Terms & Conditions

This is a legal agreement (the “Agreement”) between you (”You” or ”The Artist”) and RELEASE IT YOURSELF (“RELEASE IT YOURSELF”, “releaseityourself.com", “ALOADED”, “we” or “us”). If you do not agree to our Terms and Conditions, you may not access or use the services offered by our company. You agree that you are not under any disability, restriction or prohibition to enter into this Agreement. You have not entered into any agreement which may conflict with this Agreement. You warrant and represent that you are at least eighteen (18) years of age.

RELEASE IT YOURSELF is operated by ALOADED AB, a company registered in Sweden.
Organisation number: 559124-3836.

1. Grants of Rights

The rights granted in this Agreement include, but are not limited to, the sale of Recordings, digital downloads, streaming, interactive and non-interactive streaming, cloud services and streaming-on-demand services.

By using RELEASE IT YOURSELF and our services, you grant us the following rights, during the Term and throughout the Territory:

The exclusive right to sell, make clips, copy, distribute and otherwise exploit the Recordings by all means and media (whether now known or existing in the future) through any and all DSPs now available and operational or hereafter available, and also the right to sublicense or otherwise transfer, all such rights to our network of DSPs.
to collect all income related to the Recordings from our network of DSPs.
to use the names, photographs, images, cover artwork, meta data and other information related to The Artist and the Recordings, provided to RELEASE IT YOURSELF.

Each party will remain independent of each other. Nothing in this agreement constitutes an employment or joint venture relationship of any kind between the Artist and RELEASE IT YOURSELF.

You are fully responsible for the Recordings, the data and the files submitted to RELEASE IT YOURSELF. We reserve the right to prevent you from using our services and remove content or parts of content, from all DSPs if we find necessary.

RELEASE IT YOURSELF shall not be responsible for any loss, destruction, alteration or disclosure of The Artist’s Content, Cover artwork, Meta data or the Recordings, caused by RELEASE IT YOURSELF or any third party, including DSPs, and The Artist shall be solely responsible to maintain a updated backup of all data.

The Artist represent and warrants to RELEASE IT YOURSELF that:

The Artist will comply with all obligations under this Agreement and that the person signing this Agreement is authorised to do so.

The information provided to RELEASE IT YOURSELF is true, accurate, current, and complete.

The Artist will comply with all applicable laws, governmental regulations and requirements applicable to The Artist’s Content and the performance of The Artist’s undertakings, warranties and obligations set out in this Agreement.

The Artist’s Content and any usage thereof by RELEASE IT YOURSELF and/or the DSPs does not infringe any intellectual property rights (including, copyrights, trademark rights, designs, database rights and all other intellectual rights and equivalent or similar forms of protection existing anywhere in the world) or any other rights of third parties

The Artist has obtained and will obtain all permissions, consents or other authorizations from featured artists, performers, producers and other third parties required for the exploitation or usage of The Artist’s Content on RELEASE IT YOURSELF and the DSPs’ services and otherwise.

The Artist has paid and it will pay for any and all payments due to other artists, performers, producers and other third parties resulting from exploitation and/or use of The Artist’s Content and any other items provided by The Artist to RELEASE IT YOURSELF including any so called ‘artist share’ of performing rights’ income and any Publishing Fees

The Artist will remain primary liable to liaise with DSPs and the relevant claimants in relation to any ‘Infringement Notices’ received by RELEASE IT YOURSELF or The Artist in relation to The Artist’s Content and that RELEASE IT YOURSELF or any of our partners, shall not be held liable in any event for any so called ‘strikes’ and/or other liability thereof incurred by The Artists.

