Terms of Service

Thanks for using sandstradingcompany.com web services. These terms of service (“Agreement”) cover your use and access to the services, client software, and websites (“Services”) provided by S&S Trading Company (for clarity, “Services” include the “Release Service”, “Samples Service” and “Plugins Service” as defined below, as well as our Projects and Network Services, as defined separately). Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect and use your information while our Acceptable Use and Fair Usage Policy outlines your responsibilities when using our Services.

By using our Services, you’re agreeing to be bound by the terms of this Agreement and to review our Privacy and Acceptable Use and Fair Usage Policy. If you’re using our Services for an organization, you’re agreeing to the terms of this Agreement on behalf of that organization.

By using or accessing the Services, you agree to all the terms and conditions stated in this Agreement. If at any time, you do not or cannot agree to the terms of this Agreement, you must stop accessing or using the Services.

Account Registration

To use certain Services you must register and provide certain information (e.g. a member (user) name, password, billing information, and valid email address) to S&S Trading Company (“Registration Data”) for the purposes of creating an account (your “Account”). You agree to provide current, complete, and accurate Registration Data at the time you register and you will update your Registration Data as necessary to keep it current, complete, and accurate. The Registration Data will apply to all Services and act as your username and Registration Data for accessing, communicating, purchasing, and/or streaming (where purchasing and/or streaming are applicable) in connection with all Services. S&S Trading Company may terminate your Account and any or all rights to the Services if any information you provide is inaccurate, false, or incomplete, or, if the S&S Trading Company, in its discretion, suspects fraudulent and/or illegal behavior, such as but not limited to identity theft or stolen credit cards or artificial purchasing to inflate sales data, associated with your registration. You agree that S&S Trading Company may store and use the Registration Data you provide for use in billing fees to your credit card and maintaining your Account.

You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your Account. You agree to notify S&S Trading Company immediately of any unauthorized use of your password and/or Account. S&S Trading Company shall not be responsible for any losses arising out of the unauthorized use of your Registration Data or Account, and you agree to hold harmless and to indemnify S&S Trading Company, its partners, parents, subsidiaries, agents, affiliates, and/or licensors, as applicable, for any improper, unauthorized or illegal uses of your Account. You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Services. Should you attempt to do so, assist others in making such attempts, or distribute instructions, software, or tools for that purpose, S&S Trading Company shall have the right to terminate your Account and pursue all available remedies at law.

By establishing an Account, you grant permission for S&S Trading Company to contact you at your provided e-mail address as well as through any of your provided social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). You can update and manage your email preferences, under your account settings. You acknowledge and agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that we provide to you electronically will satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. You must provide S&S Trading Company with an active email account to receive important notices from us at all times, and you are responsible for making sure the email account is active, able to receive emails from S&S Trading Company, and that your email address on file with S&S Trading Company is up-to-date.

Your Assets & Your Permissions

When you use our Services, you provide us with things like your files, content, configuration settings, Metadata, and so on (“Your Assets”). Your Assets are yours. The terms of this Agreement don’t give us any rights to Your Assets except for the limited rights that enable us to offer the Services.

If you want to use our Release Service or Samples Service for your Recordings (as defined below), please carefully review all applicable provisions of the terms of this Agreement.

We need your permission to do things like hosting Your Assets, backing them up, and sharing them when you ask us to. Our Services also provide you with features like song previews, editing, sharing, searching, and releasing. These and other features may require our systems to access, store and scan Your Assets. We may also utilize Your Data (as defined in our Privacy Policy) to conduct investigations and studies, test functionalities during the development phase, and analyze the information at our disposal to assess and improve our Services, implement new services and functionalities, and perform audits and troubleshooting procedures, or for promotional purposes. You permit us to do these things, and this permission extends to trusted third parties we work with.

Once you access our Services via an offer or link provided by a S&S Trading Company partner, we will likely share some of Your Data with said partner, more specifically, your name, email address, subscription plan to our Services, and information regarding the usage that you make of our Services. You authorize us to share such information with the aforementioned partner. The Data shared with this partner will also be governed by conditions of use and this partner’s privacy policy.

Sharing Your Assets

Our Services let you share Your Assets with others, so please think carefully about what you share. You understand that you assume all risks, including unwanted public release, related to your decision to share Your Assets. When you share Your Assets, you’re responsible for ensuring that those accessing Your Assets understand what they’re allowed to do, or not do, with Your Assets. Your sharing of Your Assets via our Services will not entitle you to any payments from any persons participating in our Services.

When content is shared with you, offering comments, suggestions, and/or feedback to another user’s content on the S&S Trading Company site does not mean that you acquire ownership rights or credits in that content nor does it mean that you shall have a right to any royalties or other monetary payments derived from that content. Without written approval from the party owning the content that was shared with you, you cannot share or reproduce the other user’s content. To obtain more information about your rights as a contributor, songwriter, or performer, please consult your performing rights organization, publisher, and/or legal counsel.

