Platform Rules & Fair Play Policy

Welcome to Skaldera. We built this platform as a breath of fresh air for musicians - a place with honest pricing, no display ads, and a strict focus on human artistry. To keep the community authentic and legally protected, we ask everyone to agree to a few straightforward ground rules.

1. Your Music, Your Rights (Copyright)

• You must own the copyright or have explicit legal permission for every audio file, lyric, and piece of cover art you upload.
• Skaldera acts solely as a host for your content. We do not claim any rights to anything you post here.
• We respect creators' rights. If we receive a valid takedown request for copyright infringement, we are legally obligated to remove the disputed content. In practice, your content will become private, hidden from the public, until the dispute is resolved.

2. The "Human-Made" Rule (Our AI Policy)

• We have nothing against the evolution of music technology, but Skaldera is designed specifically to champion human musicians and their craft.
• We require "Human-Made" verification for albums uploaded to the platform. In practice, you mark the checkbox, and others may report music for being generated, in which case we may require you to prove that it is not.
• "Hybrid" works are considered "AI" if there is at least one generated stem. Samples, melodies, or AI features of major DAWs do not count as AI.
• Our charts and discovery features are driven by community endorsements (Highlights), not algorithms. To maintain a fair playing field, AI-generated music is not permitted in our ratings or community discovery sections.

3. Community Integrity & Anti-Spam

• The Skaldera community relies on trust. We use a weighted community reporting system to monitor for spam, unauthorized content, and bots.
• Only artists with approved albums can "Highlight" other artists, ensuring that our discovery network remains authentic and cannot be easily gamed by bots.
• We enforce a strict "No Spam" policy for all platform interactions and notifications.

4. Data & Privacy (No Creepy Stuff)

• We celebrate the craft by tracking site-wide statistics of production tools, DAWs, and plugins you use to make your music.
• We may look at this data on a massive, aggregated scale to understand industry-wide production trends. However, we strip away all personal information before doing so.
• We will never sell your individual, personal data.
• We never track your habits, location, or taste, and do not let others do so on our website.
• Your data belongs to you. You can export your profile information and metadata at any time.

5. Accounts

• You register via OAuth (Google, Discord, or GitHub). You are responsible for maintaining the security of the account you use to sign in.
• One person, one artist account. Creating multiple accounts to manipulate Highlights, ratings, or any other community feature will result in suspension of all accounts involved.
• Label accounts may manage multiple artists but each artist profile must represent a real, distinct musician or act.

6. Acceptable Use

• Do not upload content that is illegal, promotes violence, or constitutes hate speech.
• Do not attempt to scrape, crawl, or bulk-download content from the platform.
• Do not interfere with the platform's operation or attempt to bypass security measures, rate limits, or access controls.
• Album pages, artist profiles, and all public content must not be used to distribute malware or phishing links.

7. Content Moderation

• All albums go through a moderation review before they become publicly visible.
• Community members can report content that violates these rules. Reports are weighted by the reporter's standing in the community.
• Moderators may flag, hide, or remove content that violates these terms. You will be notified if action is taken against your content.
• Repeated violations may result in temporary or permanent account suspension.

8. Plans & Payments

• The free tier provides full core functionality with no time limit. We will not degrade the free tier to push upgrades.
• Paid plans (Pro, Label, Founder's Club) unlock additional features as described on the pricing page. Features are clearly listed; there are no hidden fees.
• If you downgrade or cancel a paid plan, your content remains accessible on the free tier. You do not lose your albums or profile.
• Skaldera never takes any percentage of your sales, streams, or revenue. All platform links go directly to the services you choose.

9. Limitation of Liability

• Skaldera is provided "as is." We do our best to keep the platform reliable, but we cannot guarantee uninterrupted availability.
• We are not responsible for content uploaded by users. Each artist is solely responsible for the legality and accuracy of their own content.
• External streaming links on album pages point to third-party services. Skaldera is not responsible for the availability or policies of those services.

10. Changes to These Terms

• We may update these terms as the platform evolves. Significant changes will be communicated through the platform's notification system.
• Continued use of Skaldera after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

Questions about these terms? Reach out through the platform's reporting or support channels.