Questions people ask
Who is behind Octiive, and who is behind LabelGrid?
Octiive is the trading name, and their About page, homepage and FAQ all say “Octiive is part of the GoDigital Music family”. Their privacy policy names “Sky Sound Digital, based in Switzerland” as the data controller for GDPR purposes, at 26 Brahmstrasse, Zurich 8003, and their contact page lists a “US HEADQUARTERS: 120 Vantis Drive, Suite 300 Aliso Viejo, CA 92656” with an EU headquarters marked “Coming Soon!”. Their About page describes a business that started with an independent record label founded by a musician and says “Our digital distribution venture (formerly MondoTunes) soon grew, supporting thousands of independent artists and labels worldwide”. LabelGrid customers contract with LABEL GRID, LLC, formed in 2017 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and LabelGrid is independently owned, with no major-label and no DSP parent.
How much does Octiive cost?
Their pricing page publishes three annual plans: Essential at $29 per year for a solo artist, Pro at $69 per year for two to four artists, and Executive at $190 per year for five to twenty artists, a card their own page labels “Perfect for Labels”. Monthly cards for Essential and Pro read $5 and $8 per month. Every card carries “Keep 100% of Net Royalties”, “Free UPC & ISRC Codes” and “No Per Store or Per Region Fees”; that 100% applies while a subscription is active, and a customer distributing without one keeps 92%. Their ladder is priced by how many artists are on it. LabelGrid prices by tracks and labels instead, and every distribution plan and API tier is published on our pricing page, including the Custom Distribution and Custom API starting prices.
Can you use Octiive without a subscription?
Yes. Their pricing page carries two pay-as-you-go cards: Single at $9 per project for one to three tracks and Album at $19 per project for up to thirty tracks, both marked “Pay Per Upload” and both at 92% of net royalties rather than the 100% that applies while a subscription is active. The same free UPC and ISRC codes and no per-store or per-region fees appear on those cards. For an artist who puts out one single a year and wants no renewal date, $9 is the whole cost of releasing it. LabelGrid prices a plan rather than a release: every distribution plan and every API tier is a flat yearly platform fee, and Solo, Basic and Pro open with a 7-day free trial.
Does Octiive really pay 100% of royalties?
Their Terms say so with the customer state attached: “While maintaining an active subscription with Octiive, RIGHTS HOLDER shall receive 100% of the Net Royalty Receipts collected/received by Octiive hereunder for Sales that occur during the Term.” Distributing without a subscription, through the one-time or pay-per-project options, the rights holder receives 92%. Net Royalty Receipts are defined as “the total royalties collected, less standard DSP fees and distribution costs incurred in processing and delivering” the content, and their homepage carries the same definition as a footnote. Their Terms add, immediately after the rate table, that “These rates are subject to change based on royalty tiers set forth by the distribution network.” On our side the LabelGrid Terms state accounting fees in a range between 0 and 20% of net payable revenue paid to LabelGrid by the DSPs, depending on the plan, with the per-plan rate published: a customer keeps 85% on Solo, 85% on Basic and 90% on Pro, and on Custom Distribution and every API tier a customer keeps 95% of what they earn through LabelGrid’s own standard-DSP deals and 100% of what they earn on their own DSP deals or their own Merlin membership through SOBO, which is available on Custom Distribution and the API tiers only. Both sets of published rates sit inside a document that reserves some room to move.
Can a label put its whole roster on one Octiive account?
Yes. Executive covers five to twenty artists at $190 a year, and a one-off $49 label registration add-on registers the label name so that, in their FAQ’s words, “all of your future releases will be listed on online retailer sites ... as being under your label name, not Octiive.” They then send “monthly reports (broken down by artists on your label) showing all downloads and streams along with date, retailer, and country”, state that “All sales are reported to SoundScan”, and describe the package as sending “all reports and royalties going to you to disburse based on your internal agreements with your own artists”. LabelGrid structures the same roster differently. Label limits go by plan, Solo 1, Basic 3, Pro 5 and Custom Distribution 50, and each label carries its own profile, default genres, P-line and C-line, publishers and outlet settings, with its own line on the statement. From Basic up and on every API tier the splits and per-artist statements run inside the platform, so LabelGrid issues the statement and records the payment once it is sent, rather than leaving the account holder to track who is owed what. Which one fits depends on whether paying your artists is work you want to keep.
Does Octiive have an API or a white-label portal?
