Terms & Conditions

By accessing or using the website at droploud.com ("the Website") and any related services (collectively, "the Service") you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions ("Terms"), our Privacy Policy, our DMCA Policy, our Cookie Policy and our Acceptable Use Policy, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.

If you also upload tracks, configure download gates or list digital products for sale, you are additionally bound by the Creator Agreement. If you complete a download gate as a fan, you are additionally bound by the Gate Terms. If you purchase from the Shop, you are additionally bound by the Shop EULA & Refund Policy.

If you do not agree with any of these terms, you must not use the Service.

The Service, including its software, design, branding and database, is protected by applicable copyright, trademark and intellectual-property law of the United Arab Emirates and other jurisdictions.

2.1 The Service is offered to individuals aged 16 or older. If your country's age of digital consent is higher (for example 18 in some EU Member States for paid commercial transactions), the higher age applies to you.

2.2 You must be capable of forming a binding contract in your country of residence. Persons under 18 must not make any payment on the Service, purchase Shop items or Points, list products in the Shop, or accept the Creator Agreement. You must be at least 18 years old to upload tracks, sell content, or receive payouts.

2.3 If we learn we hold personal data of a child below the applicable minimum age we will delete it (see Privacy Policy).

3.1 You may need an account to upload tracks, list products, manage gate analytics, purchase points, buy in the Shop or follow other users. You must provide accurate, current and complete information at registration and keep it up to date.

3.2 You are responsible for safeguarding your credentials and for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately at security@droploud.com if you suspect unauthorised access. Accounts are personal and non-transferable.

3.3 We may suspend or terminate an account at our reasonable discretion (see §16).

Permission is granted to access and use the Service for personal, non-commercial purposes as a visitor, fan, artist or creator, subject to these Terms. This is the grant of a licence, not a transfer of title. Under this licence you may not:

• Modify, copy or create derivative works of the Website or its proprietary content (other than user-uploaded content used as the licence allows);
• Use the Service or its materials for commercial purposes not expressly permitted (Shop listings, promotional placements and creator payouts are the only currently permitted commercial uses);
• Use any automated system, bot, scraper or data-mining tool to access the Service;
• Attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile or disassemble any software on the Website;
• Remove any copyright, trademark or proprietary notices from the materials;
• Mirror or rehost any part of the Service on another server or platform without written permission;
• Spam other users, post unsolicited promotional material or send chain messages;
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Service, other users' accounts or connected systems;
• Upload or distribute any virus, malware or harmful code;
• Interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service.

This licence terminates automatically if you violate these restrictions and may be terminated by Droploud at any time. Upon termination you must destroy any downloaded materials in your possession that you are not lawfully entitled to keep.

5.1 You retain ownership of all music, artwork, samples, project templates, metadata and other material you upload to the Service ("Your Content").

5.2 By uploading Your Content you grant Droploud a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable licence (for the time Your Content is on the Service plus a reasonable wind-down for backups and legal records) to host, store, reproduce, transcode, stream previews of, display, distribute, deliver downloads of, and promote Your Content solely to operate and promote the Service, including generating waveform/preview data, chart entries, marketing thumbnails and embed widgets.

5.3 You acknowledge that other users of the Website may stream Your Content and may download it through download gates you configure, under the fan licence set out in the Gate Terms. Buyers of Shop products receive the licence stated in the Shop EULA & Refund Policy.

5.4 Rights warranty. For every item of Your Content you represent and warrant that:

• (a) you are the sole owner of Your Content, or you hold all licences, consents and permissions necessary to upload, distribute and authorise downloads or sales of it through Droploud;
• (b) Your Content does not contain any third-party copyrighted material (including uncleared samples, vocal recordings, loops, presets, stems or commercial releases) for which you lack a valid licence;
• (c) Your Content does not infringe any copyright, trademark, moral right, publicity or personality right, or other right of any third party;
• (d) all collaborators, featured performers and co-producers have authorised this distribution or sale and any revenue splits between you have been settled;
• (e) Your Content is not subject to any exclusive agreement (for example with a label, distributor or collecting society) that this upload would breach.

5.5 Indemnification. If you are a Creator or business user, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Droploud FZ-LLC and its officers, employees, contractors and agents from and against any claim, demand, loss, liability, damage, cost or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to:

• (a) Your Content, including any claim that it infringes a third-party copyright, trademark, moral, publicity or other right;
• (b) your breach of any representation, warranty or obligation in these Terms, including the §5.4 rights warranty;
• (c) your misuse of fan data received through gate analytics;
• (d) any tax, levy or collecting-society claim attributable to Your Content.

