Release Agreement

• This agreement is between the artist account holder (“you”, “the artist”) and Moonlight Records [to be confirmed: UK company name, Companies House number and registered address] (“we”, “the label”).
• It covers one release: the recording, artwork and artist details you submit in the portal for that track.
• You accept it by ticking the agreement box and submitting the release details. We record the version and the time you accepted it. You can see both on the release page in the portal.
• This agreement is a licence to use the recording. It is made electronically and is as valid as one signed by hand.

• You and the people you credit keep the copyright and related rights in the recording, the song and the artwork. The label gets a licence, not ownership.
• During the licence, the ℗ and © lines name Moonlight Records as the exclusive licensee.

For as long as this agreement runs, you give the label the exclusive, worldwide right to:

• distribute, stream and sell the release, and make it available on digital stores and music platforms;
• work through distributors and stores that act for the label (currently Spilix), and pass these rights on to them as far as they need;
• register the release in rights-management systems such as YouTube Content ID, and collect the income from them;
• license the release for compilations, films, games and adverts, asking you first for adverts and for political or sensitive content;
• make short clips and previews, and use the artwork and release details, to promote the release.

When you ask, we allowlist your own channels so that Content ID does not claim your videos. Send the request to [to be confirmed: contact email]. We handle it within 5 working days.

• The licence starts when you accept this agreement and runs for 5 years from the release date.
• It then renews for one year at a time, unless either of us gives written notice at least 60 days before a renewal date. We remind you in the portal before that point.
• When it ends, we ask the stores to remove the release within 30 days. Some stores take longer. All rights return to you, and you can ask to move the ISRC codes to your new release partner.
• Income from plays before removal is still shared and paid under this agreement.

• Do not release the same recording, or a version that sounds almost the same, through another label or distributor, or upload it to stores yourself.
• You can post the track and clips on your own social accounts, play it live, use it in DJ sets and include it in your portfolio.
• Sped up, slowed, extended and remix versions of the track are released through the label, with the original or later. Each one names its version in the title (for example “(Sped Up)”) and has its own ISRC, so stores do not reject it as a duplicate. Do not release these versions anywhere else during the term.
• Offer the label your next 2 releases after this one first. We have 30 days from receiving each one to accept it. If we decline, or do not answer in time, you are free to release that track elsewhere.
• Do not re-record the songs on this release for release anywhere else during the term, or for 2 years after it ends.

• Check the release, assign its UPC and ISRC, and deliver it to the major stores and streaming platforms.
• Confirm the release date with you, and credit everyone exactly as you listed them.
• Send statements and pay your share as set out in section 9.
• Tell you if a store rejects or removes the release, and why if we know.
• Choose the stores and how to promote the release. We do not promise any number of streams, playlist placements or income.

• You get 60% of the net receipts from the release. The label keeps the rest.
• Income from licensing the release for films, games, adverts and compilations is shared 50/50 between you and the label.
• Net receipts are the money the label actually receives for the release, after only: fees kept by distributors, stores and collection services; taxes withheld at source; refunds and clawbacks; and the recoupable costs below.
• Recoupable costs. The label may recover the direct costs it pays for this release, such as mastering, artwork, paid ads, videos and remixes it commissions. Each cost is shown on your statement. The total is capped at [to be confirmed: amount] for the release, unless you agree in writing to more. Costs are recovered only from this release's income, never from your other releases, and never include the label's overheads.
• You pay nothing upfront to release with us, and there is no advance to pay back.
• This agreement covers the recording only. Songwriting royalties for the song belong to the writers. To collect them, register the song with a collecting society, such as PRS for Music in the UK or the society in your country.

• We pay your share to the account holder. The splits for the people you worked with show on your statement.
• You pay those people yourself, unless the label agrees in writing to pay someone directly. If you listed no one, the whole share is yours.
• You confirm that everyone you credited agreed to the release, their credit and their split.

• We send a statement for each calendar quarter in the portal, no later than 45 days after the quarter ends.
• We pay you at the same time, in USD, by the payout method you chose, once your balance reaches 50 USD. Smaller balances carry over to the next quarter.
• Fees charged on your side by your payout provider are yours.
• We withhold tax only where the applicable tax law requires it, and we send you proof of what was withheld. You handle any other tax on your income.
• You can question a statement within 1 year of receiving it.
• Once a year, with 30 days' notice, you can have the figures for your release checked. The check is at your cost, unless it finds that we underpaid you by 5% or more; then the label pays for it. If we underpaid you, we pay the difference.

By accepting, you confirm that:

• you own or control all rights in the recording, the song and the artwork, or have permission from the people who do;
• every sample is cleared;
• the legal names, details and AI answers you gave are true;
• the track has not been released or signed elsewhere, and releasing it does not break any other agreement you have;
• the content is lawful, and does not use a real person's voice or pretend to be another artist without permission.

• Do not buy plays or followers, or use bots, stream farms or paid “guaranteed streams” services for the release, yourself or through anyone else.
• Tell the label about any paid promotion service you hire for the release.
• If a platform reports artificial activity on the release, we send you the evidence the platform gave us. We may then hold back the income involved, pass on to you any penalty the platform charged the label for this release, take the release down and end this agreement. We do not deduct anything from your other releases.

• If someone claims rights in the release, we may pause it or take it down, and hold the disputed income until the claim is settled.
• We tell you, and you give us the information we need.
• If the claim arises because one of your promises in section 10 is not true, you cover our reasonable costs of dealing with it.
• The label's total liability under this agreement is limited to the royalties paid to you in the 12 months before the claim. This limit does not apply to royalties we owe you and have not paid, to fraud, or to death or personal injury caused by negligence.

• During the term, we may use your artist name, the photos and bio you give us, and the artwork to promote the release and the label's catalogue.
• Posts and announcements made before the agreement ends can stay up.

• Before the release date, you can withdraw the release by writing to us. Nothing is released and all rights stay with you. If the label has already approved the release and spent money on it, you repay the label's out-of-pocket costs.
• You can end the licence early by buying it back. The price is the label's unrecouped costs for the release, plus [to be confirmed: percentage] of the label's share of the release's income over the last 12 months.
• Either of us can end this agreement if the other seriously breaks it and does not fix it within 30 days of being told.
• We can end it at once if the release has fake streams, or if a promise about rights turns out to be untrue.
• However the agreement ends, income already earned is still reported and paid.

• A new version of this agreement applies only to tracks submitted after it is published. A track already submitted keeps the version you accepted, unless we both agree in writing to change it.
• This agreement is governed by the law of England and Wales. We first try to settle any dispute in good faith within 30 days. If that does not work, the courts of England and Wales decide, as in our Terms.
• Notices go to the email on your artist account and to the label's contact email ([to be confirmed: contact email]), or through the portal.