The Lay Free plan explained: $0, 70 percent yours
Free is the plan most artists start on, and the one people ask about most, usually with three questions: what does it cost, what do I keep, and why can’t I just sign up? The short answers are nothing, 70 percent, and because a person reviews every application. Below is how that works in practice.
What Free costs
Nothing. There is no monthly fee, no per-release fee and no annual fee. Lay earns when your music earns.
What you keep: 70 percent of Net Receipts
On Free you receive 70 percent of the Net Receipts from your releases, and we keep 30 percent.
“Net Receipts” is the amount we actually receive from the stores for your releases, after taxes and levies the stores withhold, and after anything a store deducts, corrects or reclaims. That definition matters more than the percentage: the share applies to what arrives, not to a gross figure you see somewhere else.
An example with round numbers: if a store pays us USD 10.00 for your release after those deductions, USD 7.00 is credited to you and USD 3.00 stays with us.
Your share lands in your Lay Credit Account in US dollars once we have received the money and the related statements from the store. You can see the statements on the platform.
Why you apply instead of signing up
Self-registration is closed. Every account starts with an application, and we review each one ourselves.
The steps are fixed by the Terms:
- You fill in the application form and accept the Terms and the Distribution Agreement.
- We review the application.
- If we accept it, we set up your account on the platform and send you access by email.
- The contract is concluded when we send you that access.
We are not obliged to accept an application, and you must be at least 18 years old and confirm that when you apply.
The form asks for your role (artist, label or manager), your name, email and country, your artist or label name, a link to your music and an optional note. It never asks for a password: account access comes by email after the review, not from a form on this site.
In practice the review is where a real person looks at what you do and whether the account fits. It is also why the plan can cost nothing: we would rather set up accounts we can support than let an automated signup create work nobody can handle.
Payouts on Free
- Your share is credited in US dollars to your Lay Credit Account once the store has paid us and sent the statements.
- You can request a payout once your available balance reaches USD 20.00.
- Payouts are processed monthly by PayPal, or by another method if we offer one.
- Fees charged by PayPal or your bank are yours to bear.
New or small releases may earn nothing at first, so reaching USD 20 can take a while. That is one more reason the Spotify rules matter: below 1,000 streams in 12 months a track does not even enter Spotify’s recorded royalty pool, and no distributor can change that.
What Free does not include
- AI-generated content is not permitted. On Free, recordings whose music or vocals were created wholly or substantially by artificial intelligence are excluded.
- No guaranteed release date. Releases go through technical and content checks by us, our platform provider and the stores. We do not promise a specific date.
- No guaranteed streams, charts or playlists. Stores decide what they offer and how they present it.
- Email support, typically answered within 48 to 72 hours. Typical times, not a guaranteed service level.
Free, Pro and Partner: where they differ
Free. No fee, 70 percent of Net Receipts, AI-generated content not permitted, indefinite term that you can cancel at any time.
Pro. A paid plan. Price, term and revenue share are stated in your order, and before you can order it we show you all three. AI-generated content is allowed if you disclose it, with no spam and no impersonation. A paid plan runs for the term in your order.
Partner. For labels, managers and multi-artist operations. Conditions, including the revenue share and any fees, are agreed individually in text form.
Pro is coming soon. We are not publishing a price or a revenue share for it yet, and we will not invent one here: before you can order Pro, its price, term and revenue share are shown to you and become part of your order. Anyone quoting a Pro percentage today is quoting something that is not on offer.
Leaving
Free contracts run for an indefinite period. You can terminate at any time on the platform or by email to support@laydistribution.com, and we can terminate with 30 days’ notice in text form. After a takedown you still receive what your releases earned before they were removed.
How to start
If Free fits, the next step is the application. Have your artist name and a link to your music ready; the form takes a few minutes, and the review decides the rest. If you are unsure whether your release fits the content rules, ask us before you apply rather than after.