Questions people ask
Who owns Soundrop, and who owns LabelGrid?
Soundrop’s Music Services Agreement is a contract with “Audio and Video Labs, Inc. dba Soundrop”, their site footer reads “©2026 Audio and Video Labs, Inc. d/b/a Soundrop.” and their legal notice gives the address as “9600 NE Cascades Pkwy Ste 180 Portland, OR 97220”. On corporate ownership their own page says “Soundrop is part of Downtown Music Holdings (Downtown)” and describes the group as “the world’s largest music services company”, which is their wording rather than ours. The agreement they publish carries “Last Updated – June 30, 2023”. LabelGrid customers contract with Label Grid, LLC, based in Denver, Colorado and formed in 2017, and LabelGrid is independently owned, with no major-label or DSP parent.
How much does Soundrop cost, and is LabelGrid cheaper?
Soundrop’s help centre answers the first half: “You pay $4.99 per track.”, which their pricing page pairs with a share of the earnings, “All this for $4.99 per track, plus 15% of the revenue your tracks earn”. There is no subscription, and they state “We don’t charge any annual fees.” Their own pricing FAQ dates the current figure: “On August 1, 2025, track pricing increased from $0.99 to $4.99.”, which is worth knowing if you meet an older number in a third-party review. For one artist with a handful of tracks, that is cheaper than any LabelGrid plan. With LabelGrid you pay a subscription and keep a share that rises with the plan: you keep 85% on Solo, 85% on Basic and 90% on Pro, then 95% of standard-DSP royalties earned through LabelGrid’s deals and 100% of what you earn on your own deals from Custom Distribution and the API tiers up. Solo and Basic are the same 15% share Soundrop keep, so which is cheaper depends on how many tracks the $4.99 is multiplied by.
How does Soundrop pay royalties out?
Monthly, on a published calendar. Soundrop “processes sales reports and creates an account statement snapshot at the beginning of each month before issuing payments in the middle of that month”, with “Payments will be made beginning on or before the 15th!” and payment following the statement email “within 1-2 days”. Payment is issued once the balance reaches a threshold the artist selects, “(minimum of $20.00)”, and their agreement fixes that floor at no less than $20. Valid tax forms must be on file: “You must also have valid tax forms on file in order to get paid.”, meaning a W-9 or the applicable W-8, which is ordinary United States withholding practice. LabelGrid pays monthly as well, on a different calendar: the statement is generated from the 21st, payment is initiated between the 3rd and the 14th of the following month, and the funds arrive 3–7 business days after that. On a floor, LabelGrid's minimum payout is USD 20, with a smaller balance carried forward. On what the share is taken from, both companies work from a figure net of the stores. Their agreement applies the percentage to “the Gross Revenue after a) the deduction of marketplace costs” and any mechanical licensing fees; LabelGrid’s accounting fees apply to net payable revenue paid to LabelGrid by the DSPs.
Which is better for YouTube Content ID?
Soundrop, on the rate. Their Sync Distribution Addendum pays “an amount equal to eighty-five percent (85%) of the net amount attributable to the use of Your Authorized Content and actually received by us from our Licensees”; with LabelGrid the artist keeps 80% of Content ID and UGC revenue, with a 20% fee on the revenue LabelGrid’s own deals earn. Opting in with them appoints Soundrop or its licensees “the exclusive administrator of all so-called “Content ID” controls” for the term, which is how reference monetisation works: as their help centre puts it, “you can only use one company at any given time for YouTube Monetization services for a particular release”. Ownership is unaffected either way and they say so: “You always keep 100% of your rights. We just help you get paid.” Eligibility follows the same YouTube rule on both sides, exclusive rights to original content, with each company adding its own exclusions. Their page states “Public Domain and Cover Songs are not eligible and will not be delivered to YouTube.” and requires the release to be on YouTube Music; LabelGrid requires original content fully owned or controlled, so uncleared samples, unlicensed covers and type beats do not qualify.
What about cover songs?
