Read Before You Sign: What Symphonic's Distribution Contract Actually Says

Entertainment attorney Miss Krystle — host of the Top Music Attorney Podcast — recently took a close look at Symphonic Distribution's terms of service after a client sent her the contract they were asked to sign before using the platform. What she found raises serious questions that every independent artist relying on digital distribution should understand before clicking agree.

The first red flag was the contract itself. Miss Krystle had reviewed Symphonic's terms of service roughly two years prior. When she returned to the website, the publicly visible version had changed dramatically — shorter, simpler, and in her words, formatted in a way that looked like it had been written by AI. The problem is that the clean, friendly version displayed publicly is not the actual agreement artists sign. The full-length contract — which is technically publicly accessible but buried — is a different document entirely, and it is the one that governs your relationship with the platform.

Here is what the full agreement actually contains:

**Rights granted to Symphonic.** When you distribute through Symphonic, you grant them the right to distribute, sublicense, monetize, and exploit your music across all music platforms. That alone is standard for any distributor. What is not standard is what happens next.

**Your music goes further than you think.** When you upload a release for distribution, Symphonic generates a list of platforms your music will be sent to. That list includes not just streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, but video game platforms and bulk music licensing platforms. The critical issue Miss Krystle flags is that all of these destinations are auto-selected by default. Artists who do not manually expand the sections and deselect specific platforms will have their music automatically distributed to all of them.

**Exclusivity and lock-in.** While you are on the platform, your distributed music is exclusive to Symphonic. The minimum term is one year — but the contract auto-renews for additional one-year terms unless you provide written notice of termination at least four months in advance. Miss that window and you are locked in for another year.

**The 100% royalties claim has exceptions.** Symphonic markets itself as a platform where artists keep 100% of their royalties. That is true for basic distribution — but Symphonic offers additional services like Content ID, and opting into those services means giving up a percentage. The simplified public-facing contract does not make this clear.

**Royalty withholding and account termination.** In her legal practice, Miss Krystle says the most common reason artists contact her regarding platforms like Symphonic involves either having their music taken down or having their royalties frozen. The grounds — streaming manipulation, metadata issues, AI usage, alleged platform violations — are broadly defined in the contract. Symphonic reserves the right to withhold royalties, freeze accounts, and remove artists from the platform based on these determinations, and the burden falls on the artist to contest them.

Additional findings from independent research reinforce these concerns. Symphonic's maximum liability to artists is capped at $50 regardless of actual damages. A $20 fee is charged per song removed due to accusations of fraud or copyright issues — even if the artist is later cleared. BBB complaints document cases of accounts being closed without explanation at the moment larger payouts were expected.

Miss Krystle ends her breakdown with an open invitation: if you are currently distributing through Symphonic or have in the past, she wants to hear about your experience. And she is continuing her series exposing music distributor contracts — asking her audience which platform to review next.