1. Acceptance of These Terms
These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding contract between you and Essensions ("Essensions," "we," "us," "our") governing your access to and use of the Essensions remote recording-session platform, including the website, web application, and all related services (collectively, the "Service").
You accept these Terms when you create an account and check the "I agree to the Terms of Service" box, or — where no checkbox is presented, such as the artist request form — when you submit or continue, as stated next to the submit button. By doing so you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. Do not use the Service if you do not agree. If you are using the Service on behalf of a company or organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity, and "you" means that entity.
2. Eligibility
You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction) to create an account or enter into these Terms. The Service is not available to anyone under 13 years of age. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 13, we will terminate it and delete associated personal information as required by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
You represent that you are not barred from using the Service under applicable law and that you will comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
3. Your Account
You are responsible for providing accurate registration information and keeping it current.
You are responsible for safeguarding your login credentials, and for all activity under your account. Notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorized use of your account.
You may not share a single account among multiple users unless your plan expressly permits it. You may not sell, rent, or transfer your account to another person without our written consent.
4. The Service
Essensions provides a remote recording-session environment that lets artists record audio in a virtual booth and lets producers receive, preview, keep or discard, and export takes and session files.
Pre-release notice. The Service is currently offered as a minimum viable product and may be incomplete, contain errors, or change materially. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time, with or without notice, and we are not liable to you for any such change.
5. Plans, Fees, and Payments
Pricing. Fees for paid plans are as displayed at checkout and on our pricing page. All fees are in US dollars unless stated otherwise, exclusive of taxes.
Payment processing. Payments are processed by our third-party payment processor. By providing payment information you authorize us and our processor to charge the applicable fees to your payment method.
Billing disputes. Contact us first to resolve billing disputes; you agree not to initiate chargebacks for charges you authorized.
Taxes. You are responsible for all applicable taxes, duties, and governmental charges arising from your purchase.
6. Subscriptions and Auto-Renewal
This section contains important disclosures required by US federal and state auto-renewal laws. Read it before subscribing.
Auto-renewal. Paid plans renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly, annual, or as selected) at the then-current price for your plan, until you cancel.
Affirmative consent. By completing checkout with auto-renewal selected, you give your express, affirmative consent to be charged on a recurring basis on the terms disclosed here and at checkout. Auto-renewal consent is separate from your acceptance of these Terms.
Trial periods. If your plan includes a free trial, the trial length and the price you will be charged when the trial converts are disclosed at signup, and we will remind you before the trial converts to a paid subscription.
Price or term changes. We will notify you in advance of any material change to price or subscription terms and give you an opportunity to consent or cancel before the change takes effect.
Cancellation — easy and in the same medium. You may cancel at any time from your account settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Cancelling online requires no phone call, live chat with an agent, or other unreasonable steps. After cancellation you retain access until the end of the paid period; no partial-period refunds unless required by law.
Renewal reminders. For annual (or longer) plans we will send renewal reminders as required by applicable law (including price, billing date, frequency, and how to cancel).
Refunds. Except where required by law or expressly stated at checkout, all fees are non-refundable.
7. Your Content — License to Us
"Your Content" means audio recordings, files, notes, messages, and any other material you upload, record, or submit to the Service.
You keep ownership. You retain all ownership rights in Your Content.
License you grant us. You grant Essensions a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable license to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform and display, transmit and stream, and create adaptations of Your Content (including transcoding, waveform previews, and thumbnails) solely as necessary to operate, provide, secure, and improve the Service and to share Your Content with the other participants in your sessions as you direct. This license ends when Your Content is deleted from the Service, except for copies retained in backups for a limited period or as required by law.
No broader use. We will not use Your Content for advertising or promotional purposes without your separate written consent.
8. Your Content — Your Representations
You represent and warrant that: (a) you own Your Content or have all rights, licenses, consents, and releases necessary to upload it and grant the license in Section 7; (b) Your Content does not and will not infringe any third party's copyright — including both the sound recording and the underlying musical work and lyrics — trademark, right of publicity or privacy, or other rights; (c) you have cleared all samples, beats, loops, and collaborator contributions in Your Content, including songwriter and publisher splits and any union or guild obligations, before uploading; and (d) Your Content does not violate any law and does not contain malware.
You are solely responsible for Your Content and for clearing all rights in it. If you upload a recording for which you do not control the underlying composition, you must obtain the composition owner's permission first.
9. No Royalty Obligations
The license in Section 7 is royalty-free. Essensions has no obligation to pay royalties, fees, or other compensation to any person in connection with Your Content — including sound-recording owners, musical-work (composition) owners, publishers, performing-rights organizations, producers, or other royalty participants. You are solely responsible for all such payments, splits, and licenses arising from Your Content.
10. Our Role — Not a Label, Publisher, or Distributor
Essensions is a collaboration and storage tool. We are not a record label, music publisher, distributor, or rights administrator. We do not clear rights in Your Content, collect or distribute royalties, register works with performing-rights organizations, or verify ownership of anything you upload. Any business terms between session participants (splits, fees, ownership) are solely between those participants.
11. Acceptable Use
You agree not to: (a) upload or share content that infringes intellectual-property rights or violates law; (b) upload malware, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service or its systems; (c) scrape, harvest, reverse-engineer, or decompile the Service, or use it to build a competing product; (d) resell, sublicense, or redistribute access to the Service except as your plan permits; (e) circumvent usage limits, security features, or access controls; (f) use the Service in or for the benefit of any comprehensively sanctioned country or sanctioned person (see Section 22); (g) harass, abuse, or harm other users, or upload content that is unlawful, defamatory, or hateful; (h) misrepresent your identity or affiliation.
