Frequently asked questions
Who runs iMusician, and who runs LabelGrid?
iMusician's imprint names “iMusician Digital AG” at “Binzstrasse 23 (West Entrance) 8045 Zurich Switzerland” and describes the company as “a Swiss based music start up”. Their about page says iMusician was “Founded in 2008 with a rebellious spirit” and, in the same document, tells a longer story: “25 years ago, iMusician’s founders were electronic musicians starting their own record label”, with a timeline that begins in 1999. The about page also describes “a Swiss music distribution company with offices in Zürich and Berlin”. LabelGrid has been going since 2017 and is based in Denver, Colorado. Where a company is incorporated is not a reason to pick either one; it is here because people ask.
What plans does iMusician offer, and is LabelGrid cheaper?
For one artist releasing their own music, LabelGrid is not cheaper and we will not pretend otherwise. Their subscription-change FAQ says “We offer five different plans” and names them Starter, Rockstar, AMPLIFY, AMPLIFY+ and AMPLIFY Pro. Two of those are pay-per-release and three are annual subscriptions, which are different meters. Starter is “a pay-per-release plan with no subscription fees” whose commission is 10% on sales. Their pay-per-release page says of Rockstar that “With Rockstar, your royalties always belong to you. We do not take any commissions on your payouts”, and their commission FAQ extends that to the AMPLIFY plans on sales revenue. AMPLIFY+ prices itself by artist count, listing “Price Options: Variable, depending on the number of main artists you need*” for “From 2 to 20 main artists”, while AMPLIFY Pro carries “Main Artists: Unlimited main artists” and tells labels that “No matter how many new acts join your label, your subscription costs stay fixed.” Their pricing page shows the subscription prices once it loads in a browser, in your local currency: in euros, read on 23 October 2026, AMPLIFY is EUR 29 a year, AMPLIFY+ runs from EUR 59 a year for two main artists to EUR 221 for twenty, and AMPLIFY Pro is EUR 299 a year. On our side every distribution plan and every API tier, including the Custom Distribution and Custom API starting prices, is on the pricing page.
How does money reach you on each platform?
Both companies pay out of what the stores actually send. Their distribution agreement says “Only when revenues have been received, they will be uploaded to your account, and will be net of any costs, commissions or other deductions”, and LabelGrid's own Terms state accounting fees in a range between 0 and 20% of net payable revenue paid to us by the DSPs, depending on the plan, with the per-plan rate published. Getting the money out differs in the detail. Their general terms say “You can initiate payouts yourself” and that “Once a payout has been initiated, payments will be made within 30 days”, and their payout FAQ publishes bank-transfer fees of “EU countries: €0.40 per transaction” and “Switzerland: €0.28 per transaction”, adding that “On iMusician's side, there are no transaction fees for PayPal payouts”. LabelGrid charges no payout fee of its own on any plan. The bank transfer fee for each payout is deducted at cost. Royalties are paid monthly. On the rails themselves, their terms say “bank payments can only be made to accounts that have an IBAN within the SEPA zone”, with Wise or Revolut suggested and PayPal offered as the alternative.
Does either platform charge a fee on YouTube Content ID?
Both do, at the same rate. Their commission FAQ says “Revenue generated through YouTube’s Content ID system is also not considered part of regular music distribution” and that “A commission of 20% will be deducted from this revenue, regardless of your current plan”, with their Content ID page putting it the positive way round: “You’ll receive 80% of the ad revenue whenever your tracks are used in YouTube videos.” Registration here is available on all LabelGrid distribution plans, and the artist keeps 80% of the revenue LabelGrid’s own deals earn, with a 20% fee. Social monetisation carries the same 20% on their side, again “regardless of your current plan”. Access is where their own pages disagree, and the detail is in the add-ons answer below: their Content ID page says it “is included in all iMusician AMPLIFY plans at no additional cost”, while their plans FAQ meters Starter per track. The licence shape is worth knowing on any platform: theirs is “exclusive for the monetization with Content ID of the recordings for all tracks in this bundle”, which is how Content ID works rather than a quirk of theirs, since the system admits one claimant per recording.
How do collaborator splits get paid on each platform?
This is the sharpest published difference between the two, and both sides state it plainly. Their revenue-splits FAQ says the feature “is available to AMPLIFY+ and AMPLIFY Pro users”, that as the primary account holder “you will have full control over the funds”, including splits with people who hold no iMusician account, and then that “no split earnings will be paid out automatically. You manage when and how payouts are made!” So the account holder pays each collaborator, at whatever moment they choose. LabelGrid works out each collaborator's share and issues the statement automatically through royalty splits, from Basic up and on every API tier, with Solo carrying no splits at all. Neither arrangement is better in the abstract: an artist splitting one EP with two friends may prefer to hold the money and decide; a label accounting to forty artists every month does not want that job. One timing detail on their side: splits “will only take effect from the first day of the next month” and are calculated from the settings as of that date.
