How to stay in good standing at Soundrop
Here at Soundrop, we can refuse content for any reason. Here’s the thing though, our company isn’t successful unless our artists are successful. We never want to remove a user from our service, but when we do it’s necessary to keep our service available for everyone who wants to use it.
In order to stay in good standing at Soundrop, keep your music live, and your account active, you'll want to avoid these 5 sure-fire(d) ways of getting fired from Soundrop.
1.) Fraud
Soundrop has a zero-tolerance policy for fraud. This means we will remove your account and all submissions immediately if we detect that you are engaging in fraudulent behavior. Any funds in your account will be frozen and we will also close any additional accounts you make.
Fraud is a broad term, so what does it mean? Broken down into the most basic terms, it just means you aren’t allowed to trick us or our partners as to who you are, the content you are uploading or the revenue you earn. This includes:
- Artificial Streaming: using bots or humans to stream your own music to gain money and / or followers. This includes using service that guarantees you streams / plays on a partner. These services use bot farms to stream your content and using them will result in a permanent ban from Soundrop and from partner sites. JUST SAY NO
- Financial Fraud: Using stolen credit cards on our service or to purchase your own music (yes, this is real)
- Grossly misrepresenting who you are or what your music is: Don’t upload other artists’ music, don’t pirate music, don’t use artist names that would make people think you’re someone you’re not. Just be yourself!
2.) Copyright / Trademark Infringement
We may close an account using copyright or trademark infringement. This includes things like artist names, audio and art. If we notice that you’re using copyrighted or trademarked content, we will ask you to provide rights, or change your release. Failure to do so will result in your account being closed.
However, if our content approval team does not notice the violation and a partner asks us to remove content because of a rights dispute, we will close your account. It’s always best to contact a music attorney if you are unsure if you have the rights to use certain content. If you’re not sure if you have rights, don’t risk it!
3.) Abuse
Here at Soundrop, we want to hear when something isn’t working right for you, or if you’re not getting the help you need. We understand that your music is your hard work and should be treated with the utmost respect. However, we ask that you remember that we are people that are doing our best to help you. Sometimes we do have to break bad news or admit that we made a mistake. In those cases, we ask that if you do need to call us on something, that’s it’s done with the same respect and the expectation that we’re trying to help.
Our staff is great people and we don’t want them having to suffer written abuse because of a mistake or issue they’re trying to help remedy. We’re not saying that it’s not ok to be frustrated, communicate the urgency of a situation, or to even call out when you may not be receiving the support you need. What we consider abusive is cursing at, demeaning or doxing our staff or otherwise engaging in behavior that would be considered harassment.
What’s OK:
- “I’m really frustrated at this situation, I missed my release date because you made a mistake. How can we fix this?”
- “I don’t think you read my email carefully. What I’m asking is…..”
- Contacting our official socials to ask about a situation and / or policy
What’s Not OK
- “You’re an idiot, you completely ruined my release. I’m going to contact your manager and get you fired”
- Contacting staff on personal social media accounts
- Harassing/spamming our official socials / asking followers to harass/spam our official socials
- Asking for our staff's personal information
This also extends to our community. We have an awesome community of artists that get along great. We'd hate to see that deteriorate due to abusive behavior. When interacting with our community, please be kind.
If we feel like something has crossed the line, we will let you know and do our best to help fix the problem. If we do notice a pattern of this type of behavior, we may let you know that we’re not the distributor for you and remove your content from our service.
4.) Hate Speech
Soundrop does not allow hate speech on our service, period. It’s not negotiable. We will not assist in releasing music out to the world that intentionally promotes violence against persons of a specific race, color, religion, nationality, gender identity, or sexual orientation, or that uses symbols or words related to movements that promote this type of violence.
What about free speech? Soundrop is a private company as are our partners. While free speech may apply to what you want to say in public, private companies reserve the right to choose how their platforms are used. Both Soundrop and our partners do not want hate content on their platforms and we don’t accept it.
We do accept content that is political along almost all ideologies if it does not engage in hate speech/actions. Whether you think taxation is theft, or that capitalism is evil, we still think you’re pretty rad as long as you respect other’s existence.
In the immortal words of The Dead Kennedys (Parental Advisory: Explicit Content)
That's all! We <3 you all. Thanks for being you!