Terms of use

1. These terms

These terms are an agreement between you and One Side Global Distribution LLC, trading as One Side Global Distro (“One Side Global”, “we”, “us”), covering your use of onesideglobaldistro.com and the distribution service we provide through it. By creating an account or submitting a release you accept them.

If you do not agree with them, do not use the service. Questions go to support@onesideglobaldistro.com.

2. Your account

You must be at least 18 to hold an account, and old enough in your country to enter a binding contract. If you are acting for a band, label or company, you confirm you are authorised to bind it.

You are responsible for what happens under your account and for keeping your login details private. Tell us promptly if you think someone else has access.

Everything you tell us, meaning your identity, your rights in the music and your payout details, must be accurate, and you must keep it up to date. We rely on it when we deliver your music and when we pay you.

3. Keeping your account secure

Your account is yours to look after. Choose a password you do not use anywhere else, and do not share your login. Anyone who has it can submit releases in your name, change where royalties are paid, and take your music down.

Tell us immediately at support@onesideglobaldistro.com if you think somebody else has access. Until you do, we have to treat instructions from your account as coming from you.

One account is for one artist or act. If you release under several names, ask us and we will set that up properly rather than have you share a login.

4. What we do

We format the recordings you give us to each store's specification, deliver them, and collect what they earn on your behalf. A person reviews every release before it is sent.

We are a distributor. We are not your label, your publisher, your manager or your agent, and nothing here makes us any of those.

Stores decide what they accept. We cannot guarantee that a particular store will take a release, how quickly it will appear, or that it will stay available. Those decisions belong to them.

5. The rights you give us

You keep everything you own. To distribute your music we need permission to do specific things with it, and that permission is limited to exactly those things.

You grant us a nonexclusive, worldwide licence, for as long as your release is distributed through us, to reproduce, format, deliver and make available your recordings, artwork and release information to stores, and to collect the revenue they generate on your behalf.

This licence is nonexclusive: you may distribute the same music elsewhere at the same time. It transfers no ownership. It covers your recordings; your compositions are dealt with separately, under the publishing administration section below. It ends for new deliveries when you ask us to stop, subject to the takedown section below.

6. What you promise about your music

You confirm, for everything you submit, that:

• you own or control all the rights needed for us to distribute it worldwide
• any samples, interpolations and featured performers are cleared, and any cowriters, joint owners and collaborators have agreed to the release
• if a track is a cover of somebody else’s song, you have listed its original writers in the splits with your own row left unmarked, and you hold any mechanical licence a store requires for it. Streaming in the United States needs nothing from you; permanent downloads do
• the recordings and artwork do not infringe anyone else's rights
• the metadata, meaning titles, credits, contributors and release dates, is accurate
• nothing in it is unlawful, and artwork carries no store logos, prices, URLs or social handles
• you are not using the service to generate artificial streams or manipulate chart or playlist activity
• if any part of it was made with artificial intelligence, including synthetic or cloned vocals, generated instrumentals, altered audio or generated artwork, you have said so on the release form. The stores require an accurate declaration and we pass yours on exactly as you made it

7. What you must not do

Beyond the promises above, some things will get a release rejected or an account closed. You must not:

• upload a recording you did not make and do not control, including uploading somebody else’s track again under a different name
• imitate another artist’s name, or use a voice or likeness generated to sound like a named person without their permission
• submit artwork containing store logos, prices, URLs, social handles, or anything you do not have the right to use
• use titles, credits or descriptions to game search, such as keyword stuffing, unrelated artist names, or “feat.” credits for people who are not on the record
• submit silence, noise, or recordings made only to accumulate plays
• attempt to interfere with the service itself, or with anybody else’s account

8. Artificial streaming

This one has its own section because it is the fastest way to lose everything you have built here, and because it costs us directly.

Artificial streaming means plays that did not come from real listeners choosing your music. That means bots, click farms, services that sell plays, and playlists built to loop tracks. It does not matter whether you did it, paid somebody else to do it, or bought a promotion service that did it on your behalf without telling you. The result is the same.

Stores detect it, and they now charge distributors a penalty for each affected track. If a store charges us because of your release, we will pass that charge on to you, and we may set it against royalties we hold for you.

