By Payusnomind · Sep 21, 2024
Free
By Payusnomind | Updated 2026
SoundOn is one of the most attractive distribution offers on the market because it offers something most other distributors can't match: legitimate exposure. The company is owned by ByteDance, the same company that owns TikTok and CapCut. TikTok is leveraged through opportunities to have your music used by TikTok creators. CapCut is leveraged through opportunities for priority placement that can potentially result in greater visibility and sync licensing opportunities.
Initially, there was no upfront fee for SoundOn, only a backend fee that applied to external properties like Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Anything generated from a ByteDance-owned property paid artists 100%. That's changed. You now have the option of picking between Lite, Core, and Max. Full plan comparison here
All the juiciest perks have been moved to paid plans. The free plan has become very limited and restrictive. This is why we always warn artists to be cautious with free service providers. The question now is: Is SoundOn still worth it if you have to pay?
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Great
Discovery is the core feature.
SoundOn connects your music to TikTok creators, giving you a path to exposure that most distributors don't even attempt to provide. That's a real advantage if you're trying to get your music heard. It also opens the door to priority placement in other ByteDance-owned properties like CapCut, where there are sync licensing opportunities.
The biggest issue is to what extent, which we dive into in the Bad and Ugly sections. It's not about having a feature for the sake of having a feature; it's about what the feature actually does for you and whether it delivers on its perceived promise.
Good
You can essentially get started for free with no upfront cost or subscription, only a backend fee. There's a duality to it because you'll face limitations and restrictions, but you're not completely shut out if you can't afford to pay anything. Some plans include automatic distribution to new stores.
The Bad and Ugly of SoundOn expose some pretty significant red flags. There are issues with Publishing, the quality of promotions, exclusivity, term lengths, and rights. Without understanding the full scope of what comes with using SoundOn, you could end up with major regrets and a restricted ability to fully exploit the value of your releases.
We dive into the Bad and Ugly on page 2 of this review.
Publishing Control
Some SoundOn promotional opportunities require you to control the rights necessary for SoundOn to exploit both the Master Recording and Publishing. If works are already represented by a Publisher or Publishing Administrator, SoundOn's agreement puts the responsibility on you to have those entities clear the necessary licensing rights.
The agreement specifically contemplates situations where rights are controlled or administered by a Publisher, Publishing Administrator, PRO, CMO, or collecting society. In those situations, you may have to obtain the necessary licenses before SoundOn can exercise certain rights.
This has significant complications because you may have to choose between maintaining outside Publishing representation and participating in certain SoundOn opportunities. In the case of Publishing Administrators, you're talking about companies that may be administering and collecting mechanical royalties from DSPs around the world.
The other issue here is expertise and leverage.
A Publishing Administrator might sign a blanket license representing its catalog with SoundOn. It's going to examine the terms, the splits, the rights being granted, etc., and attempt to make the terms as close to even as possible, where the creator isn't completely exploited.
Without proper representation, it turns into a game of take it or leave it.
Promo Control
You don't have much control over the promotion. You don't choose who uses your music. You don't set the targeting, audience, or placement. You're plugged into a system — not running a strategy.
Critically, attention isn't influence.
An account that features someone chewing bubble gum may rack up views while having absolutely no ability to move a music audience to check out a song. A million views aren't necessarily valuable if none of those people care about music or have any reason to follow the creator's recommendation.
Scale
Submitting a song doesn't mean it will be selected for a promotion. It just makes it eligible.
That allows SoundOn to do two things: sell the dream while managing performance.
Buying a lottery ticket doesn't promise you'll win. But you can't win without a ticket. Everybody pays to play; SoundOn selects who gets to win.
That also prevents resources like influencers, promotional placements, and marketing budgets from getting overloaded. If everybody received the same level of support, the value of the support would quickly disappear.
Prioritization
I would suspect that there's a level of quality control and prioritization going on. Songs may get varying degrees of support depending on performance.
The song's popularity may dictate whether your music gets any meaningful promotion, which, in a way, defeats the purpose.
Many artists see SoundOn as a valuable option because they view it as a springboard. They might be looking for a way to get their music out there. If the requirement for meaningful support is that the music already has a pre-existing level of success, it changes things significantly.
Note: SoundOn doesn't guarantee that a submitted Breakthrough track will be selected for promotion. Selection and the nature of the qualifying promotional activation are ultimately controlled by SoundOn. That doesn't prove SoundOn prioritizes tracks based on existing popularity, so the prioritization point above should be treated as analysis rather than a stated SoundOn policy.
Saddle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride. There is a lot of ugly in SoundOn.
Exclusivity
You grant SoundOn broad exclusive rights to the releases you use them to distribute.
Unlike most other distributors with an exclusivity clause, it's not limited to simply saying you won't allow another distributor to send the same music to Spotify. SoundOn's agreement grants it exclusive rights covering distribution and certain other forms of exploitation. For third-party platforms, some of those rights are expressly described as being granted on an "exclusive and irrevocable basis" during the applicable period.
It also isn't restricted to conflicts with other distributors. We're talking about any entity that wants rights SoundOn already controls, including a label or record company.