Their 13 distinct captured pages, read 23 September 2026, do not mention a developer API, an SDK, webhooks, a sandbox, an MCP server, a white-label or reseller portal, DDEX ERN ingest or a SOBO route, the sell-on-behalf-of arrangement LabelGrid runs on Custom Distribution and the API tiers. That is a statement about the pages we read rather than about what they can do: no developer-facing page was requested in that capture and their customer dashboard was not captured at all, so a partner integration would not necessarily appear here. What their published material describes is a subscription and pay-per-project distribution product for independent artists and small label rosters. LabelGrid is three products on one backend: self-serve distribution, Imprint the white-label portal on your own domain, and Engine the API. The API documentation is public, the sandbox opens once an API plan is active, the MCP server is MIT-licensed and listed on the public MCP registry, and LabelGrid supports ERN 3.8.2, 4.3.0, 4.3.1 and 4.3.2.
What audio files does Octiive accept, and how quickly do releases go out?
Their FAQ states: “We can accept WAV or MP3 files. The preferred file format for ensuring the highest quality of sound is a 16 bit, 44.1 khz WAV file, which is currently the worldwide standard for CD quality audio.” On scheduling, the same FAQ asks for a release date “at least 30 days out” and adds: “Need it faster? Our Expedite service gets your release to stores within 48 hours.” Their homepage FAQ still prices that service: “we do offer an expedite service (with a fee of $29)”. That is their published process, described as they describe it. LabelGrid delivers Dolby Atmos spatial-audio mixes and high-resolution masters on every standard plan and every API tier at no extra charge and with no per-track fee, from an ADM BWF master at 24-bit LPCM, 48 kHz carrying its own ISRC alongside the stereo master. Their 13 distinct captured pages, read 23 September 2026, do not mention spatial audio or high-resolution masters.
How does Octiive pay out, and what does a payout cost?
Their FAQ states: “We pay by bank transfer through Tipalti, with no Octiive fees. If you need an international wire instead, there’s a $20 fee. Payments go out by the 15th of the month after you request them, and anything you don’t claim rolls over.” Their Terms put payment “on or around the 15th day of the following month”, with statements made available towards the end of each calendar month. LabelGrid charges no payout fee of its own on any plan. The bank transfer fee for each payout is deducted at cost, and the other deductions are the distribution share agreed for the plan, higher on UGC and Content ID revenue, and any charges your own bank makes. LabelGrid royalties are paid monthly, with the statement generated from the 21st and payment initiated between the 3rd and the 14th of the following month.
What happens to your music if you leave?
Octiive’s FAQ says that if you ask for a release to come down, “we will immediately remove it at no cost”, and asks for 60 days to complete the request “although in most cases it does not take that long”. A separate answer describes a retailer opt-out by email with “Retailer Opt-Out” in the subject line, requested immediately after upload. On ownership their FAQ answers directly: “No. All Octiive artists maintain 100% of their rights, songwriting credits and/or master recordings.” On LabelGrid a withdrawal is self-serve: you open the release, deselect outlets on the Outlets tab and save, and LabelGrid sends the takedown requests. Delivery to the stores takes one to three business days, the stores then take one to fourteen days to process the removal, and full removal across all platforms typically takes two to three weeks. Removal is per release rather than per track, and deselecting a single platform leaves the release live everywhere else. Royalties earned before removal are still paid. The distribution licence LabelGrid takes is global and non-exclusive, the same recording can go out through someone else at the same time, and no exclusivity survives termination.
Does Octiive offer royalty advances, and does LabelGrid?
Octiive does and LabelGrid does not. Their funding page states that “OCTIIVE AND SOUND ROYALTIES HAVE TEAMED UP TO PROVIDE ADVANCE FUNDING ON YOUR MUSIC ROYALTIES WITH OFFERS RANGING FROM $5K-$20M+.”, with the artist keeping “full ownership of your masters”, eligibility generally at “Generating at least $5,000 in annual royalties”, and recoupment described as “a fixed fee over a fixed term, and does not require 100% recoupement”. For existing members the same page describes AdvanceNow: a catalogue that “has earned between $1K and $5K over the last 12 months” may qualify, with “No credit checks, personal financial statements, or % of profits ... required”, approval for auto-advances up to $5K and funding “as fast as three business days”. LabelGrid does not fund royalty advances and has no financing partner for them. If an advance is the thing you need, that is a reason to choose them, and we have nothing to set beside it.