Frequently asked questions
What does AWAL cost, and is LabelGrid cheaper?
For an accepted AWAL client, nothing up front. Their FAQ: “The standard AWAL deal is a simple digital distribution license with a 30 day rolling term which means that you can terminate your agreement with us at any time on 30 days’ notice. We take a 15% share of revenue that we collect for you.” Their Distribution Agreement § 4.01 puts it the other way round: the client is paid “eighty-five percent (85%) of all gross receipts actually received by (or credited against an advance to) AWAL”. That 85/15 is exactly what a LabelGrid Solo or Basic customer keeps, so the split itself is not the argument. On day one LabelGrid costs more, because Solo, Basic and Pro are subscriptions while Custom Distribution and every API tier is a flat yearly fee, all of them published. Where LabelGrid moves is further up the ladder: 90% on Pro, and 95% on Custom Distribution and the API tiers for royalties earned through LabelGrid’s own standard-DSP deals, with 100% of what you earn on your own direct deals.
What does the AWAL service actually include?
Their company page lists “global marketing and creative services, funding, A&R, playlist and radio promotion, publicity, distribution, synch and brand partnerships”. Pitching is on the standard deal: their FAQ says “As part of the AWAL service we pitch for store promotions, editorial coverage, high profile placement and playlists, and exclusive campaigns across the major worldwide DSPs”, conditional on their team believing they can help and on at least six weeks’ lead time. Read the stage labels carefully, because not everything sits on the standard deal. The dedicated point person is an AWAL+ card: “You’ll have a point person at AWAL to call your own.” On the LabelGrid side the promotional tooling is built into the platform and you operate it: a landing page and smart link for every release, a Spotify pre-save before release day, fan email capture, and the same endpoints on the public API for accounts on an API plan.
Does either company put money behind a release?
AWAL does; LabelGrid does not. Their FAQ says a funding or AWAL Recordings partnership “usually involves a few more percentage points and a recoupable balance from the project’s earnings, but you control the budget and are free to make your next move after the campaign”. No figure is published, so the rate on a funded deal is theirs to quote rather than ours to guess. The AWAL Recordings card adds “We put up money and you approve the marketing budget, keep creative control, and always own 100% of your masters.” LabelGrid does not fund projects, does not take a recoupable position and does not buy catalogues. If capital is what you are shopping for, that is a straightforward reason to talk to them.
How long is the AWAL term, and is the licence exclusive?
Their Distribution Agreement § 1.01 appoints AWAL “as the exclusive distributor of the Recordings during the Term and throughout the Territory, via Digital Distribution”. The Term begins when AWAL emails its agreement and “continues until terminated by either party on 30 days’ written notice”, so the same thirty days runs in both directions. A client may take any single recording down on thirty days’ notice without ending the whole agreement, or remove particular territories or releases instead. Their § 14 is worth reading as well: after the Term, income that still arrives is paid “in full as though the Agreement were still in place”. The licence LabelGrid takes is global and non-exclusive, the same recordings may sit with another distributor at the same time, and no exclusivity survives termination.
Can anyone sign up to AWAL?
No, and their homepage says so: “We only partner with a select group of artists.” Artists arrive “through either the direct referral of someone we trust or our online A&R submission process”, and the Distribution Agreement is explicit that “AWAL will not be bound by this document unless and until AWAL has sent you an email specifically accepting to be so”. Their How It Works page sets out three stages, AWAL Core, AWAL+ and AWAL Recordings, and says of moving up: “We can’t upstream everyone, but we invest in artists we believe are ready for the next level.” LabelGrid has a door on the B2B side too, because API and third-party distribution go through onboarding screening and KYC/KYB. The difference is narrower than it first looks: the self-serve plans need no application and open with a 7-day free trial.
Does AWAL work with labels, or only with artists?
With labels, plainly. Their FAQ: “The AWAL service is just as relevant to record labels as it is to artists and we already have a great many record label clients”, and a label name is chosen per release, so “If your company operates a number of labels then you can choose which label to associate with each release when you upload it.” Reporting runs through “AWAL’s workstation portal” at release and track level, and statements download as CSV. On LabelGrid a label is a container instead: each one holds its own catalogue, its own statements and its own royalty rules, and the plan sets how many you get, 1 on Solo, 3 on Basic, 5 on Pro and 50 on Custom Distribution. The API tiers run the same label meter higher, at 5 on Starter, 25 on Growth, 100 on Scale and unlimited on Custom API.
Does AWAL publish an API or a white-label platform?
Their published material does not describe one, and that is the careful way to say it. Across their 9 distinct captured pages, read 23 September 2026, the standalone word “API” does not occur once, and neither does “webhook”, “sandbox”, “reseller” or “sub-label”. The single appearance of “white label” is in their Data Privacy Addendum and refers to a client’s use of somebody else’s tool, “a white label platform (as an example, Feature FM) or any other third-party platform”. That is a statement about what they publish, not about what they can build: their own FAQ says “A more detailed FAQ is available to our members within the AWAL portal”, and two of the sources we tried to capture redirected to a member login. On the LabelGrid side, Engine is a public API with public documentation, Imprint is the white-label portal, and the MCP server is open source under MIT on the public registry.
What is involved in moving a catalogue across?
Less than people fear, on either side. AWAL’s FAQ says “You don’t need to change UPCs or ISRCs and if you have a sizeable catalog we can help you with tools to bulk upload your catalog into our system. Your streaming and listener numbers on streaming platforms will remain intact.” Both companies assign identifiers at no charge and the codes travel with the recording, so switching keeps the history attached to it. Their audio specification is WAV, up to 24 bit and 96kHz, with no MP3s accepted. They ask for music and metadata at least four to six weeks before a release date, and their reason is promotional rather than technical, because six weeks is what an editorial pitch needs. LabelGrid takes DDEX ERN import on the API tiers and on Custom Distribution, as a one-time catalogue load or a continuous SFTP or S3 feed.
What does LabelGrid offer that a label services deal does not?
Three products on one backend, and a price you can read first. Self-serve distribution is the entry point, with release review on every distribution plan, unless the account distributes only through its own direct deals, Dolby Atmos and high-resolution delivery at no extra charge, and ISRCs and UPCs included. Imprint puts your own brand on your own domain, with every end customer in a workspace of its own. Engine is the public API: published tiers, DDEX ERN 3.8.2, 4.3.0, 4.3.1 and 4.3.2 in both directions, and a sandbox once the plan is active. Around them sit an open-source MCP server, a companion CLI and a WordPress plugin that pulls your catalogue onto your own site. AWAL sells the campaign work and is paid out of revenue rather than up front, which their own pages set out plainly. This page is the other half of the decision: what you operate yourself, and how much of it you can read before you commit.