In addition,

The Artist shall be solely responsible for the proper and adequate uploading of Content to RELEASE IT YOURSELF and it shall ensure that correct Meta data (including publishing and performer Meta data insofar as available) is provided at all times;

The Artist shall ensure that the Content is technically satisfactory for exploitation on DSPs and RELEASE IT YOURSELF reserves the right to refuse, to accept any recordings, artwork or Meta data that does not meet the standard requirements and specifications set out by RELEASE IT YOURSELF and/or by the relevant DSPs;

The Artist shall provide RELEASE IT YOURSELF with all information reasonably requested to fulfil its obligations hereunder (including in relation to handling any ‘Infringement Notices’) and promptly cooperate with RELEASE IT YOURSELF to resolve any operational and/or technical issues relating to the RELEASE IT YOURSELF’s services or the DSPs’ platforms;

The artist shall fulfil any obligations directly applicable to it and ensure that the content further complies with any guidelines and general policies provided by RELEASE IT YOURSELF or DSPs from time to time and that it will not use RELEASE IT YOURSELF or any DSPs in any fraudulent and/or illegal way.

The Artist shall comply with all applicable laws, governmental regulations and requirements relating to distribution, exploitation and marketing of content;

The Artist shall promptly notify RELEASE IT YOURSELF in writing of any dealings which may limit and/or affect RELEASE IT YOURSELF’s ability to perform its services hereunder.

2. No offensive content

You are not allowed to upload any Recordings, Content or Meta data which may contain discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability or sexual orientation. You are not allowed to upload any Recordings, Content or Meta data which may contain offensive or hateful material. You are not allowed to upload any Recordings, Content or Meta data which might promote sexually explicit or violent material. You are not allowed to upload any Recordings, Content or Meta data which might threaten, harass, upset, embarrass, alarm any other person or invade in their privacy.

If you do, we have the right to block and delete any and/or all Content on RELEASE IT YOURSELF and/or on DSPs and terminate this Agreement without paying any royalties to the Artist.

3. Copyrights

The rights granted to RELEASE IT YOURSELF do not include a transfer of copyright ownership. The Artist have and will maintain ownership of the copyright when using RELEASE IT YOURSELF. The Artist have and will maintain all Digital Aggregation Rights and Digital Content Rights granted to RELEASE IT YOURSELF hereunder during the Term.

By using RELEASE IT YOURSELF you agree and warrant that you will not provide any files or content that can infringe copyrighted works. RELEASE IT YOURSELF may withhold and/or discard any royalties that are an infringement of copyrighted work and/or violates any of our network’s or any other third party’s rights.

RELEASE IT YOURSELF reserves the right to block and delete any Content on RELEASE IT YOURSELF and/or on DSPs and terminate this Agreement, if the Artist:

Fails to clear any rights or obtain any licences or pay royalties due under any licences in relation to The Artist’s Content.
In RELEASE IT YOURSELF’s opinion, the continuing availability of such Content on DSPs may result in a liability for RELEASE IT YOURSELF.
The Artist’s Content is offensive, pornographic or defamatory or is the subject of a ‘Infringement Notice’ or is the subject of any fraudulent activity, or for any other reason in RELEASE IT YOURSELF’s sole and absolute judgment is necessary to protect the business interests of RELEASE IT YOURSELF.

In the event that The Artist ceases to own and/or control any provided content during the Term, it shall promptly update RELEASE IT YOURSELF on this matter and help RELEASE IT YOURSELF to withdraw such content from the relevant DSPs.

The Artist shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless RELEASE IT YOURSELF (including any directors, members, officers, employees and other representatives), its affiliates, its successors in title and subcontractors, at The Artist’s own cost and expense against any and all alleged or actual claims, actions, proceedings, damages expenses and costs (including reasonable attorney fees and costs) arising out of or in connection with this Agreement, including: a) a breach or alleged breach by The Artist of any obligations, representations and/or warranties under this Agreement; or b) a claim that any Recordings or the use thereof, infringes any third party rights.

If the event of a claim, RELEASE IT YOURSELF shall be entitled, in addition to any other right or remedy provided for hereunder to: a) deduct from DSPs Income any legal costs incurred in relation thereof (including in relation to any ‘Infringement Notices’); and b) withhold any payments otherwise due to Company equivalent to the amount claimed including any reasonable anticipated legal fees, any costs, losses and damages relating thereto.

