When artists upload music to Subvert, they can grant other co-op members a Direct License - meaning members can listen to their releases without the standard 3-play limit. Artists can opt out of this for any release through their release settings.
The legal basis Promotional Previews on Subvert - including unlimited previews for co-op members - are not interactive streams under our Terms of Use. This is an important distinction: interactive streaming triggers royalty obligations in a way that promotional previews do not.
The Direct License is granted by the artist directly to other fellow co-op members. It is not a sublicense from Subvert - Subvert facilitates the license as part of its cooperative platform, but the underlying listening rights flow from the artist to the community. It applies only within the closed community of co-op members who have agreed to our platform terms and the co-op's member agreements, and only where the artist has chosen to keep this setting enabled.
In plain terms: artists are trusting their fellow co-op members with broader access to their music as part of a mutual cooperative relationship. It's one of the ways the platform creates real value for members - not through a platform policy imposed on artists, but through artists choosing to extend access to the community they're part of.