Imagine you release a song through SoundOn and six months later it blows up. A record company offers you $500,000 for a deal, but part of the deal requires exclusive rights to that song.
You have a major problem.
You may still own the Master Recording, but you've already granted SoundOn exclusive rights in it. The label may have to wait for SoundOn's rights to expire, structure its deal around SoundOn's existing rights, or require you to negotiate an early release from SoundOn.
It can also complicate catalog sales, advances, or other transactions involving the Master Recording. You may still own the asset, but you're trying to sell, finance, or license an asset that's already subject to SoundOn's contractual rights.
Exclusivity Rights Survive Termination and Can Be Irrevocable
Removing your music from stores doesn't necessarily allow you to escape the exclusive terms.
Canceling your service doesn't necessarily allow you to escape the exclusive terms.
Terminating the agreement doesn't necessarily allow you to escape the exclusive terms.
SoundOn's Minimum Exploitation Period can survive expiration or termination of the broader agreement, and its third-party platform rights are expressly described as exclusive and irrevocable during the applicable period.
There is an escape clause, but it's narrow.
If, during the first six months after upload, your recording hasn't been incorporated into a qualifying Video or become subject to a Paid Sync License, you can provide written notice requiring SoundOn to withdraw it. SoundOn then has seven business days after receiving that notice to remove it from the applicable ByteDance music libraries.
Nothing says the Video has to be part of a SoundOn promotion.
Technically, anyone uploading a qualifying Video and using your music could potentially eliminate that escape. Based on the broad language of the agreement, that could even include your own use of the song in a TikTok while promoting your release.
Think about how crazy that is.
You release a song through SoundOn. You do what you're supposed to do and promote it on TikTok. Your own promotional activity may help satisfy the contractual exploitation condition that prevents you from using the six-month escape.
Also, you don't automatically escape after six months of inactivity. You have to qualify for the provision and give written notice.
The Term Length Is 12 Months and Renews for 12-Month Periods
There are actually two clocks you need to pay attention to.
The agreement itself has a 12-month Initial Period and automatically renews for additional 12-month periods unless you provide the required notice before expiration.
Separately, each release has its own Minimum Exploitation Period, generally measured from when that recording was uploaded.
That's an important distinction.
Let's say a month into your Minimum Exploitation Period, you don't like the service, so you take down your release and look to move.
Taking it down doesn't necessarily terminate SoundOn's contractual rights. You could still have roughly 11 months remaining on that recording.
The agreement also requires notice at least 45 days before the end of the applicable annual term if you don't want the overall agreement to renew. Miss that window and the agreement can automatically renew for another 12 months.
And because individual recordings can have Minimum Exploitation Periods measured from their own upload dates, simply reaching the end of your account's annual term doesn't necessarily mean every recording is immediately free and clear.
The Promotions Come With Complications
Breakthrough isn't simply free promotion.
You designate songs for consideration, and SoundOn decides whether to select them. If a track is selected into the program, the economics can change.
SoundOn's paid tiers may allow you to retain 100% of your distribution royalties. That advantage can disappear on a Breakthrough track.
Under the Breakthrough terms we reviewed:
Tier One: 90% artist / 10% SoundOn
Tier Two: 80% artist / 20% SoundOn
The program can also extend the applicable Minimum Exploitation Period.
This means a promotional program can effectively convert a song from a flat-fee/100%-royalty distribution relationship into a revenue-share deal.
That's important because a percentage isn't really a fixed marketing fee.
If a song makes $1,000, 10% costs you $100.
If it makes $100,000, 10% costs you $10,000.
If it makes $1 million, 10% costs you $100,000.
The price of the promotion scales with the success of the song.
The Value of Promotions
This is where things get really questionable.
Under the Breakthrough terms we reviewed, SoundOn considers something as simple as placement in a TikTok Sounds editorial playlist or banner sufficient consideration for Tier One.
There isn't necessarily a minimum ad spend, minimum number of impressions, minimum number of views, minimum number of creator posts, or minimum performance requirement attached to that Tier One placement.
So SoundOn could potentially provide something relatively inexpensive while obtaining something potentially very expensive:
10% of the song's applicable revenue.
Tier Two at least provides a more measurable level of support, with qualifying marketing activity valued at $1,000 under the terms we reviewed. But the economics move to an 80/20 split, and the commitment can become substantially longer.
Again, the problem isn't that marketing has no value.
The problem is how much that marketing ultimately costs you.
A $1,000 marketing service that costs $1,000 is easy to evaluate.
A $1,000 marketing service that costs 20% of a successful song's revenue is a completely different deal.
And the percentage isn't necessarily limited to the revenue directly generated by SoundOn's promotion. That's the part artists need to pay attention to.
If SoundOn spends $1,000 promoting your song and it does absolutely nothing, but six months later the song blows up organically on Spotify, SoundOn can still participate in the upside under the applicable Breakthrough economics.
That's not a marketing fee.
That's revenue participation.
And the more successful the song becomes, the more expensive that participation becomes.
PUNM Note: The legal analysis above is based on the SoundOn License Agreement and Breakthrough terms reviewed by Payusnomind. SoundOn has changed its pricing and program terms over time, so artists should compare the agreement presented to them at signup against the terms discussed in this review before making a decision.