Company reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to refuse to provide its services to you or any customer for any or no reason whatsoever.

COVER SONGS & SAMPLES

When submitting a cover version of a song, written by someone other than yourself. You must obtained all relevant consents and licenses for such use. You also guarantee The Recordings are free of samples. Meaning all Recordings are original and does not contain any samples which have not been cleared or licensed, or else infringe upon the right of any person or third party.

4. Payments

The Artist will receive one hundred percent (100%) of Net Revenues, meaning the revenues received from our distribution partners less any tax, VAT, administrative fee or other external and/or internal charge related to the sale, hosting or handling of your Recordings, Content and royalties. Payments will be subject to the conditions in each agreement between RELEASE IT YOURSELF and the DSPs.

Your right to royalties follows on the date when RELEASE IT YOURSELF receives payment for your sold Recording, and is calculated out of the amount we actually receive. The royalties paid by RELEASE IT YOURSELF includes compensation for all recording costs, royalties to Artists, musicians, producers and others involved in the production. You agree that, in some cases, RELEASE IT YOURSELF’s network and DSPs will only pay RELEASE IT YOURSELF in the case that the total amount exceeds a certain amount and that your payment might be subject to these limitations.

Payments will be credited to your RELEASE IT YOURSELF royalty account within 120 days after we have received payment from the network of DSPs. Once payment has been credited, you will be able to request a withdrawal of royalties from your RELEASE IT YOURSELF royalty account to your bank account. If your balance is lower than EUR 50 and you want to request a payout, an administrative fee will apply. The cost as per 2018 is EUR 25.

The Artist will be fully responsible for any bank fees or other charges related to such withdrawals, including any bank fees, tax fees, currency exchange fees or other charges. RELEASE IT YOURSELF may deduct such fees and charges from any royalties owed to you.

RENEWAL

If you fail to pay the yearly renewal fee in time, your music will still be available on all DSPs, but you will not earn any royalties until renewal. If you owe any amounts to RELEASE IT YOURSELF as a consequence of this Agreement or otherwise, RELEASE IT YOURSELF shall have the right to deduct all, or a portion of, such amounts from any income otherwise payable to you.

PUBLISHING FEES

The Artist hereby acknowledges that RELEASE IT YOURSELF shall not be responsible at any time for Publishing Fees. In the event that RELEASE IT YOURSELF shall be required to pay any Publishing Fees, The Artist shall indemnify, defend and hold RELEASE IT YOURSELF harmless in respect of any such costs and expenses thereof.

TAXES

The Artist is responsible for all taxes (including taxes based upon its income) imposed on the Artist under applicable laws.

5. Limitation of Liability

The Artist agrees that in no event shall RELEASE IT YOURSELF be liable to The Artist for or in relation to any damage caused by: a) any errors or omissions in any data or for any action undertaken by RELEASE IT YOURSELF under The Artist’s direction; b) any non-performance due to The Artist’s misuse of RELEASE IT YOURSELF and/or failure to comply with RELEASE IT YOURSELF’s reasonable instructions; c) for any misuse of The Artist’s Content by DSPs or DSPs’ end users including unauthorised copying and distribution of Company Content; and d) any DSPs’ payment failure.

6. Termination & refund

RELEASE IT YOURSELF shall be entitled to terminate this Agreement at any time with immediate written notice to The Artist: a) in the event of an alleged security breach of The Artist’s Content, account or Meta data which may jeopardise the safety of RELEASE IT YOURSELF, the DSPs or of any other organisation; b) in the event of any alleged fraudulent activity; c) if, in RELEASE IT YOURSELF’s sole and absolute judgment, termination is necessary to protect the business interests of RELEASE IT YOURSELF and d) in the event of a claim.