We may also remove the affected release, withhold payment on it, suspend your account, or close it, and stores may refuse your music in future regardless of what we do.

If you are offered a promotion service that guarantees plays, streams or playlist placements for a fee, it is almost certainly this. Ask us before you buy it. We would rather answer that question than have this conversation afterwards.

9. Plans, price and renewal

Plans are Artist at $19.99 a year, Artist Pro at $39.99 a year, Artist Elite at $79.99 a year, billed yearly. The plan fee covers unlimited releases with no charge per release or per platform.

We may change prices, and if we do we will tell you before the change applies to your subscription. Changing a price never changes what we take from royalties on releases already delivered.

You can change plan at any time. Moving up takes effect immediately and we credit the unused portion of your current plan against the new one; moving down takes effect at your next renewal, and you keep the higher plan until then. Changing plan does not alter the revenue share on any release we have already marketed. That stays as agreed when the campaign was run.

Cancelling stops future billing. It does not remove your music. See the section on ending your subscription.

10. Chargebacks

If you think you were charged in error, write to support@onesideglobaldistro.com first. Our refund policy is at /refunds, and we would rather sort a problem out directly than have a bank do it slowly.

Asking your bank to reverse a payment instead costs us a fee whatever the outcome, and while it is open we may suspend your account and pause delivery of your releases. If a chargeback succeeds on a subscription you have already used to distribute music, we may take those releases down and set what we are owed against royalties we hold.

None of that applies where we got it wrong. If we failed to deliver, charged you twice, or billed you for something you did not get, tell us and we will put it right without argument.

11. Marketing services and the revenue share

Artist Pro and Artist Elite include marketing campaigns that we plan, buy and run at our own cost. You pay nothing towards the advertising spend.

Artist Pro covers meta, google, instagram, tiktok and youtube ad campaigns, spotify playlist pitching, campaign strategy and setup. Artist Elite covers all of that, plus a higher campaign tier on every channel and a named campaign manager on your releases.

Playlist pitching means submitting your release for editorial and algorithmic consideration. It is not the purchase of placements, which the stores prohibit and which we do not do.

In return, we take a share of the publishing income we collect on the releases we market: 30% on Artist Pro and 50% on Artist Elite. This is in addition to the publishing administration fee in the next section, and it comes out of the same collected income, so on a release we market the total we keep is 55% on Artist Pro and 75% on Artist Elite. It applies to only the releases we market for you, not your back catalogue, and not releases we did not run a campaign on.

The share lasts 10 years from the release date, followed by a 10 year retention period, 20 years in total. In plain terms: for 10 years from the release date we take the share described above, and for a further 10 years after that we continue to take it on the same release. At the end of that period, 20 years from the release date, the marketing share ends and only the publishing administration fee remains on that release.

This is a long commitment on a single release, so it is worth being clear about what it does and does not cover: it attaches only to releases we market, it never applies to your back catalogue or to releases we ran no campaign on, it is a share of the publishing income we collect on that release rather than of your income generally, it reaches your own writer share only and never a cowriter's, and it transfers no ownership at any point.

This share takes nothing from your master royalties. Distribution pays you 100% of what the stores report for your recordings on every plan, marketed or not. It takes no ownership of any recording or composition.

We cannot promise a result. No one can guarantee streams, playlist placements, chart positions or revenue, and nothing in a campaign we run should be read as a promise of any of those.

12. Publishing administration

A recording and the song underneath it earn money separately. The recording earns from the stores, and that is what the rest of these terms are about. The song itself, meaning the composition, earns publishing income through collection societies, and it is not paid to anyone unless the song is registered with them.

Every plan includes publishing administration, and it is not optional. When you release a song through us, you appoint us to register it with the collection societies, to collect the publishing income it earns, and to pay that income on to you.

We keep 25% of the publishing income we collect on your behalf, and pay you the remaining 75%. On a release we market under Artist Pro or Artist Elite, the marketing share in the section above is taken from the same collected income in addition to this fee, and that section states the total. This is a share of what we collect. It is not a share of publishing income you collect through anyone else, and it is not a share of your master royalties, which are paid to you in full.

