Legal

We realize that the music industry is not an easy jungle to maneuver through. We have created individual Frequently Asked Questions for certain aspects that pertain to the music industry as well as your relationship with us. If you still have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us and we will see to it that your question is answered.

Yes. You are in every sense liable for all the content you submit. This includes music, pictures, metadata and any other material uploaded by you. This means that Symphonic Distribution, our partners, or any other third party can take legal actions against you if you infringe any intellectual property right or any other right of the given parties. Our contracts also state that we as a company as well as the partners we distribute to are exempt from any all proceedings that will result if there is a case of infringement.

Symphonic Distribution must guarantee to our partners that we have licensed the rights to distribute the content in the territories specified in the metadata, otherwise they cannot sell the music in the given territories. If you can’t guarantee that you are the rights holder then we cannot guarantee to our partners that we have licensed the rights and thereby they cannot sell your music in their stores.

Certifying that you are the rights holder when you are not is a criminal act and may result in legal actions against you. We don’t take this lightly thus if we discover you are committing illegal acts, it will result in immediate cancellation of your agreement and our partners and/or any other third party that has been affected by your wrongdoing will have the option to resolve the issue in a legal case.

If you have obtained all relevant consent from the artist, musicians, producers, mixers and other persons (or entities) involved in the production of the recordings you are fully liable to the terms of which you have both agreed to. We recommend that any record label or artist have a legally binding agreement to further protect each other from any legal proceeding that may occur.

Yes. Any samples that you want to use in any way must be cleared with the rights holder before you are allowed to use it. As per our agreement, each and every label is responsible for ensuring that the content they distribute is legally cleared to be distributed. Websites that sell samples, such as SoundsToSample.com, Loopmasters.com, etc., all grant consumers the ability to make music off the samples sold and grant permission to sell these recordings thus we recommend that you purchase sample packs off those websites if ever interested in sampling.

If your track is a cover version of a song/lyric for which you are not the author you need obtain consent from the author(s) to use it, otherwise legal actions can be taken against you. There are services out there that make this process easy for you. We recommend you check out Limelight to obtain clearance to record and distribute a cover song.

If you have a legal binding and valid agreement with the artist to which the artist has granted you the all the necessary rights, you have the power to enter into an agreement with Symphonic Distribution. In the case of Record Labels, you should have legally binding agreements with each and every artist you deal with to ensure that everyone is on the same page in terms of how much is distributed across the internet. If you distribute content from an artist then you do not have the permission and/or do not legally represent the artist.

Per default, Symphonic Distribution licenses your music for purchase to the territory “world”, which includes all territories. However, if your music is already licensed in certain territories around the world, you have the option of excluding these territories. This will mean that your music will then not be available for purchase in these excluded territories.

Your music is not allowed to contain anything that might infringe the Criminal Act in any part of the territory. This includes, but is not limited to, infringement or instigation of rebellion, persecution of an ethnic group, child pornography or unlawful description of violence. Your music can neither include material that is obscene or defamatory of any person. In addition, you should not include samples that are not cleared for use and/or redistribution.