Pricing

We work for musicians and creators. Our pricing aims to be affordable to allow as many creators as possible, from all over the world, to use our Services. You can increase your privileges and add paid features to your account (turning your account into a “Paid”, or “Premium” Account). Please refer to S&S Trading Company’s website for all details regarding our free offer, A-la-Carte offers, and subscription plans for our Services and further details relating to upgrades, downgrades, billing, refunds, and changes to Paid accounts. Both free and paying users must have a S&S Trading Company account to be able to use our Services.

Copyright and Intellectual Property

We respect the intellectual property of others and ask that you do too. You cannot upload, share, release, or otherwise use on our Services any content, including any audio files, samples, or Recordings, for which you do not own all necessary intellectual property rights unless you have the express written consent from all persons owning the intellectual property rights in the content. If you don’t respect this rule, you assume all risks and liabilities arising therefrom, and we will have the right to delete any violating content on our Services. Further, you shall indemnify and save us harmless from and against any reasonable costs, expenses, losses, liabilities, and damages (including, without limitation, court costs and counsel fees on a substantial indemnity basis) arising out of or connected with any claim arising from your submission to our Services of intellectual property you do not own or properly control. Without renouncing our other rights and remedies, we can also suspend or terminate your account.

We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement if they comply with the law, and such notices should be reported to us by email. We reserve the right to delete or disable content alleged to be infringing and terminate accounts of repeat infringers. Our designated agent for notice of alleged copyright infringement on the Services is: [email protected]

Grant of Rights

S&S Trading Company works for and on behalf of musicians and creators. So you are NOT assigning or transferring us any copyright or ownership rights on your Recordings, but only granting us the non-exclusive rights and licenses described in this Agreement.

To allow us to provide you with our Release Service, you hereby grant us all the rights necessary for the Online Exploitation of your Recordings and any Metadata through Digital Stores. More precisely, you grant us the non-exclusive, sublicensable right and license, throughout the world, to:

Reproduce and communicate your Recordings to the public by telecommunication (including making your Recording available to the public by wire or wireless means in such ways that members of the public may access your Recordings from any place and at any time individually chosen by them), and to authorize Digital Stores to do any of the foregoing (including to authorize their clients to make reproductions of your Recordings) in any formats and through any media (now known or existing in the future), including, without limitation, permanent, temporary, limited and portable digital downloads, interactive, semi-interactive or non-interactive streaming, and cloud services;
To create, reproduce and stream, and to authorize Digital Stores to create, reproduce and stream and authorize their clients to reproduce free preview clips of your Recordings;
To use all name(s), photographs, likenesses, voice, artwork images, artist name, logo, trademarks, service marks, music or song and album titles, biographical and other information provided by you (in Metadata or otherwise) in connection with the Online Exploitation of your Recordings on the Digital Stores, and in any of our or the Digital Stores advertising or promotional materials. We will ask for your written approval before using any name or likeness as an endorsement of our Services and websites or of a Digital Store;
To reproduce, integrate and communicate your Recordings to the public via lists of readers of the Digital Stores. You may revoke such authorization at any time by way of written notice to S&S Trading Company, in which case, S&S Trading Company shall remove your Recordings from said readers lists within 30 business days of receipt of the written notice from S&S Trading Company;
To collect all income (including the Net Income) from the Digital Stores in connection with the Online Exploitation of your Recordings.

The rights, licenses, and guarantees that you grant us do not, however, cover the exploitation of any exclusive right over any musical work (music with or without lyrics) included in your Recordings to the extent the exploitation in the question of this right has already been authorized by a copyright collective society entitled to grant such authorization.

Your Responsibilities

You’re responsible for your conduct, Your Assets and you must comply with our Acceptable Use and Fair Usage Policy. Content in the Services may be protected by others’ intellectual property rights. Please don’t copy, upload, download, or share content unless you have the right to do so. We may review your conduct and content for compliance with the terms of this Agreement and our Acceptable Use and Fair Usage Policy. That said, we have no obligation to do so. We aren’t responsible for the content people post and share via the Services.

Regarding third parties rights and payments, you are solely responsible:

To obtain any right required for us to make and authorize any Online Exploitation of your Recordings, Metadata, or other information or material you may provide us with to the full extent authorized herein from any person participating in the creation or performance of any work (such as music, lyrics, scripts or direction) included on your Recording and/or in the production or making of your Recordings (such as any composers, lyricists, scriptwriters, directors, musicians, singers, actors, extras, music producers, sound or audiovisual recording makers or others) or who may otherwise own or control any such right (such as music publishers or copyright collectives);
To make any payment to any such person as may be due in consideration for any such rights;
To pay to any person who may be entitled thereto, any share of any payment of Net Incomes made by us to you as may be due and payable to any such persons except to the extent we have been required by you, are able to, and actually, pay such share(s) of such payment to such persons;
To pay all amounts that may be required under collective bargaining agreements, copyright tariffs, or statutory schemes;
To pay for all licenses and other fees required from copyrights owners (such as music publishers) for reproduction, public performance, and any other exploitation of your Recordings and any Metadata or other material images associated too;
To pay for any required music publishing licenses for your Recordings;
To pay for all taxes or other governmental withholdings.

