LightSound exits beta.
When we wrote our last update back in April, we were a young distributor with a lot of drive. Five months later, we're still the same team, but with a platform that looks almost nothing like the one from back then.
Today, LightSound is officially out of beta.
It's the result of months of work, of feedback you sent us (and that we listened to, one by one), of late nights asking ourselves "how can we do this better?". What follows is the story of everything we've built from April to today.
Get comfortable, because there's a lot.
Analytics: your numbers, finally clear
We built a dedicated Analytics page for distribution from scratch. No more Excel files, no more confusing dashboards.
You'll find:
- Total streams, unique listeners, saves and active tracks in clearly visible cards
- Breakdown by platform: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and all the others
- Top Tracks and Top Countries: your most streamed tracks and the countries where your music is growing
- Charts to visualize trends over time, compare platforms and track your music's usage on social media
And then there's something we're particularly proud of: Copilot Insights. These are cards generated by our artificial intelligence that analyze your data and tell you what's going well, what needs attention and where you can improve. Basically, someone looking at the numbers for you and telling you what to do.
Royalties and Light Bank: your earnings, no surprises
The royalties section we launched in April has been completely redesigned.
Now you can:
- Filter by artist and period and see your earnings history, net accrued amount and total streams
- Check the breakdown by track (with ISRC search) and by platform, with logos and colors for each store
The biggest addition is Light Bank: your wallet on the platform.
- Progress bar toward the minimum payout threshold with status badge
- Stripe Connect integration: link your bank account and request a balance transfer directly from the platform
- You can request payout on your entire catalog or on specific tracks, your choice
Invite a friend, earn from it
We launched the referral program.
After your first payment you receive a unique code and a personalized link to share. Whoever signs up through your link gets a discount, and you receive a credit you can use to offset your subscription renewal or transfer to your royalties balance.
From the dashboard you can see your earned credit and how many friends signed up in real time. Simple, transparent, and everyone benefits.
Switching distributors? We've got you
We know how painful it is to migrate your catalog from one distributor to another. That's why we built a catalog import wizard in 4 steps:
- Select your current distributor
- Upload a CSV with your catalog or search for a single release by UPC, ISRC or title
- Verify matches: for each release we show you a detailed report with UPC comparison, title, number of ISRCs found and an audio player to listen to the preview
- Confirm and import: we process everything in batches with a progress indicator
You can also download our CSV template directly from the platform. Our goal: making the switch to LightSound as painless as possible.
Light Tree and Pre-save: now with analytics
Back in April we introduced Light Tree, the link-in-bio for artists, and multi-store Pre-saves.
Since then, the big addition is that you now have analytics: page views, total clicks, CTR, and the breakdown by link type (DSP, social, extra, pre-save) with colored percentage bars. You know exactly what's working and what's not on your profile.
Metadata analysis: fewer errors, better releases
The release upload wizard has become much smarter.
- Real-time metadata validation: titles, genres, language, explicit content, ISRC, release dates. We flag issues before they turn into store rejections
- Copy contributors: you can reuse contributors (and their royalties/publishing split shares) across tracks in a release with one click
- Sample detection: if your track contains a recognized sample, we flag it with the original title, artist, album, label and confidence score, so you know immediately if there's a copyright risk
- Silence detection: we warn you if there are unusual silences at the beginning, end or in the middle of the track, with exact duration and position
The goal is simple: fewer store rejections, less wasted time, higher quality releases.
Dark Mode
You asked for it, we built it.
The entire platform is now available in dark theme. A toggle and you're done. We redesigned the full palette with layered surfaces, contrasts calibrated to reduce eye strain and adaptive colors that follow accessibility guidelines.
Your 2 AM wizard session will thank you.
Support tickets: everything from the platform
Until now, reaching out to us meant WhatsApp or email. It worked, and the level of support is still the same as always, but we wanted to make your life easier.
Now you can open a ticket directly from the platform and manage the entire conversation from there: a chat with our team, without leaving the platform, without switching apps.
Profile claiming: we guide you step by step
You published your first release but haven't claimed your Spotify for Artists profile yet? It happens more often than you'd think.
We created a dedicated onboarding page with an interactive checklist for each platform: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube, Deezer, Tidal, Musixmatch and more.
For each one you'll find numbered instructions, a direct link to start the process, and you can track the status ("Not started" → "In progress" → "Completed") with a progress bar. If you get stuck, a button takes you straight to opening a ticket.
Mix & Master Services
We partnered with professional studios to offer you services at discounted rates compared to list price: mix & master, vocal tuning, custom beatmaking and much more.
You'll find everything in the new Services page on the platform: catalog grouped by studio, transparent pricing with standard and partner rates highlighted, express delivery option and integrated quote requests. All without leaving LightSound.
Five months ago we were in beta. Today we're a distributor that earned your trust release after release, ticket after ticket, feedback after feedback.
But we're not stopping. We already have our hands on things we can't wait to show you.
If you have questions, ideas, or simply want to tell us how it's going, write to us. We always read everything.
Talk soon,
The LightSound Team