We reserve the right to, temporary or permanent, discontinue or terminate RELEASE IT YOURSELF and all, or parts, of our services and this Agreement, at any time without prior notice. If possible, we will refund you in proportion to what services has been accomplished.

You agree that Company may terminate your account if you violate the Terms of Service or, in good faith discretion, are believed to be infringing the intellectual property rights of third parties and/or engaging in otherwise fraudulent activity.

7. Misc.

COVER ARTWORK AND FORMATS

When uploading the Recordings on the our website, you must submit various meta data as well as Cover Artwork. If you do not submit a Cover Artwork, RELEASE IT YOURSELF will create one for you, for use in the DSPs and on our website. This will be created automatically and there will be no possibility for you to approve or reject of such Cover Artwork. The cost for this service is 8 EUR and will be balanced in your next statement from us.

You agree to submit the Recordings, Cover Artwork and any other information or Content in the formats required. You can find descriptions of the formats on our website. If the Content submitted by you is not in the desired format, RELEASE IT YOURSELF will charge you for correcting this. This will be balanced in your next royalty statement.

UPC & BAR CODE

When submitting the Recordings, you must submit a Universal Product Codes (UPC) code for each release. If you do not submit a valid UPC code, RELEASE IT YOURSELF will create one for you. The cost for this service is 8 EUR. This will be balanced in your next royalty statement.

ISRC CODES

When submitting the Recordings, you must submit an ISRC code for each track. If you do not submit a valid ISRC codes, RELEASE IT YOURSELF will create these for you. The cost for this service is 8 EUR per release. This will be balanced in your next royalty statement.

SYNC PROGRAMME & PLACEMENTS

When submitting your releases, RELEASE IT YOURSELF gives you the option to join our Sync Programme. Meaning allowing us to represent your master (and Publishing Rights if you are not connected to any other publishing company) when contacting and pitching music to TV-showes, films, movies, commercials and other video-productions. There is no cost for joining this programme. In the case of a placement, the Artists have the full rights to disapprove of the placement – but if you accept the terms, our fee is 35% at source.

LIST OF DSPs

The list of DSPs that RELEASE IT YOURSELF distribute your music to varies over time. RELEASE IT YOURSELF cannot guarantee deliveries to any particular DSP, and assumes no liability if your Recordings are not available at a particular DSP, as well as no liability for any interruptions or suspensions of access in a particular DSP. We assume no liability for any interruptions, delays or errors that might occur on our network of DSPs. RELEASE IT YOURSELF are not liable or responsible for any third party failures in any way. RELEASE IT YOURSELF’s agreement with the DSPs shall determine the terms on which the Artist’s recordings are sold, streamed or made available to music listeners.

PRICING

The price for RELEASE IT YOURSELF’s services can be found at releaseityourself.com. The prices may vary over time, as well as vary from territory to territory, depending on the number of tracks, royalty rates and/or currency. RELEASE IT YOURSELF is entitled to change the pricing of our services during the Term and if so, RELEASE IT YOURSELF shall send the Artist a written notice at least 10 days prior to the change. Purchases from RELEASE IT YOURSELF are non-refundable after purchase.

The Recordings will be sold throughout our network of DSPs at pricing decided by RELEASE IT YOURSELF and our partners. The pricing will be in accordance to industry standards.

TRANSFER OF RIGHTS

RELEASE IT YOURSELF may assign its rights and obligations under this Agreement, in whole or in part, to any third party or company without your approval. You are not entitled to assign any of your rights and obligations under this Agreement, in whole or in part, without the approval of RELEASE IT YOURSELF.

FORCE MAJEURE

RELEASE IT YOURSELF shall not be liable for any failure to perform, or delay in performance of any of its obligations under this Agreement that is caused by a Force Majeure Event. RELEASE IT YOURSELF must not be held responsible for failures in providing any of RELEASE IT YOURSELF’s services, if caused by an event outside or beyond our control, including but not limited to: Fire, floods, war, earthquake, embargo, terrorism or failures in telecommunication networks.

