Agreement.
This Distribution Agreement (the “Agreement”) is between you and NORTH., the music distribution service available through northdistro.app (“NORTH.,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). By creating a NORTH. account, submitting content for distribution, or otherwise using NORTH. distribution services, you agree to this Agreement.
You must be at least 13 years old to use NORTH. If you are under 18 or otherwise under the age of legal majority where you live, your parent or legal guardian must review and agree to this Agreement on your behalf before you create an account or submit a release. NORTH. may ask for reasonable verification of that consent.
Accounts may be created for an artist or a label. If you create or operate an account for a label, artist, group, company, or other rights holder, you represent that you have authority to act for that party and to grant the rights described in this Agreement.
What NORTH. does.
NORTH. provides non-exclusive digital music distribution. We deliver eligible releases, metadata, artwork, and related materials to supported digital service providers (“DSPs”), including streaming, download, social, discovery, and other music platforms. Where a release qualifies, NORTH. may also deliver or administer eligible sound recordings for YouTube Content ID.
NORTH. may use upstream distribution, delivery, reporting, rights-management, accounting, and payment partners when necessary to provide the service. Using those partners does not transfer ownership of your music to NORTH.
You own your music.
You retain 100% ownership of your sound recordings and other content you submit. NORTH. does not acquire ownership of your masters through this Agreement.
You grant NORTH. a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide license to reproduce, encode, format, host, transmit, deliver, display, make available, monetize, administer, and otherwise use your submitted content only as reasonably necessary to distribute it, operate eligible Content ID services, collect reporting and revenue, process takedowns, and provide the NORTH. service.
That license includes the right to provide the same limited rights to DSPs and service providers that NORTH. uses to perform distribution. The license lasts only as long as needed to provide the service, complete requested takedowns, resolve outstanding claims, and collect or pay revenue generated while the release was distributed.
You must have the rights.
For every release you submit, you represent that you own or have obtained all rights, licenses, permissions, and clearances needed to commercially distribute the release in the territories you select.
This includes, where applicable, rights to the:
- sound recording and musical composition;
- beats, samples, loops, interpolations, remixes, and other third-party material;
- featured artists, producers, performers, and contributors;
- artist names, label names, trademarks, artwork, photographs, and likenesses; and
- metadata and any other material supplied with the release.
NORTH. does not approve unlicensed content. If we reasonably believe a release infringes someone else’s rights, violates a DSP rule, contains misleading information, or creates legal or platform risk, we may reject it, pause delivery, request proof of rights, or remove it.
AI-generated music.
NORTH. accepts music created with or assisted by artificial intelligence, including releases that are entirely AI-generated, provided you have all rights, licenses, permissions, and clearances necessary to distribute the release and the content complies with applicable law, this Agreement, and the rules of the DSPs receiving it.
Acceptance by NORTH. does not guarantee that AI-generated or AI-assisted content will be monetized, accepted, remain available, or qualify for every feature on every DSP. Each DSP sets and enforces its own policies for AI-generated content and may independently reject, restrict, demonetize, label, or remove a release.
You remain responsible for the content you submit. AI may not be used to avoid rights-clearance requirements or to unlawfully imitate, exploit, or misrepresent another person’s voice, likeness, identity, work, or other protected rights. NORTH. may request information about how a release was created and may reject, restrict, or remove content when required by a DSP, rights holder, law, upstream partner, or NORTH. policy.
YouTube Content ID.
Distribution eligibility does not automatically mean Content ID eligibility. Content submitted to YouTube Content ID must satisfy YouTube’s current eligibility rules and any additional requirements imposed by NORTH. or its upstream partners. AI-generated or AI-assisted content may be subject to additional Content ID eligibility or monetization restrictions imposed by YouTube or other partners.
You must control the exclusive rights necessary for Content ID in every territory where a claim is made. Content containing non-exclusive beats, non-exclusive loops, public-domain material, broadly licensed production material, or other material that cannot be exclusively claimed may be rejected from Content ID even when the release can still be distributed normally.
NORTH. may disable, release, or remove Content ID claims or references when required to resolve ownership conflicts, invalid claims, disputes, platform policy issues, or rights concerns.
Delivery to DSPs.
NORTH. will use commercially reasonable efforts to deliver accepted releases to the DSPs you select, but DSPs control their own stores and services. NORTH. cannot guarantee that a DSP will accept a release, publish it by a particular date, keep it available, place it on a specific artist profile, playlist it, promote it, or preserve any particular feature or metric.