It applies to your own writer share of each song you release through us, and never the share of a cowriter, who is not bound by these terms. A cover is a song you did not write, so we register nothing on it and collect nothing for it; the original writers’ publishing is collected by their own publishers. We do not register a cowriter's share. You promise that the writer share you ask us to register is yours to register, and that the splits you give us are accurate. A wrong split is corrected at the societies at your cost, and any income paid out on it is recoverable from you.

If a song is already registered anywhere, whether by a publisher, by an administrator, or by you directly with a collection society, tell us before you submit it and we will not register it. A song cannot be registered twice, and a second claim freezes payment for everyone on it.

To register a song we need the writers' legal names, their shares adding up to 100%, and where they are members of a collection society, the society and their member number. We cannot register a song without them, and a release whose songs cannot be registered may be held until they are supplied.

Publishing administration transfers no ownership of any composition to us. You keep your copyright. What you give us is the authority to register, collect and pay, and it is limited to exactly that.

The publishing administration on every song you have released through us continues after your subscription ends, on the same terms and at the same percentage, for as long as the song earns. Cancelling your plan does not end it. Closing your account does not end it. Moving the recording to another distributor does not end it. The arrangement is set when you release the song, and it stays as it was on that day.

13. Royalties and payouts

We pay you 100% of what the stores report and pay to us for your recordings, on every plan. Distribution takes no percentage and neither does marketing. Publishing income is paid separately, less the publishing administration fee and, on a release we marketed, the marketing share.

You can withdraw once your balance reaches $50. Below that, earnings keep accruing until they reach it.

Stores report on their own schedules, and some report months in arrears. We pay on what we have actually received; we cannot pay on revenue a store has not yet reported or remitted.

You are responsible for your own taxes. We may need identity or tax information before we can pay you, and may hold a payout until we have it.

13A. Selling direct

You can sell a release to fans as a digital download from its page on our site, at a price you set of at least $0.89 for a single or $7.99 for an EP or album, from the moment it is submitted. The fan pays our payment provider, who is the merchant of record for the sale, issues the receipt and handles the tax; the fan receives every track as you uploaded it, plus the artwork.

Of each sale we keep 20% and you keep 80%, the same way a store does. The card processing fee is paid out of our share, never yours: on a $3.49 sale that is $0.70 to us, with the processor paid from it, and $2.79 to you. Your share is added to your balance at once and is withdrawn the way royalties are. A sale that is refunded comes back out of your balance.

By switching selling on you confirm that every file in the release is yours to sell, that the price is yours to set, and that the download licence you give the fan is for personal listening only. Nothing about the sale changes the licence you have given us or the ownership of your recording.

Each sale is recorded in the form the music charts take. Reporting sales to a chart requires us to be approved by its data provider; we will say on this page when we are, and until then no sale made here is promised to count toward any chart.

13B. Merch, CDs and vinyl

You can sell merchandise, and CDs or vinyl of your releases, from your page on our site. You set the price, the stock and what you charge for shipping. The fan pays our payment provider at checkout and gives their address; you receive the order, pack it and ship it yourself, and mark it shipped so the fan is told. You are the seller of the goods: their description, quality, delivery and any return are between you and the fan, and we will refund an order that does not arrive and take it back out of your balance.

Of the item price we keep 20% and you keep 80%. What you charged for shipping comes to you in full, since you pay the postage. The card processing fee is paid out of our share, never yours. Your share is added to your balance the moment the order is paid and is withdrawn the way royalties are.

A CD or vinyl sold with merchandise is sold the only way the charts count it: as a separate line the fan ticks, at the same price it is sold for on its own, with no discount for taking both. A gift you offer with an order is earned by the merchandise total, or by merchandise plus a disc if you set it that way; the disc and the merchandise are each at their own full price in either case. A disc is reported the day it ships, not the day it is ordered, and needs the barcode printed on it to be reported at all.

14. Tax information

Before we can pay you anything, we need tax details from you: a W-9 if you are a US person, or the right W-8 form if you are not. This is not a preference. We are not permitted to make the payment without it.

We are the withholding agent on what we pay you. If you are outside the United States, US tax is withheld from your payouts at 30%, or at the lower rate your country’s treaty gives if you claim it on your W-8. If you are a US person and your W-9 carries no valid taxpayer number, backup withholding of 24% applies. Whatever is withheld is paid to the IRS in your name and we send you the year end statement of it, a 1099-MISC or a 1042-S, so you can claim it where you file.