Droploud will notify you of any such claim, may participate in its defence with its own counsel, and you may not settle a claim in a way that imposes any obligation or admission on Droploud without Droploud's written consent. This indemnity does not apply to the extent a claim arises from Droploud's own negligence, wilful misconduct, or breach of these Terms.

Artists may configure free download gates that require fans to complete actions before the track is delivered. Configurable steps include providing an email address, following SoundCloud accounts, following the Droploud SoundCloud account, liking the SoundCloud track, reposting the SoundCloud track on the fan's SoundCloud profile, and following accounts on other social platforms. Detailed fan-facing terms (consent, data sharing, withdrawal of consent, the specific SoundCloud actions Droploud performs on the fan's behalf via OAuth) are in the Gate Terms.

Gate fan data (emails, social handles, completed actions) is shared with the artist whose gate was completed. The artist is bound by the Creator Agreement to use that data lawfully and to honour unsubscribe/erasure requests. Droploud is not responsible for an artist's separate use of fan data but will act on complaints and may terminate accounts that misuse it.

Approved creators may sell digital products (sample packs and project templates) through the Droploud Shop. All Shop sales are governed by the Shop EULA & Refund Policy (buyer side) and the Creator Agreement (creator side). In summary:

• All Shop products are instant digital downloads. No physical goods.
• Droploud acts as a limited payment-collection agent. The seller of record for the underlying creative work is the creator.
• All Shop sales are subject to the Shop EULA & Refund Policy. Digital downloads are final sale once delivered, except in cases of non-delivery, defective file, demonstrable mis-description or substantiated copyright ownership dispute (full conditions in the Shop EULA & Refund Policy).
• Creator revenue share is 50% of the Net Sale Amount as defined in the Creator Agreement (gross sale price less payment-processor fees, applicable taxes Droploud must remit, and refund or chargeback costs attributable to the sale). Detailed payout mechanics (cadence, method, withholding rules) are in the Creator Agreement.

Because Droploud's operator is a UAE (RAKEZ) entity and the Service is offered to consumers, UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2023 on Trading by Modern Technological Means and Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 on Consumer Protection apply to purchases made through the Service, in addition to any mandatory rights under your own country's law (§13.5, §19.3).

7A.1 Disclosures. Before you pay, we make available the price, any applicable fees and taxes, the product description, the seller's identity and licensing information, and these Terms together with the Shop EULA & Refund Policy (Decree-Law 14/2023, Art. 5–6). Each completed purchase generates an electronic receipt delivered to your account email.

7A.2 Complaints. You may raise a complaint at any time at shop@droploud.com (orders) or legal@droploud.com (anything else). We maintain a permanently available complaint channel, acknowledge complaints, give you a reference to track the matter, and aim to keep you updated until it is resolved (Decree-Law 14/2023, Art. 6). If we cannot resolve your complaint, UAE consumers may escalate to the UAE Ministry of Economy consumer-protection service (hotline 800 1222, moec.gov.ae) or the relevant emirate Department of Economic Development.

7A.3 Returns & refunds. UAE e-commerce law gives you the right to return or exchange a purchase that is defective, incomplete, damaged, not as described, or delivered so late as to be unusable (Decree-Law 14/2023, Art. 7). There is no general "change-of-mind" cooling-off period for digital goods under UAE law: digital downloads that have been delivered are treated as final sale, subject to the refund cases and the mandatory defect remedy set out in the Shop EULA & Refund Policy. Nothing in these Terms removes the mandatory repair / replace / refund remedy for defective goods under Consumer Protection Law 15/2020 (Art. 13).

Droploud operates a platform-credit system ("Points"). Points may be earned through platform activity (for example completing gate downloads) or purchased with real currency via Stripe or PayPal.

8.1 Nature. Points are a limited platform credit. They are not stored value, e-money or any regulated financial instrument; they cannot be cashed out, redeemed, converted to real currency or transferred between accounts.

8.2 Use. Points may be spent on items that admins have explicitly enabled for points unlock (selected Shop items), promotional placements and other features Droploud may add. Most paid Shop items are payable in USD via Stripe or PayPal only; whether a specific item accepts Points is decided by Droploud admin.