If services are affected by Force Majeure for more than sixty (60) days, then RELEASE IT YOURSELF may terminate this Agreement with immediate written notice to the Artist.

SWEDISH LAW

This Agreement shall be subject to and construed in accordance with the laws of Sweden and all disputes (including non-contractual disputes or claims) relating to this Agreement shall be brought solely in the courts of Stockholm or any higher court as relevant.

In the event that any part of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, that particular part shall be deleted and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

Changes to this Agreement are effective from the time it is revised and posted. RELEASE IT YOURSELF will publish the new version, or the changes, on www.releaseityourself.com/terms.

8. Definitions

"The Term" – The period. The Term of this Agreement shall be 365 days from the date we send you an order confirmation. The Term will renew for another 365 days unless you cancel your services with RELEASE IT YOURSELF. The cancellation should be sent to RELEASE IT YOURSELF, in written form, at least 30 days prior to expiration.

"The Recordings" – Any and all audio master recordings and music files, and related Meta data, that you submit to RELEASE IT YOURSELF at any time.

"The Territory" – By default RELEASE IT YOURSELF distribute and sell your music worldwide. Restrictions of where your Recordings can be made available by the DSPs might be stated in the Meta data.

"The Content" – Any and all materials, files and information submitted to RELEASE IT YOURSELF by the Artist. Including the Recordings, audio master recordings and other materials and assets, including audio-visual clips, artwork, cover artwork, artist names, images, photographs and likenesses, artist’s and label’s trademarks, logos and all related metadata and promotional materials, supplied by The Artist during the Term.

"The Cover artwork" – Images, photographs, illustrations and likenesses related to the Recordings, that you submit to RELEASE IT YOURSELF at any time.

"Meta data" (or “Metadata”) – Any information (including artist names, track numbers, label information, territories cleared for usage, ISRC and UPC codes) relating to the Recordings or The Content.

"Digital Service Providers" (DSPs) – Any digital internet consumer stores, digital music services provider and/or consumer stores (such as iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Tidal, Deezer, Amazon, Youtube) whether existing or developed in the future, including streaming services, music download portals, mobile music platforms, digital (and terrestrial) radio stations, video platforms, digital (and terrestrial) television, performance rights organisations, mobile networks and data processing companies.

"Publishing Fees" – any and all reproduction and/or public performance and/or communication to the public payments and/or similar payments to be made to third parties, including publishers, authors, collecting societies and/or similar entities in connection with the exploitation or any other use of the underlying musical compositions (including lyrics) or parts thereof as embodied on Company Content.

"Digital Aggregation Rights" – Any and all rights necessary for RELEASE IT YOURSELF to exploit The Artist’s Content on DSPs through our deals, including rights to and to authorize DSPs to: a) create digital master files and reproduce, convert, adapt, encode and transcribe Content and perform Metadata corrections (including spelling, genre correction) where necessary; b) store the Artist’s Content in digital form on storage servers for the purposes of creating different compressed versions using different codecs; c) supply, stream, perform, communicate to the public, make available, display, distribute, reproduce, compile and otherwise exploit the Content on DSPs; d) receive payments, administer and distribute payments and royalties in relation to any and all income related to the exploitation and/or performance of Content on DSPs; e) ingest and deliver Content to DSPs; f) create specific ID files, including through fingerprinting, to identify Content on DSPs’ servers (including ‘YouTube Content ID System’ and ‘SoundCloud Deck”); and g) create derivative works of Company Content on Company’s pre-approved DSPs.

"Digital Content Rights" – any and all rights necessary for RELEASE IT YOURSELF to manage your Content on our, or our partners, platforms – including rights to: a) ingest, store and deliver The Artist’s Content (including Metadata only) to DSPs and/or other music organisations; b) create digital master files and reproduce, convert and transcribe Content and perform Metadata corrections (including spelling, genre correction) where necessary; and c) store the Content in form on cloud or physical storage servers for the purposes of creating different compressed versions using different codecs.