This is Grootin's content and rights policy — the rules every release must follow to be distributed through us. In short: you must own or control all the rights in your music, you must not manipulate streams or mislead listeners, and your metadata must be honest and consistent. Follow these rules and your catalog stays safe; break them and your release can be removed, your payouts held, or your account closed.
If you're new to distribution, start with how music distribution works in India, then come back here for the rules that protect your catalog once it's live.
What this policy covers
This policy applies to everything you deliver through Grootin — audio, artwork, metadata, and the way you promote a release. It exists to keep stores happy, keep the royalty pool clean for honest artists, and keep your music online without interruption. Where rules ever conflict, this is the order of precedence: (1) your Grootin distribution agreement, (2) the specific platform's own content guidelines (Spotify, Apple Music, JioSaavn, YouTube Music, and the rest), and (3) this policy.
The one rule everything comes from
Every other rule grows from a single principle: you must own or control every right needed for the content you distribute — both the master recording (the actual audio file) and the underlying composition (the song, melody, and lyrics). "Own or control" means you either created it yourself or hold written permission from whoever did. If a dispute is ever raised and you can't produce documentation proving you're cleared, you're treated as not holding the rights — so keep your paperwork (split sheets, producer agreements, sample and mechanical licences) from day one. Watch the public-domain trap too: a composition can be public domain while a specific recording of it is still protected, so you must own or control the exact master you distribute. For the legal groundwork, see music copyright in India; for how clean rights turn into payment, see how royalties work.
Trust and Safety: fraud and stream manipulation
Streaming royalties come from a shared pool. When someone games the system, they take money from honest artists — so platforms police this hard, and so do we. The following are all prohibited:
- Inflating plays or manipulating metrics with bots, click farms, or automation.
- Paying services that promise a set number of streams or "guaranteed" playlist placement. You are responsible even if a third party did it for you.
- Tracks built to game royalty systems through unnatural formatting, metadata, or structure.
- Altered recordings — sped-up, slowed, reverb, or "remixed" versions — unless you also hold the rights to the original recording.
- Deceptive audio: hidden samples, or tracks mislabelled to impersonate an existing recording.
- Padding tracks with silent or imperceptible gaps to inflate play counts.
- Re-delivering the same recording repeatedly with only cosmetic metadata or artwork changes.
- Ultra-short tracks made only to maximise the number of counted plays.
- Audio hidden inaudibly inside a video to harvest listening time.
- Ambient or noise tricks designed to run up listening minutes.
The consequences are serious: takedown of the release, withheld payments, financial penalties, or closure of your account. Platforms can also claw back royalties they've already paid and freeze payouts across your whole account — which is exactly why we don't allow any of it. Learn how to spot and avoid it in what is artificial streaming.
Rights and clearance (master + composition)
Distribute only tracks whose master recording you own or control, and make sure you also hold the rights to the composition. If your song uses anyone else's work, it must be licensed and cleared before you deliver it. A few traps to know:
- Public domain is not a free pass. A composition can be public domain while a specific recording of it is still protected. You must own or control the actual master you distribute.
- Samples need clearance. Any third-party sample or interpolation must be licensed first. Some platforms accept cleared samples; some don't.
- Royalty-free producer packs have limits. Loops and samples from packs are usually fine in your recording, but don't enable them for user-generated-content fingerprinting (such as YouTube Content ID), where they can clash with other creators' claims.
If a rights claim is raised, Grootin doesn't process it directly — it's handled through the platform and the standard takedown procedure. Your content may be removed temporarily while it's verified, and if the claim is upheld, the release is removed from every platform we sent it to. Full detail lives in can you distribute cover songs, remixes, and samples?
Samples, covers, remixes and AI
These are the most common ways artists accidentally break the rights rules:
- Covers need a mechanical licence and must credit the original songwriters.
- Remixes, mashups, and adaptations need permission from every rights holder involved.
- Samples and interpolations must be cleared before delivery.
- AI music trained on copyrighted recordings without a licence, or built to mimic a real artist, is not allowed.
Two dedicated guides cover the detail: cover songs, remixes, and samples and using AI in your music.
Artist and content authenticity
Your artist identity has to be real and verifiable, through official documents or a consistent digital footprint. We don't allow:
- Generic, search-bait artist names like "Baby Sleep Sounds" or "Music for Concentration".
- Impersonation, or "sound-alike" and tribute tracks that trade on a famous name.
- Titles or artwork containing URLs, unrelated brand names, emojis, generic SEO terms ("Yoga Music", "Sleep Music", "Chillout"), file-format or version notes in brackets, "AKA" unless it's officially part of the name, or logos and trademarks you don't own.
Get your artwork right the first time with our cover art guidelines, and once your release is live, claim and verify your artist profiles so everything sits under one verified identity.
Metadata and consistency
Honest, consistent metadata is part of the deal. Deliver the same content and metadata to every platform, and:
- Don't misuse contributor roles — for example, listing a remixer as the primary artist on one store only.
- Reuse the original ISRC and master when a track reappears in a new release (like a "Greatest Hits"); never re-upload the same recording under a new ISRC.
- Use the translations feature for localised metadata instead of uploading duplicate releases.
- List every contributor — composer, lyricist, producer, engineer — and be ready to justify each credit.
Clean metadata also helps you get paid correctly and keeps your streams from splitting across duplicate profiles; see metadata best practices and how music royalties work.
Restricted content
- Apply the explicit-content advisory flag correctly and consistently.
- No pure noise content — white noise, sleep, or ambient tracks.
- Don't engineer tracks just to clear a platform's minimum-length rule.
- For platforms that power user-generated content, deliver only fully exclusive, distinct material — no spoken word, blank audio, sound effects, nature recordings, public-domain material, generic loops, or non-exclusive library music.
Why this matters (the risks)
These rules aren't red tape — they protect your money and your reach. A rights claim can pull a release from every store at once. Stream manipulation can trigger clawbacks that wipe out real earnings and freeze your payouts. Sloppy metadata can split your streams across duplicate profiles so you never get credit. Playing by the rules is simply how you keep a catalog that pays you for years. If you're comparing distributors, our distributor comparison explains what good, safe distribution looks like.
Pre-release checklist
- I own or control the master recording and the composition.
- Any samples, covers, remixes, or interpolations are licensed and cleared.
- No AI trained on copyrighted work or mimicking a real artist.
- My artist name and identity are genuine and verifiable.
- Titles and artwork are clean — no URLs, emojis, SEO terms, or logos I don't own.
- Metadata is honest, complete, and identical across platforms.
- I'm promoting the release legitimately — no bots, no bought streams, no guaranteed-placement services.
Moving an existing catalog to Grootin? Our catalog migration tool brings your releases across with their original ISRCs intact — here's how to switch distributor without losing your data.