8.3 Refunds. Point purchases (USD payments to acquire Points) are non-refundable except where required by mandatory consumer-protection law (the termination refund of purchased unspent Points in §8.4 still applies). Points already spent on an item that is itself subsequently refunded may be restored at Droploud's discretion.

8.4 Expiry. Unused Points do not expire while your account is active. On termination, any Points you earned or received promotionally are forfeited. Any unspent Points you purchased with money will be refunded to your original payment method, less any amounts attributable to fraud, chargebacks, or sums you owe Droploud.

8.5 Pricing changes. Droploud may modify point pricing, earning rates and the list of items eligible for points unlock at any time.

9.1 Chart rankings on Droploud are determined by an automated scoring algorithm based primarily on weighted download activity. Charts are intended to surface genuine fan engagement.

9.2 Creators may pay for promotional placements (featured slots, highlighted listings). Promotional placements provide additional visibility but do not directly manipulate chart position or scoring. Droploud labels promoted content where required by law (for example as "Ad" or "Advertisement" if and when paid placement is offered).

9.3 Droploud reserves the right to remove tracks from charts, cancel promotional campaigns and suspend accounts for any activity that artificially inflates metrics, including bot downloads, click farms, self-downloading, coordinated download rings and points-economy abuse. Refunds for cancelled promotions due to Terms violations are at Droploud's sole discretion.

9.4 Buying a promotion. A promotional placement is sold as a service: a stated number of impressions of your track delivered across Droploud surfaces (the download-success page, Discover, charts and the home feed) for up to 60 days per campaign — whichever is reached first — automatically extended at no additional cost if impressions remain undelivered (§9.9). The price is shown in USD at checkout and is payable by card (Stripe) or PayPal; Droploud may also allow placements to be unlocked with Points (§8). Impressions are an estimated-reach metric, not a guarantee of plays, downloads, followers or any other outcome (§12). Each paid promotion generates an electronic receipt (§7A.1).

9.5 Immediate performance & right of withdrawal. Delivery of a promotion begins automatically as soon as your payment settles. By ticking the consent box at checkout you expressly request that performance of the service begins immediately and acknowledge that, if you are a consumer in the EU or UK, you lose your 14-day right of withdrawal once the service has been fully performed (all purchased impressions delivered). If you validly withdraw before the service is fully performed, you receive a refund proportionate to the impressions not yet delivered, to the extent mandatory law grants you that right — to exercise it, contact shop@droploud.com.

9.6 Undeliverable promotions: automatic refund. If, after payment, the promotion cannot be started — for example the track has since been removed or unpublished, another promotion is already active for the same track, or the amount charged does not match the quoted price — the promotion is not delivered and the payment is automatically refunded in full to the original payment method.

9.7 Ending a promotion early. You may end an active promotion at any time from your dashboard. Ending a promotion yourself does not trigger an automatic refund for undelivered impressions; any refund for early termination is limited to the mandatory consumer rights described in §9.5 and §13.5. Refunds for promotions cancelled by Droploud for Terms violations remain governed by §9.3.

9.8 Reposts & editorial features. Droploud may, at its sole discretion, repost or feature standout tracks on Droploud's own social channels (including its SoundCloud account) to showcase up-and-coming talent. Such reposts and features are a discretionary editorial bonus — they are not a paid service, not included in any promotional placement, and never guaranteed. No promotional placement entitles you to a repost; the price of a placement is for the impressions described in §9.4 only.

9.9 How impressions are measured & delivered. An impression is counted only when the delivering page reports the promoted card as viewable — at least 50% of the card visible for at least one continuous second — and served to Droploud's audience, which is largely anonymous (logged-out fans on the download-success page). Views that are not viewable, repeat views of the same promotion (counted at most once per download and once per account each hour), and an artist's logged-in views of their own promotion are not billed to the campaign. If the purchased impressions are not all delivered within the initial campaign window (§9.4), delivery continues automatically, at no additional cost, for up to 180 days from the start of the campaign, after which the campaign ends whether or not every impression was delivered. We do not promise that any particular number of impressions will be delivered, or that they will be delivered by any particular calendar date.

9.10 Cross-genre delivery. To help deliver the impressions described in §9.4 and §9.9, Droploud may show your promotional placement to fans across the surfaces described in §9.4 in genres adjacent to your track's genre when there is not enough inventory within its exact genre. Same-genre delivery always takes priority for the most prominent slots; adjacent-genre delivery only fills slots that would otherwise stay empty or repeat a placement already shown. All impressions — same-genre or adjacent — are counted and billed identically under §9.9, and this does not change the price of your placement.

