YOUR ROSTER'S NEXT RELEASE
STARTS EARNING
BEFORE RELEASE DAY.
riffDrops gives your artists a direct line to their most dedicated fans. Exclusive pre-release drops, real revenue, and a label page that ties your entire roster together.
Bring your full roster. Each artist gets their own profile, their own releases, and their own fan base. Your label page aggregates it all.
labels building on riffDrops— home to 4 artists
YOUR CATALOG IS WORTH MORE
THAN FRACTIONS OF A CENT.
Streaming changed discovery. But for catalog sales, B-sides, live recordings, and limited releases — the economics don't hold up. A deep cut that means everything to your artists' longest fans earns effectively nothing when it's buried in a library of 250 million tracks.
Your artists' most dedicated fans — the ones who travel to every show, who own the vinyl, who've been there since the first EP — they want to go deeper. They want to support the bands directly. They just don't have a good place to do that.
riffDrops is built to be that place.
Sources: Luminate Superfan Report 2024; Luminate Year-End 2025; Custom Ink/Loudwire
PRE-RELEASE DROPS.
REAL REVENUE.
BEFORE DAY ONE.
Here's the play: when your artists are ready to build anticipation for a new release, they drop two or three exclusive tracks on riffDrops — available only to fans who pay for early access. The rest of the full release rolls out on streaming on schedule. Nothing changes for the streaming strategy. But now there's a revenue event before release day.
Your artists' core fans — the 3–5% who buy everything — get something nobody else has. They feel like insiders. And they put real money directly into the artist's pocket.
A label with 10 artists, each with 500 dedicated fans. If just 10% of those fans buy one pre-release drop per year at $9.99:
That's from just one release cycle, from just 10% of each artist's dedicated fans.
On streaming, those same fans would need to generate
875,000 streams
to match that — per artist.
And that's before the release even hits streaming services.
500 dedicated fans is all it takes to build real, sustainable revenue.
FOUR STEPS. THAT'S IT.
Apply as a Label
Submit your label application — name, about, logo, social links. We review every application personally. Approved labels get email confirmation within a few business days.
Build Your Roster
Search for artists already on riffDrops and add them to your roster. If they’re not on the platform yet, invite them by email. Every roster addition requires the artist’s explicit consent.
Artists Manage Their Own Pages
Each artist retains full control over their profile and releases. They upload their music, set their prices, write their stories. Your label page aggregates their music, stats, and tour dates.
Your Label Page Goes Live
Fans can browse your full roster, see aggregated stats, discover new artists through your catalog, and listen to music from across your roster — all in one place.
EVERY DOLLAR GOES
WHERE IT SHOULD.
Every artist on riffDrops connects their own Stripe account. When a fan buys their music, 70% goes directly to the artist — not through your label first, not through riffDrops, not weeks later. Direct.
For labels, there's flexibility: you can optionally route payments for specific roster artists through your label's Stripe Connect account. The artist sees a clear indicator showing who manages their payments. Your label-artist commercial arrangement is yours to define — riffDrops doesn't get involved.
And the most important part: Stripe Connect means the payment relationship belongs to whoever holds the account. Not to riffDrops. If anything ever happens to any platform, the Stripe account — and all its history — stays with whoever owns it.
Artist-direct by default
70% to the artist’s own Stripe account on every sale
Label routing available
Optionally route payments through your label’s Stripe account for roster artists
Multi-currency
EUR, USD, GBP — auto-detected from the buyer’s location
Transparent split
70/30, clearly stated. The 30% covers streaming, hosting, transcoding, and infrastructure.
No lock-in
Stripe accounts belong to whoever owns them. Period.
BUILT FOR HOW LABELS ACTUALLY WORK.
Label Profile Page
Full public-facing label page — logo, header image, about text, social links. Your brand represented properly. Fans can follow your label and discover your roster.
Roster Management
View all your artists with status indicators (confirmed/pending). Search and add existing artists. Invite new artists by email. Remove artists from your roster.
Consent-Based Roster Invites
When you add an artist, they receive an email invitation and must explicitly accept. No artist appears on your label page without their consent.
Aggregated Release Stream
Every release from every roster artist in one chronological feed on your label page. Fans discover your entire catalog without navigating away.
Aggregated Stats
Total plays, followers, songs, and releases across your full roster. See the big picture at a glance.
Aggregated Tour Dates
All upcoming shows from all roster artists on one page. Fans see where your bands are playing without checking each artist individually.
Team Management
Invite your A&R, managers, and operations team by email. Owner and Manager roles with appropriate access. One owner, as many managers as you need.
Internal Label Forum
A private discussion space just for your label team. Threads, categories, rich text, upvotes. Coordinate without leaving the platform.
Payment Routing
For confirmed roster artists, optionally route payments through your label’s Stripe Connect account. Artists see a clear indicator showing who manages their payments.
NO AI. NO SPAM.