It is your responsibility to keep those details current and accurate, and to declare and pay whatever tax you owe on what you earn. We do not give tax advice.

Where the law requires us to withhold tax before paying you, we will, and we will tell you how much and why. Money held back because we are missing your form is not lost. It is paid once the form arrives.

15. Review, rejection and takedowns

We review every release before delivery and may decline to distribute anything that fails a store's requirements, appears to infringe someone's rights, or breaks these terms. Where we decline, we will tell you why.

A release declared as made without artificial intelligence that turns out to contain it can be declined or taken down. The stores hold us to that declaration, so we hold you to it.

You can ask us to remove a release at any time and we will request takedown from the stores. Stores control their own catalogues, so removal is not instant and we cannot guarantee a date.

We may remove a release ourselves if we receive a credible infringement claim, if a store requires it, if we detect artificial streaming, or if the law requires it.

16. Copyright claims

If you believe a release we have distributed infringes your rights, write to support@onesideglobaldistro.com with enough detail to identify the work, the release, and your right to complain. We act on credible claims quickly, including taking a release down while it is looked at.

If a release of yours is removed after a claim, we will tell you who claimed and why, and you can respond. If it turns out the claim was wrong, we will put the release back and ask the stores to restore it.

Repeated claims with merit against the same account will close it. So will a claim you make in bad faith about somebody else’s music.

Our designated copyright agent, what a notice must contain, and how to answer one with a counter notice are set out in full on our copyright page at /copyright.

17. Ending your subscription

You can cancel whenever you like. When you do, releases already delivered stay live on the stores and keep earning, and we keep paying you what they earn. We do not take your music down for lapsing.

What you lose is the ability to submit new releases until you subscribe again. Any marketing share on releases we already marketed continues to apply as agreed at the time.

A release already in review when you cancel is finished and delivered. We do not pull it from the queue because a renewal lapsed. If it had been accepted for a marketing campaign, that campaign runs and its share applies as agreed.

We may suspend or close an account that breaches these terms, that we are required to close by law, or that is being used for fraud or artificial streaming.

18. Our own rights

The site, the dashboard and everything we have built to run them are ours. You may use them to distribute your music; you may not copy, resell, reverse engineer or scrape them.

Store names and logos belong to their owners and are used only to say where your music can be delivered.

19. Stores and other services

Delivering your music means passing it to stores and to the services that sit between us and them. Those companies have their own terms, and your release is subject to them once it reaches them.

We are not responsible for a store's decisions, outages, reporting errors or the way it displays your release, though we will help you chase problems where we can.

20. Disclaimers

The service is provided as it is and as it is available. We do not promise that it will be uninterrupted or free of errors, that every store will accept every release, that a release will appear by a particular date, or that your music will earn any particular amount.

To the extent the law allows, we exclude implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement. Nothing here removes rights you have as a consumer that cannot be excluded by law.

21. Limitation of liability

We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for lost profits, lost revenue, lost opportunities or lost data arising from your use of the service.

Where we are liable, our total liability to you for all claims in any period of twelve months is limited to the amount you paid us in that period.

Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, and for anything else the law says cannot be excluded.

22. Indemnity

If someone brings a claim against us because of music you submitted, whether because it was not yours to distribute, because a sample was not cleared, or because a joint owner had not agreed to the release, you will cover the reasonable costs and damages that result.

We will tell you promptly about any such claim, will not settle it without asking you first, and will let you take over the defence if you want to.

23. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of the State of Wyoming, United States, and the courts there have jurisdiction over any dispute.

If something goes wrong, tell us first. Most problems are faster to fix by email than by anything formal, and we would rather sort it out directly.

Nothing here takes away your right to bring a claim in your local courts where the law gives you that right.

24. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change materially affects you, we will tell you before it takes effect rather than relying on you reading this page again, and we will update the date at the top.

Changes never apply retroactively to a marketing share already agreed on a release we have delivered.

25. Contact

Write to support@onesideglobaldistro.com with anything about these terms, your account or your music.