3rd Party Licensing

Learn how to release music from other music labels!

Jacob Henry avatar
Written by Jacob Henry
Updated over a week ago

Want to release music on your label that originally was released on another label? This guide will help explain how! 

If you want to release music from another label, then this falls into 2 categories:

  • Option 1 - The other label is also distributed by Proton. Contact us for help!

  • Option 2 - The other label is NOT distributed by Proton. This guide is for you!

To start, speak the other label and find out if they're distributed by Proton. If they are, contact us and we'll help you with the next step. If they're not distributed by Proton, then follow the steps in this gude...

Step by Step Guide to 3rd Party Licensing from Non-Proton Labels

  1. Add the 3rd party music label as a NEW artist in the system, if they're not there already. Then, add this profile to your track under the "3rd Party Licensor" role instead of the usual "Original Artist" or "Label Manager" role. 

  2. If the 3rd party label doesn't have any members associated with it yet inside Proton, click "Add a Member" to add the label's name/email address. Note: this is like an other artist profile you create on Proton, it just happens to be for another label instead, so you can assign royalties to them.

  3. If you haven't already, assign the royalty percentage to the 3rd party licensor that you've agreed upon, typically usually 50%.

  4. IMPORTANT : Go to the "Details & Settings" tab for the track, and click NON-EXCLUSIVE. This will make sure they get a NON-EXCLUSIVE contract to sign the music to your label. 

  5. You'll need to add the Original Artists and, if there are any, the Remix Artists too. But since these artists are not on your label, add them with 0% royalties. This is important, so that the artists are correctly connected on Beatport. You can offer them 0% royalties, since the 3rd party licensor in this specific case is fully responsible for paying royalties to the artists from his share. 

  6. Send the contract to the 3rd party label. If you correctly followed the guide so far, then they will see it as a NON-EXCLUSIVE contract. Do NOT send a contract to the artists who you entered 0% royalties for, see the next step for that.

  7. After the label signs their contract, write to support@protonradio.com - we will then set you up with the "contract override" tool, if you don't have it enabled already, so that you can override the artists' contracts on the licensed track(s).

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