The responsibilities above do not apply in respect of authors, composers, performers, producers, or makers associated with any Samples incorporated in your Recordings per the Samples Licence as set forth herein nor to Cover Mechanical Reproductions of any Cover Song incorporated in your Recordings for which we have been able to obtain a Cover Song License and to Covered Mechanical Royalties payables to authors and composers of such Covered Songs according to such Cover Song Licenses.

If for any reason we make one of these payments for your Recordings, we will have the right to deduct it from any amount payable to you, including the Net Income (and require reimbursement for any outstanding balance).

Please safeguard your password to the Services, make sure that others don’t have access to it, and keep your account information current. You are solely responsible for managing your account and password and for keeping your password confidential. If you have forgotten your password, click on the “Forgot Password?” link and follow the on-screen instructions. You are also solely responsible for restricting access to your account. You agree that you are responsible for all activities that occur on your account or through the use of your password by yourself or by other persons. If you believe that a third party obtained or guessed your password, use the password regeneration feature of the Services as soon as possible to obtain a new password.

Claims of Infringement and Take-Down Notices

If we receive a notice claiming that your Recordings or any Metadata or other information or material you provide us (other than unmodified Samples as may be incorporated in your Recordings per the Samples Licence and other than mechanical reproductions of Cover Songs as may be incorporated in your Recordings and for which we have secured a Cover Song License in accordance herewith) with are infringing the rights of others (such as their copyrights, trademarks, rights of publicity or other intellectual property rights) or that you are not complying with any of your obligations hereunder, including any license or agreement pertaining to your Recordings, we will inform you and may, at our sole discretion, remove your Recordings, Metadata, and other information and material until you provide us with sufficient proof, in our sole opinion, that you have satisfactorily resolved any outstanding issues related to such claims. During this period, we may decide to freeze the Net Income of your account if we believe, using our reasonable judgment, that you may have violated the terms of this Agreement. If we determine, using our reasonable judgment, that your Recordings (other than unmodified Samples as may be incorporated in your Recordings per the Samples Licence and other than mechanical reproductions of Cover Songs as may be incorporated in your Recordings and for which we have secured a Cover Song License in accordance herewith) or any Metadata or other information or material you provide us with may infringe the rights of others, we can deduct, from any amount payable to you, any resulting costs for us (including legal fees and expenses), or seize and keep the Net Incomes from your account, without renouncing to the other rights and remedies we may have. If we have to retain legal counsel to review your submitted proof of resolution, you agree to assume responsibility for the associated legal fees and to pay us in advance.

Fraudulent, Infringing, or Illegal Activities

If we believe, in our sole discretion, that you might be using our Services for fraudulent, infringing, or other illegal activities, we have the right to remove your Recordings and cease posting your Net Income to your account and disallow any withdrawal of funds from your account until we are satisfied that you are not committing any fraudulent, infringing or other illegal activities. If we determine, using our reasonable judgment, that you have used our Services for any fraudulent, infringing, or other illegal activities or that you are not complying with any of your obligations hereunder, we can deduct, from any amount payable to you, any resulting costs for us (including legal fees) or seize and keep the Net Incomes from your account, without renouncing to our other rights and remedies we may have.

Warranties, Representations, and Indemnities

If you use our Services, you warrant and represent that:

you are at least fourteen (14) years of age and have the prescribed age to lawfully enter into and form contracts under applicable law (and if you are under the prescribed age in the country where you reside, you have reviewed this Agreement with your parent or guardian to ensure you understand and are legally able to agree to be bound therewith, your acceptance thereof meaning that you represent and warrant that you are legally able to bind yourself by this Agreement);
you have the right and authority to enter into this Agreement and to grant us all rights specified;
your Recordings (other than unmodified Samples as may be incorporated in your Recordings per the Samples Licence and other than mechanical reproductions of Cover Songs as may be incorporated in your Recordings and for which we have secured a Cover Song License in accordance herewith) and any other materials and information you provide us with (such as names, artwork, images, and picture and/or other Metadata) and any Online Exploitation thereof authorized hereunder do not violate any law and don’t infringe on the copyrights, trademarks, publicity and image rights, or any other rights of someone else.

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless S&S Trading Company, its licenses (such as Digital Stores), and their officers, directors, affiliates, employees, and agents, from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, arising out of or in any way connected with your access to or use of the Services, including any breach of this Agreement, including the foregoing representations and warranties.