We may remove content and suspend or terminate accounts that violate this section.
12. Copyright (DMCA) Policy
We respect intellectual-property rights and comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512).
Designated copyright agent: Essensions, Arizona, USA — dmca@essensions.app.
Takedown notices. If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send our agent a notice containing: (i) identification of the copyrighted work; (ii) identification of the infringing material and its location on the Service; (iii) your contact information; (iv) a statement of good-faith belief that the use is unauthorized; (v) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and you are authorized to act for the copyright owner; and (vi) your physical or electronic signature.
Counter-notices. If your content was removed and you believe the removal was a mistake, you may send a counter-notice with: (i) identification of the removed material and its prior location; (ii) your contact information; (iii) a statement, under penalty of perjury, consenting to the jurisdiction of the federal court in your district (or any federal district if outside the US) and accepting service of process from the complainant; and (iv) your signature. We will restore the material 10–14 business days after receiving a valid counter-notice unless the complainant notifies us that it has filed a court action.
Repeat infringers. We will terminate, in appropriate circumstances, accounts of users who are repeat infringers.
Warning: knowing material misrepresentations in notices or counter-notices can subject you to liability under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f).
13. Feedback
If you send us suggestions, ideas, or feedback about the Service ("Feedback"), you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use it for any purpose without obligation or compensation to you.
14. Third-Party Services
The Service may integrate with or link to third-party services (for example, payment processors, video-call providers, and storage providers). We are not responsible for third-party services; your use of them is governed by their own terms and privacy policies.
15. Suspension and Termination
By you: you may close your account at any time from your account settings or by contacting us.
By us: we may suspend or terminate your access immediately, with or without notice, if you breach these Terms, fail to pay fees when due, engage in fraud or abuse, or if required by law. We may also terminate for convenience on 30 days' notice.
Effect of termination. Upon termination, your right to use the Service ends immediately. We will retain Your Content for 30 days after termination during which you may export it, after which it will be deleted (except as required by law or retained in backups for a limited period).
Survival. Sections 7 through 12 and 16 through 24 survive termination.
16. Changes to These Terms
We may modify these Terms from time to time. For material changes we will give you at least 30 days' advance notice by email and by prominent in-Service posting, and the changes will take effect on the stated effective date. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree, you must stop using the Service and may close your account before the changes take effect. Price or feature changes affecting renewals are disclosed as described in Section 6.
17. Electronic Communications
You consent to receive communications from us electronically — including notices, disclosures, agreements, and billing communications — by email or in-Service posting, and agree that electronic communications satisfy any legal requirement that communications be in writing. You will keep your contact information current. You may withdraw this consent by closing your account, but withdrawal may prevent you from using the Service.
18. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "WITH ALL FAULTS," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ESSENSIONS DISCLAIMS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of harmful components, or that any content will be preserved without loss.
19. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL ESSENSIONS, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID TO US IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM (OR $100 IF YOU PAID NOTHING).
The limitations in this section do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of certain damages; in those jurisdictions our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.
20. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Essensions and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any third-party claims, damages, losses, costs, and reasonable attorneys' fees arising from: (a) Your Content; (b) your breach of these Terms; or (c) your violation of law or third-party rights. This does not require you to indemnify us for our own negligence or willful misconduct. We may assume exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification, at our expense.
21. Dispute Resolution — Binding Arbitration and Class-Action Waiver
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS YOUR RIGHTS, INCLUDING YOUR RIGHT TO FILE A LAWSUIT IN COURT AND TO HAVE A JURY TRIAL.
Informal resolution first. Before filing arbitration, you agree to contact us to attempt to resolve the dispute informally for 30 days.
Binding arbitration. Except as stated below, any dispute arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. The Federal Arbitration Act governs.
No class actions; no jury. YOU AND ESSENSIONS AGREE THAT DISPUTES WILL BE RESOLVED ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS — NOT AS A CLASS, COLLECTIVE, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION — AND YOU WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims or preside over any representative proceeding.
Exceptions. Either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court. Either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in court to protect intellectual-property rights. Claims of sexual assault or sexual harassment may be litigated in court at the claimant's election, as provided by federal law.
Costs. AAA filing and arbitrator fees will be allocated under the applicable rules; we will not seek to impose costs that would effectively deny you access to the forum.
Opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration section by sending written notice to us within 30 days after first accepting these Terms, stating your name, account email, and that you decline arbitration.
Severability. If any part of this section is found unenforceable, the remaining parts remain in effect; if the class-action waiver is found unenforceable, disputes will proceed in court on an individual basis.
22. Sanctions and Export Controls
You represent and warrant that you are not located in, resident in, or a national of any country subject to comprehensive US sanctions, and you are not named on any US government list of sanctioned or restricted parties (including the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals list). You will not access or use the Service in violation of US export-control or sanctions laws. We may suspend or terminate access if we reasonably suspect a violation of this section.
23. Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Arizona, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Subject to Section 21, any court proceedings will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Maricopa County, Arizona, and you consent to their jurisdiction.
24. General
Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable (or severed if modification is not possible), and the remaining provisions remain in full effect.
Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets.
Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any plan-specific terms presented at checkout, are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service.
No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later.
Notices. Formal notices to us must be sent to the contact address below; notices to you will be sent to the email associated with your account.
Force majeure. We are not liable for failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control.
Headings. Section headings are for convenience only.
25. Contact
Questions about these Terms: support@essensions.app · Arizona, USA.