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Terms and Conditions

Last updated: 15 October 2026. Deutsche Fassung: Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen

These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") govern your use of the Lay Distribution music distribution service. The Distribution Agreement adds the rules on distribution and revenue and is part of these Terms. The German version of these Terms prevails (section 14.1).

1. Provider and scope

1.1 The provider of the service is Lay Distribution UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Maxburgweg 1, 76187 Karlsruhe, Germany, registered at Amtsgericht Mannheim under HRB 745505, email support@laydistribution.com ("Lay", "we", "us").

1.2 These Terms apply to every contract about the use of our distribution service ("Service"), whatever plan you use. Where the Distribution Agreement contains more specific rules, those rules apply.

1.3 The Service runs on our distribution platform at laydistribution.sonosuite.com ("Platform"), which SonoSuite S.L. operates for us as a technical service provider. The Platform may ask you to accept its terms of use when you first log in. Your contract partner is always Lay. If the Platform's terms of use contradict these Terms or the Distribution Agreement, these Terms and the Distribution Agreement prevail.

1.4 Your own terms and conditions do not apply, even if we do not expressly object to them.

1.5 "Consumer" means any natural person who concludes the contract for purposes that are predominantly outside their trade, business or profession (§ 13 BGB). "Business" means any person acting in the exercise of their trade, business or profession (§ 14 BGB). Some provisions apply only to consumers or only to businesses, as stated.

2. Our Service and plans

2.1 We deliver your recordings, artwork and metadata to the music stores and streaming services ("Stores") that you choose from those available, collect the revenue the Stores pay for them and credit your share to your Lay Credit Account. Ownership of your music stays with you.

2.2 We offer the following plans:

2.3 The Stores available for your account are shown on the Platform. The selection can change, for example when a Store changes its conditions or we change our partners. If a Store is removed, we will inform you where possible and your releases may be removed from that Store.

2.4 Before delivery, releases go through technical and content checks by us, our Platform provider and the Stores. We may ask you to correct a release or decline to deliver it if it does not meet the Platform's specifications, these Terms or a Store's rules. How long delivery takes depends on these checks and on the Stores. We do not promise a specific release date.

2.5 Each Store decides for itself whether and how it offers your music. We do not guarantee that a Store will accept or keep offering a release, nor any number of streams or sales, playlist placement or promotion.

2.6 We aim to keep the Platform available at all times. Maintenance, security measures and events outside our control can interrupt availability.

3. Registration and your account

3.1 To use the Service you need an account on the Platform. The contract is concluded in these steps: you apply through the application form on our website and accept these Terms and the Distribution Agreement; we review your 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. You can correct your entries before you submit the form. We have no obligation to accept an application. The contract language is German or English.

3.2 You must be at least 18 years old and confirm this when you apply.

3.3 Your details must be true and complete, and you must keep them up to date. Keep your login details secret and tell us immediately if you suspect misuse. You are responsible for keeping access to the email address linked to your account, because we use it to reach you and to restore access.

3.4 In individual cases, in particular if a Store asks us to or if there are indications of fraud or a rights infringement, we may ask you to prove your identity and your rights, for example with an identity document, project files or licence agreements. Until the verification is complete we may pause deliveries and payouts for the releases concerned.

3.5 We send you service emails about your account, your releases and these Terms. These are part of the Service and not advertising.

4. Your content and your rights

4.1 You keep all rights in your recordings, compositions, artwork and other content ("Content"). We acquire no ownership of it. You grant us only the rights described in the Distribution Agreement.

4.2 You confirm, for all Content you upload, that:

4.3 Memberships you hold in collecting societies such as GEMA are not affected. You are responsible for registering your works there. We do not collect royalties for compositions on your behalf unless we agree this separately.

4.4 If third parties bring claims against us because your Content infringes their rights or because you culpably breach these Terms, you indemnify us against these claims, including the reasonable costs of legal defence at statutory rates. This does not apply if you are not responsible for the breach. You will support us in defending such claims.

4.5 We will use your name, artist name or artwork as a reference in our own marketing only with your consent.

5. Content rules, AI and artificial streaming

5.1 You must not upload Content that:

5.2 "AI-generated content" means recordings whose music or vocals were created wholly or substantially by artificial intelligence. The following applies:

The Stores' own rules on AI-generated content also apply, and a Store may refuse such content.

5.3 You must not generate artificial streams or plays, have them generated or tolerate them, for example with bots, scripts, click farms, paid stream services or promotion services that promise a number of streams.

5.4 If a Store charges us a fee or penalty because of artificial streaming or other manipulation on your releases (at Spotify, for example, currently about €10 per affected track), we pass this fee on to you at the amount charged to us, without any surcharge. This does not apply if you show that you are not responsible for the manipulation. We may set the fee off against your Lay Credit Account, and payouts can be paused while it is unpaid.

