Lay vs Amuse: a yearly plan or a share of your royalties
The short answer
Amuse sells three yearly plans, from $23.99 for Artist to $59.99 for Professional, and pays 100 percent of your royalties while a plan runs. Lay Free takes no fee and keeps about 30 percent of what your music earns. The two meet at about $80 a year of royalties: below that Lay leaves you more, above it Amuse does.
What sets Amuse apart is the end of a plan. Your releases stay online when you stop paying, and Amuse then keeps a 25 percent commission on them; releasing new music needs a subscription again. A cancelled Lay account comes down from the stores instead, and Lay Free accepts new releases without any subscription.
The two offers, row by row
Every Amuse cell comes from Amuse’s own pricing page or support centre, read on 10 November 2026. Where Amuse documents nothing, the row is missing rather than guessed.
| What the row compares | Lay | Amuse |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | $0 on Free, after we read your application. Pro is coming soon with no published price; Partner is agreed with you directly and has no public price. | $23.99 a year for Artist with 1 artist, $39.99 for Artist Plus with 2 artists, $59.99 for Professional with 3 or more artists, each billed annually.1 |
| How you open an account | Every account starts with an application. Self-registration is closed and a person sets the account up by hand. | You create an account and choose a plan. The pricing page describes no application and no review before signup.1 |
| Your share of the royalties | On Free you keep about 70 percent of your royalties and Lay keeps about 30. On Partner the share is agreed with you individually. | 100 percent of royalties on every plan, except on YouTube Content ID. Without an active plan, a 25 percent commission applies to the releases you own.12 |
| Content ID and user videos | Not part of the plans we publish today. Ask us before you count on it. | YouTube Content ID is available with a 15 percent royalty fee on Artist and with no fee on Artist Plus and Professional.1 |
| Stores and platforms | Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, TikTok, Instagram, Deezer, Tidal and the other major stores. We publish no store count. | Unlimited releases to all major streaming services and to social and user-video platforms; the pricing page publishes no store count.1 |
| If you cancel or stop paying | Cancel in your dashboard or by email and we have the stores take your releases down. You are still paid for what they earned before. | Your music stays online when you cancel or downgrade. Without a plan Amuse keeps a 25 percent commission on your releases, and new music needs a subscription again.12 |
| Support | One inbox, support@laydistribution.com. Free typically hears back within 48 to 72 hours, Partner within 24. No guaranteed response time. | Support is graded by plan as fast, faster and priority; only Professional names a time, 24 hours.1 |
| What the price includes | The stores, the delivery, the royalty collection and the monthly payout are the plan. Recordings, songs and artwork stay yours. | Unlimited releases, a release that can go live in 24 hours, daily streaming insights, royalty advances, pre-saves and smart links, free UPC and ISRC codes; Artist Plus adds a second artist and Hi-Res audio, Professional a custom label name and team members.1 |
What the two prices mean in money
A fixed fee and a revenue share only compare at a royalty figure. Here is the line where they cross, and what changes once an Amuse plan has ended.
The fee
Amuse’s cheapest plan is $23.99 a year, billed annually. Lay Free charges no fee and keeps about 30 percent.
Where they meet
At $80 a year of royalties you keep about $56 either way: 70 percent of 80 is 56, and 80 minus 23.99 is about 56. Below $80 Lay leaves you more, above it Amuse does. At $300 a year Lay leaves about $210 and Amuse about $276.
After the plan ends
Without a plan Amuse keeps 25 percent, so you keep 75 percent of what the existing releases earn: five points more than Lay Free’s 70 percent, with no fee on either side. The difference is new music, which Amuse only distributes on a paid plan.
Our arithmetic, not an Amuse statement. It counts one artist on the cheapest plan in one currency and ignores taxes, payment fees, currency conversion and the 15 percent fees Amuse names for Content ID and for splits on the Artist plan. Your own numbers move the crossing point.
Where Amuse is the better answer
- 100 percent of royalties for one yearly fee, which wins once your music earns more than about $80 a year.
- Releases that stay online after you cancel, at 75 percent to you.
- A release that can go live in 24 hours, and scheduling from 7 days ahead on Professional.
- YouTube Content ID on every plan, without a fee from Artist Plus up.
- Three or more artists on Professional, royalty advances and mobile apps.
Where Lay is the better answer
- Nothing to pay before your music earns, and no renewal date to remember.
- New releases without a subscription: Free stays free for every release.
- A person reads your application and sets the account up by hand.
- One support inbox with typical answer times we publish: 48 to 72 hours on Free, 24 on Partner.
- A German company in Karlsruhe, with the German terms prevailing.
Questions artists ask about Amuse
Is Amuse still free?
The pricing page we read on 10 November 2026 lists three paid yearly plans, from $23.99, and no free plan for releasing new music. What costs nothing is keeping existing releases online without a plan, and Amuse then keeps a 25 percent commission on them.
Is Lay cheaper than Amuse?
While your music earns less than about $80 a year, yes: Lay takes about 30 percent of a small number instead of a $23.99 fee. Above that Amuse is cheaper, because a fee stops growing and a share does not.
Does Amuse take a cut of my royalties?
Not while a plan runs: Amuse lists 100 percent royalties on every plan, except on YouTube Content ID, where the Artist plan carries a 15 percent fee. Without a plan it keeps 25 percent of the royalties of the releases you own.
What happens to my music when I cancel Amuse?
It stays online. Amuse applies a 25 percent commission to keep the releases streaming, and you need a subscription again to distribute new music. On Lay, cancelling means we have the stores take the releases down, and you are still paid what they earned before.
Does Lay include Content ID?
Not in the plans we publish today. Amuse offers YouTube Content ID on every plan, so if that money matters to you, it is a real difference between the two offers.
Sources
Every Amuse statement above comes from one of these pages, read on the date shown. Where Amuse documents nothing, the table has no row rather than a guess.
Keep reading
- Releasing music on Spotify for free: what free really costs
- Switching distributors: how to move your catalog to Lay
Ready to start? Apply for a Lay account and we will read it ourselves. The plans and prices are on the home page.