Can you release for several artists on one account?
On iMusician, yes, inside an allowance. Their multi-artist FAQ says “iMusician allows you to distribute music for multiple artists from a single account”, counted from the artists tagged as Main Artist, and publishes the allowance per plan: “Starter or Rockstar: Unlimited”, “AMPLIFY: 1 Main Artist”, “AMPLIFY+: 2 to 20 Main Artists (Selectable)” and “AMPLIFY Pro: Unlimited”. The allowance does not simply rise with price, since the pay-per-release plans are uncapped on artists while the entry subscription carries one. Their general terms also set the boundary of who they sell to: services “are made for indie artists and labels, and explicitly excludes aggregation businesses (e.g. ‘distributors’). If in doubt, please contact iMusician for a custom deal.” LabelGrid composes the same job differently. Each end customer is a separate workspace with its own logins, labels are counted per plan at 1 on Solo, 3 on Basic, 5 on Pro and 50 on Custom Distribution, and the API tiers run the same meter higher, in registered labels, at 5, 25, 100 and unlimited on Custom API.
What are iMusician's subscription terms?
Published, and worth reading before you start one. Their subscription terms say “The duration of your subscription is one (1) year”, after which “your subscription will be automatically renewed for an additional subscription period of the same duration as the previous one (1 year)”. A payment method is part of that: “Your stored payment method will be automatically charged for the renewal”, and maintaining a valid one “is required in order to maintain an active subscription”. On refunds their position is “We cannot issue refunds for subscriptions that have already started”. LabelGrid's standard plans are similar on the substance: fees already paid for the term are not refunded. Moving tiers on their side is instant on an upgrade once the invoice is paid and generally prorated, while a downgrade “will take effect at the end of the current subscription period”.
What happens to your releases if you stop paying?
Their answer is friendlier than ours, and the two acts behind it are not the same. Cancelling a subscription is done by moving down: their change FAQ says “you must downgrade to the Starter plan”, and their subscription terms add that “All distribution releases will remain available online indefinitely. After the subscription ends, the terms of the selected ‘Pay per Release’ plan will apply automatically.” Their cancellation FAQ promises that they will not “ask you to pay additional fees to keep your music online”, with copyright issues and terms violations named as the exception. What changes is the rate a customer pays from then on: on Starter, 10% is deducted from sales revenue. Closing the account is the other act and has the opposite effect: “You can close your iMusician account at any time as long as all outstanding invoices have been paid”, and closure “will trigger the automatic termination of any outstanding services so distributed releases will be taken down”. LabelGrid is blunter than their cancellation route. A subscription left lapsed or unpaid for more than 60 days can end with us removing or withdrawing the content, on any plan.
What does iMusician charge for add-ons?
Some of it is published, and two figures are published two ways, so here are both readings rather than our pick of them. Editorial playlist pitching: their pitching FAQ says it “is free for our AMPLIFY+ and AMPLIFY Pro subscribers. For pay-per-release and AMPLIFY users, it’s available as an add-on for 20 EUR per release”, while their plans FAQ lists “Editorial Playlist Pitching included” in the Rockstar block. Rockstar is a pay-per-release plan, so those two records disagree about whether a Rockstar customer pays the 20 EUR, and nothing else in the capture settles it. YouTube Content ID splits the same way: their Content ID page says it “is included in all iMusician AMPLIFY plans at no additional cost” and their plans FAQ puts “YouTube CID: Included” on Rockstar and “YouTube CID: Pay per track” on Starter, while their own DistroKid comparison page prices the iMusician side at “$1 one-time per track on pay-as-you-go OR Included in AMPLIFY+ and AMPLIFY Pro”. Beyond those, their pricing page publishes “Custom release regions €10” and “Video consultation - €20 per session”, the latter listed on AMPLIFY+ as “Video Consultations available for 20.-” and free on AMPLIFY Pro. Their distribution agreement says “You can update releases at any time. If the release is already in shops, a fee may apply”, with AMPLIFY+ and AMPLIFY Pro listed as “Release Changes: Free”, and their promotion page sets a floor for advertising: “To launch a campaign on iMusician ads, a minimum budget of €100 is required”.
What does LabelGrid sell that a distribution plan does not?
Three products on one backend, and a route past the price list. Self-serve distribution is the first: several labels in one account, royalty accounting with per-artist statements and automated splits from Basic up, and release review on every distribution plan unless the account distributes only through its own direct deals. Imprint is the second, a white-label portal carrying your brand on your own domain with a workspace for every customer, scoped at onboarding. Engine is the third: public API documentation readable without a sales call, three standard tiers plus Custom API from a published starting price, catalogue import over SFTP or S3 on the API tiers and on Custom Distribution, a sandbox once the plan is active, and an MIT-licensed MCP server with a companion CLI over the same endpoints. Past the published ceilings a custom deal covers caps, platform fees and bulk label pricing, with the figures agreed under NDA.