Digital Distribution

Terms of Service Digital Distribution

Summary

This is a NON-exclusive licensing agreement allowing us to sell and monetize your recordings, and complements the General Terms of Use of holding an iMusician account.

This agreement applies only to the songs you are distributing in this bundle, and we will create a new licence for every bundle you distribute.

Definitions

You: The rights holder or legal representative of the recordings (you do not have to be the original copyright creator).
We: iMusician Digital AG, Switzerland
Release: a "bundle" of recordings such as a single, EP, album, music video, audiobook or similar.
Title: one song or track.
Shop: Digital Service Providers (DSPs) like Spotify, YouTube or even Shazam.
Partner: iMusician's partners such as shops, aggregators, encoders etc.
Terms of use: These are the Terms & Conditions that regulates how you use your iMusician account, and to which you agreed when you opened your account.

Guarantees & warranties

You guarantee that you have the legal right to administer the copyrights in the recording of this bundle.

Term

This is an “open end” agreement which means you can decide for yourself when to end it and/or take down your releases. See section Terminations on how to end the licence.

Exclusivity & transferability

This licence is transferable and NON-exclusive for the copyright in the recording for all tracks in this bundle. This means that you can have direct deals for this bundle with individual shops, but this deal is exclusive in terms of working with other distributors for this release. Shops will takedown duplicate releases, so we reserve the right to take down such releases without refund.

Earnings & commissions

As soon as we have received statements/income from shops and other partners, your earnings and statement will be uploaded to your account. If a commission is applicable, we will deduct it before uploading your income.

Terminations (Takedowns)

Terminating this licence is the same as issuing a takedown of this release, but is different from terminating your iMusician account (Closing your account). Either party can terminate this licence triggering an automatic takedown of this release at anytime. Terminations can be made in writing (an email will suffice).

For terminating your iMusician account (closing your account), see Terms of use.

We reserve the right to charge an early takedown fee if a release is taken down in the first 12 months.
Takedowns depend on the shops own internal policies and can often take months.
Each shop or service has its own content policies which are beyond our control, and can take down your release without reason.

Catalogue changes

You can update releases at any time. If the release is already in shops, a fee may apply.

Shops & countries

The shop and territorial settings are determined by you, but the content policy of each shop or territory (eg. China) is beyond our control. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that a certain shop will accept your release or that your release can be sold in, say, China.

Quality control & questionable content

We reserve the right to modify your input based on best practices and industry styleguides. Eg: Many shops reject titles written in uppercase so we would change that. Additionally, we reserve the right to refuse your release based on the quality of audio or questionable content. This may be the release in its entirety or refusing to deliver it to certain shops.

Questionable content includes things such as racist or politically sensitive lyrics or artwork, pornography etc.

Copyright infringement and fraudulent activity

We have strict policies when dealing with copyright infringement and fraudulent activities.

Distributing a release for which you are not authorised to distribute.
Distributing recordings with uncleared samples.
Incorrect data but especially pertaining to copyright holders.

Fraudulent activity includes but is not limited to:

Fraudulent enrichment through artificially boosting streams or downloads.
Unauthorised use of tracks, artist names, trademarks and others which may give you a commercial advantage.
Deception through the creation of multiple iMusician accounts.

In the case where we have concluded that you have infringed any of these regulations, we reserve the right to:

Disclose your personal details to the relevant authorities dealing with the conflict/situation.
Freeze and/or close your iMusician account.
Freeze your income, force the surrender of income, or even demand repayment of incomes which have already been paid out for the offending titles or all your titles.
Take down the offending or even all your releases.
Forfeit your rights to refunds.
Charge you a penalty fee of up to 100 EUR per track involved in the copyright infringement or fraudulent activity.

Promotional rights

You agree to licence iMusician free-of-charge, the rights to use your name, likeness (photos and images), voice, biographical material, brand and logo in the course of exploiting your release.