businesses, split into three products you buy separately: self-serve distribution, Imprint for a portal under your own brand, and Engine for the API. The choice usually turns on how you want to buy and which ERN versions you need to send.

Does AudioSalad publish its pricing?

They publish the meter rather than the number. Their FAQ says “We have pricing tiers based on the number of assets under management” and answers “How much does AudioSalad Cost?” with “Please contact us for pricing details and information about our distribution deals”; their nine distinct captured pages, read 23 September 2026, do not state a figure, a currency symbol or a rate. LabelGrid meters by catalogue size too and publishes the numbers: every distribution plan and every API tier sits on the pricing page, with the tier boundaries and per-track overage rates beside them. Imprint is the exception on our side: its pricing is scoped at onboarding rather than published, so “published pricing” here means distribution and the API ladder.

Can I bring my own DSP deals to either platform?

Yes, and that structure is the same on both sides. Their FAQ states that “AudioSalad can provide both digital delivery services for clients who have direct deals in place, or provide distribution services for clients that do not.” LabelGrid runs the same two routes with the rate published on each: on Custom Distribution and on every API tier you keep 95% of standard-DSP royalties earned through LabelGrid’s own deals and 100% of what you earn on your own direct deals, where LabelGrid is infrastructure only. On the self-serve plans you keep 85% on Solo, 85% on Basic and 90% on Pro, and those plans carry no own-deals route. Their nine distinct captured pages, read 23 September 2026, do not state a share, a commission or a fee on either of their routes, so their rate arrives with the quotation.

Which DDEX ERN versions do AudioSalad and LabelGrid support?

Their FAQ states that “AudioSalad currently supports DDEX ERN specifications 3.4.1, 3.71, 3.8.2. (with version 4.3 under development)”, and that “AudioSalad is a proud member of the DDEX Consortium”. LabelGrid supports ERN 3.8.2, 4.3.0, 4.3.1 and 4.3.2, and LabelGrid is not a member of the DDEX Consortium. Both halves are worth having in front of you: they hold the membership, and the 4.3 family is in production here.

Does AudioSalad have an API, and how does Engine differ?

They do. Their services page describes a “Powerful API for headless content management, ingestion, and delivery” that lets a developer “retrieve metadata and media assets, remotely trigger ingestions and deliveries, return delivery statuses, and more”. The same page describes the ingest routes: “bulk ingest multiple releases via spreadsheet, the AudioSalad XML Spec or DDEX”, with metadata delivered “in multiple XML formats, including those supported by DSPs” and exportable as CSV. Their nine distinct captured pages, read 23 September 2026, do not mention published API pricing, a sandbox or an MCP server. On our side Engine is a separately priced product with public REST documentation, a sandbox that opens once a paid API plan is active, and an MIT-licensed MCP server on the public registry.

How do the two white-label portals compare?

On branding they match. Their services page offers “Use your logo, color scheme, and custom domain” and invites users “into your branded dashboard, where they can manage content, deliver music, and collaborate” under your identity. That is a user-invite model; their nine distinct captured pages, read 23 September 2026, do not state whether separate end-customer workspaces sit behind it, so we make no claim about it. Imprint gives every end customer a workspace of its own, one label per workspace with its own logins, and an artist can sign up on your domain and become their own end customer. Both products are quoted rather than published: theirs sits inside the platform quotation, and Imprint is scoped at onboarding.

Where do royalty statements and payouts live?

Their FAQ states “Yes, AudioSalad provides detailed royalty reporting for our distribution clients. These are made available in our secure reporting portal.” The scope there is their distribution clients, and their nine distinct captured pages, read 23 September 2026, do not state where reporting stops for a delivery-only client. Their payments help page sets payees up in a separate payments platform with its own login, where the payee name has to carry their company prefix before your own. At LabelGrid, royalty accounting is part of the platform: statements, payouts, transparency and automated splits from Basic up and on every API tier, in the same place as the catalogue. That is an architectural difference rather than a quality claim, and neither side publishes enough for a payout fee or timing comparison.

How do you get started with each one?

Theirs begins with a conversation. Their contact page says “If you would like to work with AudioSalad or have a question about our services, fill out the form and our team will be in touch shortly”, and their FAQ offers “a fully functioning demo system we would be happy to show you”. Size is not a filter on that form: the catalogue options run from “Under 100 releases” to “Over 10,000 releases” and include “We have no music - yet!”. With LabelGrid you can start a self-serve plan yourself on a seven-day free trial at a published price. Above that it is a conversation here too: the API tiers and third-party distribution go through onboarding screening and KYC/KYB before anything is switched on.

What comes with every LabelGrid distribution plan?

Delivery to all major DSPs, download stores and social apps, with any outlet deselectable per release. ISRC and UPC codes issued automatically and yours to keep if you leave. YouTube Content ID registration, with 80% of the Content ID and UGC revenue earned through LabelGrid's deals to you and a 20% fee on it. Streaming analytics across five dashboard views on every plan, and the same analytics on the public API for accounts on an API tier. Human release review for quality, metadata and rights before delivery, unless the account distributes only through its own direct deals. LabelGrid charges no payout fee of its own on any plan. The bank transfer fee for each payout is deducted at cost.

See the price before you talk to us

Every distribution plan and every API tier is priced on the pricing page, and the API documentation is public; Imprint is scoped at onboarding and the sandbox opens once a paid API plan is active. Each AudioSalad value in the table above comes from one of the pages linked beneath it, read on 23 September 2026. If any of it is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it.

See API Pricing