Name: ToneGrid
Price: 99 USD

A

Aggregator: A company that collects releases from many labels and artists and delivers them to stores and streaming services under one set of DSP agreements. Aggregators sit between rights holders and DSPs and usually charge a fee or a revenue share. ToneGrid for aggregators →
AI-generated music: Audio created wholly or partly by generative models. Most DSPs require disclosure, some restrict it, and undisclosed AI content is a common takedown reason. AI Music Policy →
API (Application Programming Interface): A documented set of endpoints that lets software create releases, read royalty data or trigger deliveries without using a dashboard. Distribution APIs are typically RESTful and secured with per-integration keys. ToneGrid Music Distribution API →
Artificial streaming: Plays generated by bots, click farms, paid stream services or looped devices rather than real listeners. DSPs remove the streams, withhold royalties and can penalize the distributor that delivered the content. How ToneGrid detects it →
Artist profile: The page a DSP shows for a performer, keyed by a store-specific identifier such as a Spotify artist ID or Apple Music artist ID. Correct mapping at delivery stops a release landing on the wrong profile.
Audio fingerprinting: A technique that derives a compact signature from an audio file so it can be matched against a reference database. Used to detect duplicates, unlicensed samples and AI-generated audio before a release ships. Fingerprinting on every upload →
Audiovisual release: A music video or visualizer delivered to video-capable DSPs such as Apple Music, TIDAL or Vevo, with its own technical spec for resolution, frame rate and audio. Promo videos with Rotor →

B

Beat licensing: Selling the right to use an instrumental in a recording, usually with a lease that limits streams or sales. The beat seller stays a contributor and often a payee on the resulting track.

C

C-line: The copyright notice for the composition and artwork, shown as a © symbol with a year and owner name. It is distinct from the P-line, which covers the sound recording.
Catalog migration: Moving an existing catalog from one distributor to another while keeping the same ISRCs and UPCs, so streams, playlist placements and artist profiles are preserved rather than reset. Switching without losing streams →
Content ID: YouTube's rights management system. Delivered reference files let a rights holder claim, monetize, track or block user-uploaded videos that contain their recordings. YouTube Content ID delivery →
Contributor: Any person credited on a track, such as a producer, songwriter, mixer or featured performer. Contributor roles ride in the metadata and feed credits and, where applicable, royalty splits.

D

DDEX: The Digital Data Exchange, the industry body that publishes the XML message standards DSPs and distributors use to exchange release, sales and rights data. The release-delivery message is ERN. DDEX on ToneGrid →
Deal terms: The commercial conditions attached to a release: which stores, which territories, which price tier and from when. In DDEX they are expressed as deals inside the ERN message. Encode deal terms once →
Delivery receipt: The acknowledgement a DSP returns after ingesting a release package, confirming the files were received and either accepted or rejected with a reason.
Direct delivery: Sending releases straight to a DSP under your own agreement rather than through another distributor's pipeline. It removes an intermediary fee and a layer of delay from the supply chain. ToneGrid delivers direct →
DSP (Digital Service Provider): Any store or streaming service that makes music available to listeners, such as Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, Boomplay or Anghami. Distributors deliver to DSPs and collect the royalties they report. Direct delivery to 200+ DSPs →
DSR (Digital Sales Report): The DDEX standard a DSP uses to report streams, downloads and the revenue they generated, usually monthly. Distributors parse DSRs to calculate royalties for each release and payee.

E

ERN (Electronic Release Notification): The DDEX XML message that carries a release to a DSP: audio and artwork references, metadata, territories, release dates and deal terms. ERN 4.3 is the current version most DSPs accept. ERN 4.3 explained →
Explicit flag: A metadata field that marks a track as containing explicit lyrics. DSPs use it for parental controls and editorial placement, and a wrong value is a common rejection reason.

F

Featured artist: A performer credited on a track alongside the primary artist, usually shown as "feat." in the title. Featured artists are mapped to their own DSP profiles at delivery.
Fraud detection: Automated screening of releases and stream patterns for signs of artificial streaming, stolen content or AI content that was not disclosed. Detection produces a risk score that a human reviews before action is taken. AI fraud detection →

G

Genre tags: The primary and secondary genre fields a DSP uses to place a release in browse categories, charts and algorithmic recommendations. Each store maintains its own genre list, so tags are mapped per DSP at delivery.
GRid (Global Release Identifier): A DDEX identifier for a release as a product, used in supply-chain messages where a UPC is not available or not appropriate. It complements ISRC (recordings) and UPC (products).

I

Ingestion: The step where a platform receives a release, validates files and metadata, and records it in the catalog. Rights and fraud checks run at ingestion, before any delivery happens.
ISRC (International Standard Recording Code): A 12-character code that uniquely identifies a sound recording. It stays with the recording across distributors and DSPs and is how streams are matched back to a track for royalty reporting. Metadata checklist →
ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code): The identifier for a musical composition, as opposed to a recording. One song can have one ISWC and many ISRCs, one for each recording of it.

L

Label: The company that owns or controls sound recordings and releases them under a brand name. A label can be an independent operation with one artist or a group with many sub-labels. ToneGrid for labels →
Lyrics delivery: Sending time-synced or plain lyrics to DSPs alongside the audio so they appear in the player. Lyrics are delivered per language and must match the recorded performance.

