TL;DR: Amuse is a mobile-first music distributor that delivers recordings to streaming platforms. Its free tier takes no revenue share; its paid "Boost" tier offers additional features. Amuse does not collect performance royalties, mechanical royalties, or neighboring rights. Artists must register with a PRO, The MLC, and SoundExchange separately.
What Is Amuse?
Amuse is a Swedish music distribution and discovery platform founded in 2015. It gained attention as one of the first mobile-first distributors — allowing artists to upload and manage releases entirely from a smartphone. Amuse operates on a freemium model, with a free distribution tier and paid "Boost" tiers offering faster delivery, more splits features, and priority support.
Amuse has signed several artists to development deals through its A&R activities, but the core product is distribution.
What Amuse Does
- Distribution to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, TikTok, and other platforms
- Master recording revenue collection and monthly payouts
- Royalty splits with collaborators (on paid tiers)
- Analytics showing streams and revenue by platform
What Amuse Does NOT Collect
Performance Royalties
Every Spotify stream generates two royalty flows: a master recording payment (which Amuse collects) and a public performance payment (which goes to the songwriter's PRO). Amuse does not handle PRO registration or collection. If you are not a member of ASCAP, BMI, PRS, or another PRO with your works registered, you collect £0/$0/€0 in performance royalties.
US Mechanical Royalties
The MLC collects digital mechanical royalties in the United States for songwriters and publishers. Amuse does not register your compositions with The MLC. The MLC holds over $400M in unmatched royalties — royalties that cannot be paid out because the works aren't registered or the metadata doesn't match.
SoundExchange
SoundExchange collects digital performance royalties from internet radio (Pandora), satellite radio (SiriusXM), and webcasts. These royalties go to the sound recording owner and featured performer — but only if they are registered with SoundExchange. Amuse does not handle this. SoundExchange distributed $1.05B in 2024.
Neighboring Rights
Neighboring rights are collected by PPL (UK), GVL (Germany), SENA (Netherlands), and other organizations when recordings are broadcast internationally. Amuse does not handle neighboring rights registration. According to the IFPI, $2.7B in neighboring rights were collected globally in 2023.
Amuse's A&R and Artist Development
Amuse has signed artists to development deals through its internal label arm. Artists who are signed to Amuse's label may have different royalty arrangements — but this is distinct from the standard distribution service. Most Amuse users are using the free distribution product, not an Amuse label deal.
Amuse Free vs. Boost
| Feature | Free | Boost |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue share | 0% | 0% |
| Annual fee | £0 | ~£24.99/year |
| Upload speed | Standard | Priority |
| Royalty splits | Limited | Full |
| Support | Standard | Priority |
| PRO registration | No | No |
| MLC registration | No | No |
| SoundExchange | No | No |
What Amuse Artists Need to Do Separately
- Join ASCAP or BMI (US) — collect performance royalties from streaming and radio
- Register with The MLC — collect US digital mechanical royalties (free to register)
- Register with SoundExchange — collect digital performance royalties from internet/satellite radio (free to register)
- Join PRS for Music (UK) — collect UK performance and mechanical royalties
- Consider neighboring rights — register with PPL, GVL, or a neighboring rights agent
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Amuse have a publishing administration product? No. As of 2024–2025, Amuse does not offer publishing administration. You must use a separate publishing administrator or register directly with PROs and The MLC.
Can I keep my ISRCs when switching from Amuse to another distributor? Yes, and you should. ISRCs are tied to recordings, not distributors. If Amuse assigned ISRCs to your releases, keep a record of them. Using the same ISRC with a new distributor ensures continuity in royalty matching at PROs and The MLC. Assigning new ISRCs creates matching failures.
Does Amuse's free tier take any revenue? No. Unlike RouteNote's free tier (which takes 15%), Amuse's free tier keeps 0% of master recording revenue. The trade-off is fewer features and standard support rather than revenue sharing.
Sources
- SoundExchange 2024: $1.05B distributed
- The MLC 2023 Annual Royalty Recap: $400M+ in unmatched royalties
- IFPI Global Music Report 2024: $2.7B in neighboring rights collected globally in 2023
- CISAC Global Collections Report 2024: €12.59B collected globally