EVERY BAND EARNED
THEIR SPOT.
riffDrops is application-only. Every artist is reviewed. In a landscape where 106,000 tracks are uploaded to streaming platforms daily — an estimated 18% of them AI-generated — your roster will never compete with bot farms or algorithmic noise for attention. When fans come to riffDrops, they know everything they hear was made by a real band.
Sources: Music Business Worldwide; Deezer 2025
EVERY ARTIST.
A FULL HOME.
When you bring an artist to riffDrops, they don't get a listing in a directory. They get a rich, full profile — music, biography, band members with photos and roles, photo gallery, song stories behind each track, musical influences, tour dates, and a direct connection to their fans.
Their fans can stream for free, buy releases, follow the artist, and get notified when new music drops. It's the kind of page that streaming profiles have never allowed.
Your label is the home. The artists are the reason fans visit.
Release Stream
Fans follow new drops chronologically — pre-release exclusives, new releases, catalog highlights.
Song Stories
Behind-the-scenes notes per track. Lyrics, liner notes, the story behind the riff.
Band Members
Full member profiles with photos, roles, bios. The humans behind the music.
Tour Integration
Shows, venues, ticket links, past dates. Everything on one page.
Pre-Release Countdowns
Upcoming releases show a countdown timer and “Notify Me” button.
Artist Profile Preview
Full artist page with music, bio, gallery & shows
HOW IT COMPARES.
| riffDrops | Streaming | Bandcamp | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue to artist per $10 sale | $7.00 (70%) | ~$0.004 per stream | ~$8.50 (85%) |
| Free streaming for fans | Yes — unlimited, no ads (128kbps / 320kbps HD) | Yes (with subscription/ads) | Limited — 3 plays before purchase prompt |
| Pre-release exclusive drops | |||
| Artist owns payment account | Yes (Stripe Connect) | ||
| Label roster management | Limited | ||
| Aggregated label stats | |||
| Consent-based roster invites | N/A | ||
| Individual artist profiles | Full rich profiles | ||
| Team access (multi-user) | |||
| Internal label forum | |||
| Lossless downloads available | |||
| Genre focus (heavy music) | |||
| Annual fee | Free | N/A | Free |
Revenue to artist per $10 sale
Free streaming for fans
Pre-release exclusive drops
Artist owns payment account
Label roster management
Aggregated label stats
Consent-based roster invites
Individual artist profiles
Team access (multi-user)
Internal label forum
Lossless downloads available
Genre focus (heavy music)
Annual fee
Stripe processes all payments and applies its standard processing fees. Revenue percentages shown are before Stripe processing fees. Your commercial arrangement with your artists is yours — riffDrops does not dictate or intermediate the label-artist revenue split.
QUESTIONS.
Nothing. Free to join, free to list artists, no annual fees, no setup costs. riffDrops takes 30% of paid sales made through the platform. That’s the only cost.
By default, 70% of every sale goes directly to the artist’s own Stripe Connect account. 30% goes to riffDrops. Your label-artist commercial agreement is entirely separate — riffDrops doesn’t control or dictate how you and your artists split revenue. If you prefer, you can optionally route payments through your label’s Stripe account for specific roster artists (with their knowledge — they see a clear indicator).
Yes. You can invite artists by email. New artists receive a signup invitation. Existing artists on riffDrops are assigned directly once they confirm. All invitations expire after 7 days. Every roster addition requires the artist’s explicit acceptance.
Completely. Artists manage their own profiles, releases, and pricing. Your label page aggregates their music, stats, and tour dates — but release management sits with each artist’s team. If an artist grants you Manager access on their page, your team can assist directly.
The platform supports one label association per artist at a time. If an artist is on your roster and you want to transfer them to another label, the current association would need to be removed first.
No minimum. Boutique labels with three artists and established imprints with fifty are both welcome. The application review is about fit with the riffDrops community, not scale.
Heavy music — metal, hard rock, rock, metalcore, doom, sludge, post-metal, hardcore, progressive metal, stoner rock, and related genres. The full spectrum from blues rock to extreme metal. If your label spans these genres and others, apply and we’ll discuss scope during review.
A few business days. We review every label application personally and respond by email.
Each artist can invite your label team as Managers on their individual pages, giving your team edit access to releases, profiles, and content. This is separate from the label roster management — it’s artist-level access granted by the artist.
MORE WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR ARTISTS.
We’re building toward a full creative commerce layer for heavy music — giving labels and their artists tools that go beyond a digital storefront.
Tiered Release Packages
Music + merch + experiences in a single purchase. Your artists offer more — signed items, vinyl, guest list spots. Their fans invest more.
Mobile App
Full label and artist management on mobile. Browse, manage, update — from anywhere.
Physical Integration
Vinyl, CDs, and cassette pre-orders alongside digital releases. One release page, both formats.
Label Analytics
Deeper insights across your roster — revenue trends, fan demographics, release performance comparisons.
BRING YOUR ROSTER TO THEIR FANS.
Apply as a label. It’s free, and we review every application within a few business days.
No setup fees. No annual costs. Application-based — we review every submission personally.
Are you an artist or band? See what riffDrops does for artists