Music and Audio Rights Policy
This Music and Audio Rights Policy (the "Music Policy") forms part of the SocialGryd Terms and Conditions and the Acceptable Use Policy. It explains how music and audio rights work on SocialGryd, what you are allowed to upload, what is prohibited without a licence, and how rights holders can send a takedown notice.
1. No Platform Music Library
SocialGryd does not operate an in-app music library and does not provide any catalogue of licensed tracks for users to add to posts, reels, or other content. Unlike TikTok, Instagram Reels, Snapchat, or Facebook, we have not entered into large-scale licensing agreements with major or independent record labels, music publishers, PROs, neighbouring-rights societies, or mechanical-rights collection agencies.
This means:
- There is no "add music" feature that comes with rights cleared for you.
- Adding a song you did not create or licence is not covered by any agreement we hold. The liability for that upload sits with you, not SocialGryd.
- Techniques such as muting/ducking the offending audio, fingerprint-based blocking, or Content-ID-style monetisation are not currently available on SocialGryd. If you upload infringing music, the path is takedown, not licence-matching.
2. No Blanket PRO or Label Licence
SocialGryd has no blanket or umbrella licence with any of the following (non-exhaustive): PRS for Music (UK), PPL (UK), ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR, MLC (US), GEMA (Germany), SACEM (France), SIAE (Italy), STIM (Sweden), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), SUISA (Switzerland), SABAM (Belgium), AKM (Austria), APRA AMCOS (Australia/NZ), IMRO (Ireland), JASRAC (Japan), KOMCA (South Korea), SADAIC (Argentina), ECAD (Brazil), SAMRO (South Africa), or any equivalent collective-management organisation. We have no direct licence with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, their subsidiaries and affiliates, any independent record label, or any music publisher.
SocialGryd does not publicly perform, synchronise, reproduce, distribute, or make available any recorded music on its own account. Where music appears on the Platform, it appears because a user uploaded it. The user is the party performing the copyright-relevant acts.
3. The Two Layers of Music Rights
Recorded music carries two independent rights stacks. To use a recorded song lawfully in a social-media post, you generally need to clear both — one does not cover the other:
| Right | What it covers | Who owns it (typically) | What a licence is called |
|---|---|---|---|
| Composition / publishing right | The song itself — melody, lyrics, structure | Songwriter or music publisher; collected by PROs and mechanical societies | "Sync licence" (for use in video) and/or "mechanical licence" (for reproduction) |
| Sound-recording / master right | A specific recorded performance of the song | Record label or independent artist; collected by neighbouring-rights societies for broadcast/public performance | "Master-use licence" or "master clearance" |
If you record your own cover of a song, you own the master but you still need a composition licence (mechanical and/or sync, depending on the use) unless one of the narrow statutory exceptions applies. If you buy a recording on a streaming service or download platform, that purchase is a personal-listening licence and does not extend to uploading the recording to SocialGryd.
4. What You May Upload
You may upload audio or music on SocialGryd only where one or more of the following applies:
- You created it yourself and you own or control all rights (composition and recording), with no uncleared samples, and all featured performers have consented.
- Royalty-free or production libraries used in line with the library's specific licence terms, with any required attribution. Common examples include Epidemic Sound, Artlist, Musicbed, Soundstripe, Storyblocks, Audiio, and similar services. The licence must permit posting to third-party social platforms; some library licences restrict use to the original licensee's own channels — check before uploading.
- Creative Commons or public-domain works used in strict compliance with the specific CC licence (attribution, share-alike, non-commercial where applicable) or with verifiable public-domain status in the territory where the content will be viewable.
- Content under a bespoke licence that you have negotiated directly with the rights holder, covering the exact uses you need (upload to SocialGryd, territory, duration, platform visibility, any commercial use, transformation, and sub-licensing to the Platform as set out in Terms §5b).
- A cover or performance of a song where you have obtained the required mechanical and, for video, sync licences — typically from the music publisher or via a mechanical-rights society. The statutory compulsory mechanical licence in the US under 17 U.S.C. §115 generally does not cover sync use on social media; a sync licence is still needed.
5. What Is Prohibited Without a Licence
You must not upload, stream, publicly perform, or otherwise use the following on SocialGryd unless you have all required licences in place:
- Major-label or independent-label sound recordings (including but not limited to catalogue from UMG, Sony, Warner, BMG, Beggars Group, Merlin members, and all sub-labels and imprints).
- Recordings accessed through Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, SoundCloud Go, or any other streaming service — subscription to those services is a personal-listening licence only.
- Ripped audio from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or any other social platform, even where the source user had platform-library rights there. Those platforms' licences are platform-specific and do not transfer to SocialGryd.
- Samples, loops, vocal chops, drum hits, and breaks unless your sample pack's licence explicitly permits social-media publication (many producer-focused packs permit commercial release only within a released track, not as raw playback).
- Mashups, remixes, bootlegs, edits, flips, and extended versions of other people's recordings.
- Cover versions performed or recorded by you, without the required composition licences.
- DJ mixes, continuous mixes, sets, or radio-show-style recordings that use other people's masters, regardless of duration or attribution.
- Recordings of live concerts, festivals, club nights, theatre productions, or other events where the performance rights are held by a third party.
- AI-generated audio trained on, or substantially reproducing, identifiable copyrighted works, voices, or performances.
- Audio that impersonates a real person's voice (including deceased persons, where post-mortem publicity or likeness rights apply) without their documented consent, or where the use would mislead a reasonable listener.
- Audio that falls within prohibited-content categories (hate, harassment, CSAE, terrorist content, NCII, etc.) listed in the Acceptable Use Policy.