10.1 Some Droploud pages (in particular download gate pages) display third-party advertising to support the free distribution model. Where ads are served by Google AdSense or comparable networks, cookies and ad measurement identifiers are loaded only after you accept non-essential cookies via the consent banner (see Cookie Policy).

10.2 Droploud does not endorse, control or accept liability for the content of third-party advertisements. Clicking an ad takes you to a third-party site governed by that site's terms and policies.

10.3 We will not place advertising inside a paid Shop item or paid promotional flow.

Droploud has not reviewed all sites or services linked from the Website and is not responsible for the content of any linked site or third-party service. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement. You acknowledge that Droploud does not control the actions of third-party services including but not limited to SoundCloud, Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Stripe, PayPal, Google or their respective APIs.

Use of any linked website or third-party service is at your own risk. You are responsible for reviewing the terms and privacy policies of any third-party platforms you interact with through the Service. Droploud is not liable for any changes, outages or disruptions to external platforms that affect download gates, social-network integrations or payment processing.

The materials and services on the Website are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. Droploud makes no warranties, express or implied, and disclaims all other warranties including, without limitation, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement of intellectual property.

Droploud does not warrant accuracy, reliability or specific outcomes (downloads, chart positions, sales volumes, revenue) for any user. Neither the Website nor any tool is endorsed by SoundCloud, Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or any other third-party platform, and all materials on those platforms remain the property of their respective owners. Droploud is not responsible for changes to any external platform that affect functionality of the Service.

13.1 Droploud is a hosting provider of user-generated content. Users are solely responsible for the content they upload. Droploud does not pre-screen or endorse user content.

13.2 In no event shall Droploud be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, consequential or punitive damages whatsoever, including but not limited to damages for loss of profits, loss of data, business interruption or any other commercial damages or losses arising out of or related to your use of or inability to use the Service, even if Droploud has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

13.3 Droploud's total cumulative liability shall not exceed the greater of EUR 50 (or USD equivalent), or the total amount paid by you to Droploud in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

13.4 Droploud shall not be liable for any issues arising from third-party integrations including payment processing (Stripe, PayPal), social-media platforms (SoundCloud, Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok), email delivery services, advertising networks or content-delivery networks.

13.5 Mandatory consumer protection. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law. Consumers resident in the United Arab Emirates (under Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 and Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2023), the European Union, the United Kingdom and other jurisdictions retain all mandatory rights provided under applicable local consumer-protection legislation.

You agree not to:

Full prohibited-conduct list is in the Acceptable Use Policy.

14A.1 Platform ownership. Everything that makes up the Service other than Your Content — including the software and source code, the page design, layout and look and feel, the text and copy, graphics, logos and artwork, the user interface, and the selection, arrangement and compilation of charts, rankings, download counts, statistics and other Service data — is owned by Droploud FZ-LLC or its licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark, database and other intellectual-property laws. Except for the limited use licence in §4, no right, title or interest in any part of the Service is transferred to you.

14A.2 No scraping or automated extraction. You may not scrape, crawl, spider, harvest, mirror, frame or use any automated system or data-mining tool to access, extract, copy or index the Service or any data on it, except through interfaces we expressly provide or as a public search engine operating in accordance with our robots directives.

14A.3 No cloning. You may not reproduce, copy, republish, redistribute or create derivative works of the Service's design, layout, source code, page markup, copy or artwork, or of any substantial part of the compiled database of charts, rankings or other Service data, whether by manual copying or by automated means.

14A.4 Enforcement. We monitor for unauthorised copies of the Service and will enforce these rights, including takedown notices under the DMCA — Droploud's Designated Agent is registered with the US Copyright Office (Registration No. DMCA-1073085) — cease-and-desist action, and any other remedy available under the law chosen in §19 (UAE, Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah).

If you believe your copyrighted work has been uploaded to Droploud without authorisation, refer to our DMCA Policy for instructions on filing a takedown notice. EU users may also file claims under DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/790 and the Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) by contacting our copyright agent at dmca@droploud.com and specifying "EU Copyright Infringement Claim" in the subject line.