Your releases are also subject to each DSP’s terms, policies, metadata standards, fraud rules, and content requirements. A DSP may reject, delay, modify, demonetize, restrict, or remove content under its own rules.
NORTH. does not currently guarantee post-delivery metadata editing. If information needs to change after delivery, a correction may require support review, takedown, redelivery, or another process determined by NORTH. or the DSP. That process may affect store links, availability, statistics, or other platform data.
Royalties + payouts.
NORTH. retains a 15% distribution commission. You are entitled to 85% of Net Receipts attributable to your distributed content.
“Net Receipts” means money actually received and credited for your content after any amounts deducted, withheld, reversed, refunded, charged back, or adjusted by DSPs, upstream partners, payment providers, tax authorities, or other parties involved in processing the revenue. NORTH. does not calculate royalties from estimated stream counts or advertised per-stream rates.
Payouts are processed monthly through NORTH.’s accounting and payout partner, Eventroo, as eligible balances and reporting become available. DSP reporting and settlement can arrive after the month in which a stream or other monetized activity occurred, so a monthly payout schedule does not mean every DSP reports or pays in real time.
Eventroo’s applicable identity verification, tax, payment-method, minimum-balance, banking, and payout requirements may apply before funds can be released. NORTH. may also offset actual refunds, chargebacks, fraud penalties, or other partner charges that are directly attributable to your content or account.
No artificial streaming.
You may not create, buy, authorize, encourage, or knowingly benefit from artificial streams, fake engagement, bots, click farms, automated listening, guaranteed-stream services, guaranteed playlist placement, manipulated accounts, or any other activity intended to falsely increase plays, followers, engagement, chart position, royalties, or platform signals.
If NORTH., a DSP, or an upstream partner identifies suspicious or confirmed manipulation, NORTH. may investigate the activity, request information from you, delay or withhold affected royalties, pass through actual partner penalties or chargebacks attributable to your content, reject or remove releases, suspend distribution, or terminate the account. Serious or repeated manipulation may result in immediate removal or termination.
A suspicious spike does not automatically mean you committed fraud. If a partner provides a review or appeal process and you provide credible information showing legitimate promotion or listening activity, NORTH. may submit or support that information where reasonably available.
Takedowns + termination.
This Agreement continues until you or NORTH. terminates it. NORTH. is non-exclusive, and there is no fixed distribution lock-in period.
You may stop using NORTH. at any time. Closing or leaving your NORTH. account does not automatically remove releases that have already been delivered. Those releases may remain live until you request a takedown or NORTH. removes them for another reason.
You may request a takedown at any time. NORTH. will submit valid takedown requests to the relevant partners, but DSPs control the final processing time and NORTH. cannot guarantee an exact removal date.
NORTH. may suspend or terminate distribution, remove content, or close an account when reasonably necessary because of a material breach of this Agreement, rights dispute, fraud or manipulation, nonpayment or chargeback owed to a partner, repeated policy violations, legal requirement, or DSP/upstream-partner instruction.
Claims, warranties + liability.
You are responsible for the content you submit and the promises you make in this Agreement. To the extent allowed by law, you agree to reimburse NORTH. for losses, claims, penalties, chargebacks, or reasonable costs that result directly from your breach of this Agreement, infringement of another party’s rights, or unlawful use of the service.
NORTH. provides the service on an “as available” basis. We do not promise uninterrupted service, guaranteed release dates, guaranteed acceptance by any DSP, playlist placement, audience growth, specific streaming numbers, or a particular amount of revenue.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, NORTH. will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential losses arising from the service, a DSP decision, third-party platform outage, or loss of expected streams or revenue. Where the law allows a contractual liability cap, NORTH.’s total liability relating to this Agreement will not exceed the distribution commissions NORTH. retained from your content during the 12 months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim.
Nothing in this Agreement removes rights or remedies that cannot legally be waived, including any mandatory consumer protections that apply to you.
Changes to this agreement.
NORTH. may update this Agreement as the service, DSP requirements, payment systems, or applicable rules change. The current version and effective date will always appear at the top of this page.
If a change materially affects your rights or obligations, NORTH. may provide notice or require you to accept the updated version before continuing to use affected services. Changes do not retroactively transfer ownership of your music to NORTH.
If one part of this Agreement is found unenforceable, the remaining parts stay in effect to the extent permitted by law. A failure by NORTH. to enforce a provision once does not permanently waive that provision.
Questions?
For distribution, rights, takedown, royalty, or agreement questions, contact NORTH. at support@northdistro.app.