6. Public Performance at Events and Venues
SocialGryd Events is a discovery and listing service. Event hosts, venues, and partners are solely responsible for any music licensing required to play recorded music or stage live-music performances at their events. This typically requires:
- In the UK: a PRS for Music licence (composition) and a PPL licence (sound recordings), often combined as TheMusicLicence.
- In the US: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and, where applicable, GMR blanket licences for composition performance; neighbouring rights for digital-transmission of recordings.
- In the EU: the relevant national PRO (GEMA, SACEM, SIAE, BUMA/STEMRA, STIM, etc.) for composition and the national neighbouring-rights society for recordings.
- Elsewhere: the equivalent local collective-management organisation(s).
If an event host uploads to SocialGryd a recording or livestream from an event where music is played, that upload is a separate act requiring separate clearance — a venue-level PRO licence does not extend to upload or rebroadcast on SocialGryd.
7. Creator Hub and Imported Content
Where a creator connects YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or another external platform via the Creator Hub, the metrics and content surfaced on SocialGryd remain the creator's responsibility for music clearance. Platform-library music that the external platform cleared for use on its own service does not carry over to SocialGryd; if that content is re-uploaded, embedded, or otherwise made available on SocialGryd and contains other people's music, the creator is responsible for separate clearance.
8. Marketplace Campaign Deliverables
Where a Brand commissions a Creator through the Marketplace, the campaign agreement between the Brand and the Creator should specify music licensing. In the absence of a specific provision, the Creator warrants to the Brand and to SocialGryd that any music or audio in the deliverable has been fully cleared for the agreed uses, territories, and channels, and the Creator indemnifies both the Brand and SocialGryd against any claim arising from music that was not cleared. The Marketplace default IP position is set out in Marketplace Terms Section 8.
9. Takedown of Infringing Music
If you are a rights holder (or an authorised representative) and believe audio or music on SocialGryd infringes your rights, you may send a notice under either or both of the following routes, depending on your jurisdiction and the type of infringement:
- DMCA (United States): use the procedure in our DMCA and IP Takedown policy. Send to legal@socialgryd.com with all six elements required by 17 U.S.C. §512(c).
- DSA Article 16 (EU): use the Report Illegal Content form, category "Intellectual-property infringement". You will receive an acknowledgement within 24 hours and an actioning decision within 7 days per our SLAs.
- Other jurisdictions: send a structured notice to legal@socialgryd.com identifying the work, the infringement, and your authority to act.
We action valid notices within the SLAs set in our Transparency Report. We forward counter-notifications to the original notifier as required by law, and we preserve limited metadata for the duration required by applicable content-preservation law.
10. Audio Fingerprinting
SocialGryd does not currently operate audio-fingerprinting or content-recognition services (such as Pex, Audible Magic, YouTube Content ID-style systems, or proactive scanning against commercial music fingerprint databases) to detect uploaded music automatically. Rights enforcement is currently notice-and-action only. We may adopt fingerprinting or automated matching in future, in which case we will update this Music Policy and the AI and Automated Decision-Making Notice, provide at least 30 days' advance notice of the change, and make the matching logic auditable under Article 15 of the DSA.
11. Repeat-Infringer Policy
We operate a repeat-infringer policy in line with 17 U.S.C. §512(i) (DMCA) and Article 23 of the DSA. Accounts that receive three or more substantiated copyright or neighbouring-rights notices within any 12-month rolling window are eligible for suspension or termination. We consider counter-notifications, the overall context of the account, and any pattern of manifestly unfounded notices against the account before taking irreversible action. The repeat-infringer tracker is part of the abuse-score system described in Terms Section 18.
12. AI-Generated Music and Voice Cloning
AI-generated audio is governed by the same rules as any other audio. The fact that a track was generated by a model does not create new rights in material that was copied, sampled, or substantially reproduced from protected works. If you use a generative-music tool:
- Read the tool's terms: some forbid commercial or social-media redistribution; some require attribution; some disclaim all warranties as to training-data clearance.
- Do not upload output that clones a specific artist's voice or style to the point that a reasonable listener would mistake it for the real artist, without that artist's documented consent.
- Voice-clone content that impersonates a real person for deceptive purposes is prohibited by the AUP regardless of the music context.
13. Publicity, Likeness, and Neighbouring Rights
Independently of copyright, many jurisdictions recognise a personality, publicity, image, or likeness right in a person's voice, face, name, and performing identity. These rights apply to audio content too — for example, a recording that clones a known artist's voice may infringe publicity rights even where the composition is public domain. Neighbouring rights (rights of performers, phonogram producers, broadcasters) also apply independently of author's copyright in the EU and many other jurisdictions. Clearing only the composition is not enough if a recorded performance or broadcast is also used.
14. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify SocialGryd, its affiliates, and its personnel against any claim, damages, penalty, cost, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from audio or music you upload to the Platform in breach of this Music Policy, to the extent permitted by applicable mandatory consumer-protection law. This clause sits within the broader indemnity framework in Terms Section 20 and is subject to the same limits.
15. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Music Policy, for example if we introduce fingerprinting, launch a licensed music library, enter into collective-management or label agreements, or adapt to changes in law. Non-material edits (clarifications, typo fixes, updated contact details) take effect on publication. Material changes take effect 30 days after notice to active accounts and a change-log entry at /transparency.
16. Contact
Copyright and music-rights takedown: legal@socialgryd.com (preferred).
General queries about this policy: support@socialgryd.com.
Business / catalogue licensing enquiries (for rights holders wishing to explore a licensed music feature on SocialGryd): partners@socialgryd.com.
SocialGryd Limited, Narva mnt 5, Kesklinna linnaosa, Tallinn, Harju maakond 10117, Estonia.