Knowingly materially misrepresenting that material is infringing can result in liability for damages. On a valid notice Droploud will act expeditiously to disable access to or remove the reported content. Counter-notifications are available as described in the DMCA Policy. Users may not re-upload content that has been removed pursuant to a valid claim.

Droploud operates a three-strike repeat-infringer policy described in full in the DMCA Policy. Three valid strikes result in account termination.

16.1 By you. You may stop using the Service and request account deletion at any time by contacting privacy@droploud.com. Pending shop payouts for non-disputed completed sales remain payable to you.

16.2 By Droploud. Droploud may suspend or terminate your account, with or without notice, where:

• (a) you materially breach these Terms, the Creator Agreement, the Acceptable Use Policy, or any other companion document;
• (b) you accumulate three valid strikes under the Repeat-Infringer Policy (DMCA Policy);
• (c) you engage in fraud, chargeback abuse or unlawful conduct;
• (d) Droploud is required to do so by law or by a payment processor.

16.3 Effect of termination. Upon termination: (a) your licence to use the Service immediately ceases; (b) Your Content may be removed; (c) any Points you earned or received promotionally are forfeited, and any unspent Points you purchased with money will be refunded to your original payment method, less any amounts attributable to fraud, chargebacks, or sums you owe Droploud; (d) you must destroy any materials obtained from the Service that you are not lawfully entitled to keep.

16.4 Survival. Sections that by their nature survive termination remain in force: Content Rights (§5), Indemnification (§5.5), Disclaimer (§12), Limitation of Liability (§13), Governing Law (§19).

Droploud may revise these Terms at any time. Material changes will be communicated to registered users by email and posted on the Website at least 30 days before they take effect, except where a shorter notice period is required by law, security or operational necessity. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance. It is your responsibility to review these Terms periodically.

Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment or agency relationship between you and Droploud, except for the limited payment-collection agency expressly created in these Terms and the Creator Agreement. Creators using the Service are independent contractors.

19.1 These Terms are governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates as applied in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, without regard to conflict-of-law provisions.

19.2 Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, save that Droploud reserves the right to bring proceedings against you in the courts of your country of residence for IP-infringement or unpaid amounts.

19.3 Mandatory consumer rights. Consumers resident in the European Union, United Kingdom and other jurisdictions retain all mandatory rights provided under applicable local consumer-protection legislation and may bring proceedings before the competent courts of their country of residence to the extent allowed by law. UAE consumers retain their rights under Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 and Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2023, including the complaint and escalation routes in §7A (Ministry of Economy, hotline 800 1222, and the relevant Department of Economic Development).

19.4 We participate in good-faith pre-litigation discussion. Please email legal@droploud.com first; we aim to respond within 30 days.

20.1 Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, DMCA Policy, Cookie Policy, Acceptable Use Policy and (where applicable) the Creator Agreement, Gate Terms and Shop EULA & Refund Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Droploud concerning the Service and supersede all prior agreements and understandings.

20.2 Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect.

20.3 No waiver. Droploud's failure to enforce any right or provision shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.

20.4 Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign these Terms to an affiliate or to a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets.

20.5 Force majeure. Droploud is not liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by circumstances beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, riots, embargoes, acts of civil or military authorities, fire, floods, accidents, network infrastructure failures, strikes, or shortages of transportation, facilities, fuel, energy, labour or materials.

20.6 Third-party platform acceptance. By connecting your social-media accounts through the Service (SoundCloud, Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Google) you acknowledge that you have accepted the respective platforms' terms of service and privacy policies.

Legal questions about these Terms: legal@droploud.com

Privacy / data-subject requests: privacy@droploud.com

Copyright takedowns: dmca@droploud.com

Security incidents: security@droploud.com

Operator: Droploud FZ-LLC.

Registered address: Droploud FZ-LLC, VUNE3361, Compass Building, Al Hulaila, Al Hulaila Industrial Zone-FZ, Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. Commercial Register No. 0000004089442 · RAKEZ Licence No. 17008872.

These Terms are read together with the documents below. Each is binding to the extent it applies to you.

• Privacy Policy: how we collect, use and share personal data.
• Cookie Policy: full inventory of cookies and local storage.
• DMCA Policy: takedown procedure and repeat-infringer rules.
• Acceptable Use Policy: full prohibited-conduct list.
• Gate Terms: fan-facing terms for download-gate completion.
• Shop EULA & Refund Policy: buyer-side licence and refund rules.
• Creator Agreement: creator-side payout, tax and data-use rules.