5.5 If you breach sections 4.2 or 5.1 to 5.3, or if there are concrete indications of such a breach, we may ask you for information, decline or stop the delivery of releases, have releases taken down, withhold revenue from the releases concerned (Distribution Agreement, section 6.5) or suspend your account. We choose the measure in proportion to the severity and repetition of the breach. In serious cases, such as proven fraud or severe rights infringements, we may suspend the account immediately. We tell you our decision and the reasons for it, and you can reply to support@laydistribution.com.

6. Reporting illegal content

6.1 Anyone can report Content distributed through our Service that they believe is illegal or infringes their rights by emailing support@laydistribution.com. The report should explain why the Content is illegal, identify it precisely (for example artist, title, ISRC or UPC, or a Store link), and include your name, your email address and a statement that you believe in good faith that the information is accurate and complete.

6.2 We handle reports promptly, carefully and objectively and tell the person who reported and the affected user about our decision and the reasons for it. The affected user can object to the decision by replying to us. The right to go to court is not affected.

7. Fees and payment

7.1 The Free plan is free of charge. Our compensation is our share of the Net Receipts.

7.2 For paid plans, the price shown when you order applies. Payment methods and due dates are shown in the order process.

7.3 We charge only the fees shown in the plan description, set out in these Terms (such as section 5.4) or agreed individually.

7.4 We may set fees that are due off against your Lay Credit Account.

8. Lay Credit Account and payouts

8.1 We credit your share of the Net Receipts to your Lay Credit Account in U.S. dollars once we have received the money and the related statements from the Stores. Stores report and pay in arrears on their own schedules. You can see your statements on the Platform.

8.2 You can request a payout once your available balance reaches at least USD 20.00. Payouts are processed monthly by PayPal to an account in your name, or by any other method we offer. You bear the fees charged by PayPal or your bank.

8.3 Revenue in other currencies is converted into U.S. dollars at the exchange rates used by the Stores or our payment providers.

8.4 You are responsible for taxes on your income. We may ask for the tax information that we or the Stores need, such as your tax number or tax forms required by the Stores. Taxes withheld by Stores reduce the Net Receipts.

8.5 If a Store corrects or reclaims payments, for example because of errors, fraud or chargebacks, we may correct your balance accordingly and deduct amounts already paid out from later credits.

8.6 Please check your statements and tell us about errors promptly.

9. Term and termination

9.1 Contracts on the Free and Partner plans run for an indefinite period. You can terminate at any time, either on the Platform or by email to support@laydistribution.com. We can terminate with 30 days' notice in text form.

9.2 Paid plans run for the term stated in your order and are renewed by the same term unless you cancel before the current term ends, which you can do on the Platform. For consumers, the contract continues after the first term for an indefinite period and can then be cancelled at any time with one month's notice. If you cancel, we do not refund fees for the rest of a billing period that has already started. Your statutory rights are not affected.

9.3 Either party may terminate for good cause without notice. Good cause for us exists in particular in the case of fraud or artificial streaming, serious or repeated breaches of sections 4 or 5, false identity details or a significant payment default.

9.4 When the contract ends, we instruct the Stores to take your releases down. How quickly they are removed depends on the Stores. We credit and pay out revenue that the Stores pay for the period before removal. When the contract ends we pay out a positive balance on request, even if it is below USD 20.00, less any payout fees. Fees still owed remain due and may be set off.

10. Liability

10.1 We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, under the German Product Liability Act and where we have given a guarantee.

10.2 For slight negligence we are liable only for breach of an essential contractual obligation, meaning an obligation whose fulfilment makes proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose fulfilment you may regularly rely. In that case our liability is limited to the damage that is foreseeable and typical for this type of contract.

10.3 Beyond this, our liability is excluded. These limitations also apply to our employees, representatives and agents.

10.4 Stores are not our agents. We are not responsible for their decisions on offering, removing, promoting or paying for releases, unless we caused them.

10.5 Keep your own copies of your files. The Platform is not an archive.

11. Changes to these Terms

11.1 We may change these Terms for a valid reason, such as a change in the law or in court decisions, new requirements from Stores or our Platform provider, or new features, provided the change does not affect the main terms of our contract (the scope of the Service, revenue shares, prices) to your disadvantage.

11.2 We will send you the changes in text form at least six weeks before they take effect. You can object to them or terminate the contract before they take effect. If you do neither, the changes take effect. We will point out this consequence when we notify you of the changes.

11.3 Changes to revenue shares, prices or the main features of the Service require your express consent for existing contracts.

12. Governing law and place of jurisdiction

12.1 German law applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. If you are a consumer, this choice of law does not deprive you of the protection of mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which you have your habitual residence.

12.2 If you are a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction is Karlsruhe, Germany. We may also sue you at your general place of jurisdiction.

13. Consumer dispute resolution

We are neither willing nor obliged to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board (§ 36 VSBG).

14. Final provisions

14.1 These Terms are available in German and English. If the versions differ, the German version prevails.

14.2 We store your application and acceptance record. The current Terms are available on this page at any time, where you can save or print them.

14.3 You may transfer the contract to a third party only with our consent in text form.

14.4 If any provision of these Terms is or becomes invalid, the rest of the Terms remains valid. The statutory provisions apply in place of the invalid provision.