M

MCP server: A Model Context Protocol endpoint that exposes a platform's capabilities as tools an AI agent can call. On a distribution platform, that lets an agent create releases, check delivery status or pull royalty data. ToneGrid MCP for AI agents →
Mechanical royalties: Royalties owed to songwriters and publishers each time a composition is reproduced, which on streaming services happens with every play or download. They are separate from the royalties paid for the sound recording. Every royalty type explained →
Merlin: The global digital rights agency for independent labels and distributors. Members license their catalogs to DSPs collectively under Merlin's negotiated terms.
Metadata: All the descriptive data attached to a release: titles, artists, contributors, identifiers, genres, dates, territories, language and rights lines. Clean metadata is what makes a release discoverable and payable. Metadata mastery →
Monetization: Turning plays and views into revenue, whether through streaming royalties, download sales, ad revenue on YouTube or sync licenses.
Multi-tenant: A software architecture where one platform serves many separate businesses, each with its own data, users and branding, isolated from the others. White-label distribution platforms are multi-tenant by design. White-label on ToneGrid →

N

Neighboring rights: Rights in a sound recording and its performance, as distinct from the composition. They generate royalties when recordings are broadcast or played in public, collected by societies such as SoundExchange in the United States. SoundExchange registration →

P

P-line: The phonographic copyright notice for the sound recording, shown as a ℗ symbol with a year and owner name. It travels in the metadata and appears on store pages.
Payee: The person or company that receives a share of royalties for a release. A payee can be an artist, a producer, a label or an outside investor, each with a defined percentage.
Performance royalties: Royalties owed to songwriters and publishers when a composition is performed publicly, including streams, radio and live venues. Collected by performing rights organizations and paid through publishers.
Pre-order: Making a release available for purchase or save before its release date, so day-one activity is counted together. Pre-orders require delivery ahead of the release date.
Pre-save: A campaign that lets listeners add an upcoming release to their library before it goes live, so it appears automatically on release day. Pre-saves are usually run through a landing page linked to DSP accounts.
Primary artist: The main performer credited on a release. The primary artist field determines which DSP profile the release lands on, so it must be mapped carefully when names are shared.
Publishing: The ownership and administration of musical compositions, as opposed to recordings. Publishers register works, license them and collect mechanical and performance royalties for songwriters. Master and publishing in one ledger →

Q

QC (Quality Control): The review a release goes through before delivery: audio checks, artwork rules, metadata validation, rights confirmation and fraud screening. Releases that fail QC are returned with the reasons. Content Policy →

R

Release date: The date a release becomes available to listeners. DSPs expect delivery ahead of time, and timed releases are coordinated per territory so the release goes live at local midnight.
Rights holder: The person or company that owns or controls the rights in a recording or composition and is entitled to its royalties. Distributors act on the rights holder's instructions.
Rights ledger: A single record of who owns what on every release: master and publishing ownership, split trees and deal terms, maintained so conflicts surface at ingestion rather than at payout. ToneGrid rights management →
Royalty split: The percentage breakdown of a release's earnings between payees. Splits can be nested, for example a label share that is itself split between an artist and a producer. Split trees with no depth limit →
Royalty statement: The periodic report that shows a payee what their releases earned, where, and what was paid out. Statements are built from DSP sales reports after the DSP's own reporting lag. Statements artists trust →

S

Sub-label: A label imprint that operates under a parent label, often with its own branding and roster but shared infrastructure and reporting. Multi-tenant platforms model sub-labels as nested accounts.
Supply chain: On ToneGrid, the delivery pipeline that takes a validated release from the catalog through DDEX packaging to each DSP, with per-store status, receipts and retries. Supply chain features →
Sync license: Permission to pair a recording and its composition with visual media such as film, television, games or advertising, negotiated separately from distribution.

T

Takedown: Removing a release from one or more DSPs, either at the rights holder's request, because of a dispute, or under a DMCA notice. A takedown is delivered as a DDEX message and confirmed by the store. DMCA process →
Tenant: A single business running on a multi-tenant platform, with its own users, catalog, branding and billing. On a white-label distribution platform, each distributor or label is a tenant. Run your own tenant →
Territory rights: The countries or regions where a rights holder is allowed to distribute a release. Territory restrictions are encoded in the delivery so a store only sells where the rights exist.
Trust score: A rating applied to an account or artist that reflects its history of clean releases, disputes and fraud flags. Low scores trigger closer review; some DSPs apply their own version to distributors. DSP trust score explained →

U

UPC / EAN: The barcode that identifies a release as a product, 12 digits for UPC and 13 for EAN. Each album, EP or single gets one, and it is used by DSPs to group the tracks of a release.

W

Webhook: An HTTP callback a platform sends to your server when something happens, such as a release being delivered, a royalty statement landing or a fraud flag being raised, so your systems react without polling. Webhooks on the API →
White-label distribution: Running a distribution business on a platform you license rather than build, with your own brand, domain and pricing in front of the artists and the platform invisible behind it. ToneGrid white-label →

Y

YouTube Content ID: See Content ID. Reference files delivered to YouTube so a rights holder can claim and monetize user uploads that contain their recordings. Delivery details →

Music distribution, defined.

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