Soundrop do the work. Their help centre says “Soundrop can help you obtain a mechanical license under U.S. copyright law, covering downloads in the United States.”, and their splits and licensing page lists securing the cover-song licence, notifying publishers and rights holders, and paying the mechanical royalties to the songs’ publishers on an ongoing basis. Two limits come from the same page: “The licenses you obtain from Soundrop are valid for releases within the United States only.”, with worldwide release needing additional agreements you arrange yourself, and “You will still need to get one through Soundrop because we aren’t able to accept outside licenses for cover songs.” With LabelGrid the arrangement is structural rather than better: when a track is marked as a cover and no licence is held, a link to Easy Song Licensing appears inside LabelGrid, with Songfile named as an alternative, and the customer buys and holds the licence and chooses its scope. On downloads their payments article also passes through the United States statutory rate, “a $0.131 mechanical royalty fee will be removed from each US download sale of a cover song with a run time of 5 minutes or less”, which is the rate the Copyright Royalty Board sets rather than a charge of theirs.
Is there a free plan, and what happens if you stop paying?
Soundrop invite you to “Get started today with a free Soundrop account.” and charge when you distribute, and because there is no subscription there is nothing to lapse. LabelGrid works the other way: self-serve plans open with a 7-day free trial and then the plan’s subscription, and there is no indefinite free tier. The consequence is ours to state plainly. If a LabelGrid subscription lapses or expires for more than 60 days without renewal, or the fee goes unpaid, LabelGrid may remove or withdraw the content and may suspend or terminate the account, on any plan. If releasing once and leaving the catalogue live without a renewal date is what you want, that is a reason to choose them.
Is Soundrop distribution exclusive, and what happens when you leave?
Their grant “shall be exclusive as to the Third Party Distribution, including without limitation any service providers, distributors, social media platforms, Licensees, digital entertainment services, and other services, authorized in your Soundrop Account”, and by the same clause participation in those channels is “optional and based on the settings authorized by you”, with physical formats and direct-to-consumer sales outside it. So the exclusivity follows the stores switched on in the account. The term runs “unless and until terminated by either you or us, upon twenty-four (24) hours written notice”, sent to their support address naming the albums concerned. One consequence they state: “Any termination notice provided by you pursuant to this section shall be permanent and irreversible.”, and their cancellation FAQ restates it as not being able to redistribute the same release, with the exception that a release never delivered to stores may reuse its UPC. On timing they say “It can take up to 30 days for a release to be removed from stores, but in most cases, your release should be removed in 5-7 days.” The licence LabelGrid takes is global and non-exclusive, the same content may be distributed elsewhere at the same time, and no exclusivity survives termination. Coming off LabelGrid is self-serve rather than a notice: you deselect the outlets on the release and we send the takedowns, which typically takes 1–3 business days to reach the stores, 1–14 days for them to process it and two to three weeks to clear everywhere. That is slower than the 5–7 days they publish. Ours also comes down per release rather than per track, and it is reversible by asking support to redeliver.
What does moving a catalogue to Soundrop involve?
Their migration guide runs in one order: sign the catalogue up with Soundrop first, where “Each track will cost $4.99 USD, and if you have covers, that’s included too” and you should “be sure to use all the same metadata, all the same ISRCs, and the same UPCs for your release”; wait for delivery; then “Contact your former distributor to issue removals (removals can take up to 30 days)”. The 15% share applies to what those tracks earn from then on. They publish the reverse procedure as openly, so the same arithmetic applies to a catalogue moving in either direction. On refunds their cancellation FAQ answers both ways: “If you are canceling because your tracks were not able to be licensed, absolutely!” and “If your tracks have been licensed, we cannot issue refunds.”, and a licensed track can be reused on another release at no new fee. LabelGrid does not refund fees already paid for a term on standard plans either, so refunds are not a reason to pick us.
Does Soundrop handle splits, and where do releases go?
Splits are included with them and described as free: “You can split royalties between multiple parties on any track. And every month your collaborators will automatically receive their share of your earnings”. LabelGrid includes automated splits with per-artist statements and payouts from Basic up and on every API tier, so our entry plan, Solo, and GATE do not carry them, which is a point for their model if splits are the reason you are shopping. On reach, their homepage names “Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, Pandora, Instagram, TikTok, and more” and their feature list includes “Automatic distribution to any new platforms we add”. LabelGrid delivers to all major DSPs, download stores and social apps, among them Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, TIDAL, Deezer, TikTok and Instagram, with regional services such as Anghami, Boomplay, JioSaavn and KKBOX; a release goes to every available outlet by default and any outlet can be deselected per release.
What is Soundrop’s policy on AI-generated music?
The Downtown Music Content Policy published in their help centre, updated October 2025, prohibits “Content created wholly or primarily by AI models trained on copyright protected sound recordings without a license from the applicable copyright owners” and adds that “AI-generated content that mimics popular artists is also not permitted.”