Terms of Use

These Terms of Use ("Terms") are a binding contract between you and The DemoStop, LLC ("DemoStop", "we", "us" or "our"). They govern your access to and use of thedemostop.app, our mobile and desktop applications, and every feature, service and piece of content offered through them (together, the "Services"), whether you are signed in or just browsing.

By creating an account, ticking the box that says you accept these Terms, or otherwise accessing or using the Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated here by reference. If you do not agree, you must not use the Services.

If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of a company, band, venue or other organisation, you represent that you have the authority to bind that organisation, and "you" means that organisation.

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you are under the age of majority where you live (18 in most of the United States), you may only use the Services with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian, who agrees to be bound by these Terms with you.

You must be at least 18 years old to sell anything, charge for anything, receive a payout, enter into a booking, or hold a paid membership.

You may not use the Services if you have previously been removed by us, or if you are barred from receiving services under applicable law, including United States sanctions and export-control rules.

We do not knowingly allow anyone under 13 to create an account. If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, we will delete it. See section 12 of the Privacy Policy.

You agree to give accurate information when you sign up and to keep it current. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account, and for keeping your password secure. Tell us immediately at thedemostop@gmail.com if you believe someone else has accessed it.

You may not sell, rent, share or transfer your account, and you may not create an account on behalf of someone else without their permission. Impersonating another artist, venue, band or organisation is a serious breach of these Terms.

A band or group account on DemoStop is a distinct account with its own profile. Whoever creates it is responsible for it, including for the conduct of anyone given access to it.

DemoStop is a discovery and booking platform. We give artists, venues, industry professionals and fans a place to find each other. We provide the software; the members provide the talent, the rooms, the work and the deals.

We are not a party to your arrangements

When you apply for a gig, post an open call, accept a booking, join a collaboration or agree a fee, that agreement is between you and the other member. DemoStop is not a party to it, does not guarantee it, and is not responsible for its performance. We are not your agent, manager, employer, promoter, booker or union.

We do not vet, interview, background-check or endorse members, and a profile on DemoStop is not a recommendation. You are responsible for your own due diligence before you engage with anyone, take a booking, travel to a venue, or hand over money or work.

Meeting people in person

Gigs, auditions and collaborations often mean meeting strangers, sometimes late at night and sometimes alone. Please use ordinary caution: confirm details in writing, tell someone where you are going, and meet in public where you can. We cannot supervise these meetings and we are not liable for what happens at them.

This section applies to everything you put on DemoStop: audio, video, images, profile text, song titles, messages, comments, course material, live streams, band and venue information — anything at all ("Your Content").

5.1 This is a music platform, and we know what that means

Music, comedy and performance are not polite art forms, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Profanity, explicit lyrics, drug and alcohol references, violent or sexual subject matter in lyrics, dark or confrontational comedy, provocative fashion, and suggestive performance are all permitted where they are a genuine part of the work. You do not need to sanitise your art to be here.

Permitting mature artistic content is not the same as permitting anything. The limits in 5.2 are absolute, and where the line falls between them is our judgement to make.

5.2 What is never allowed

You may not post, upload, stream, send or link to any of the following, in any part of the Services, including in private messages:

• Child sexual abuse material, or any sexualised depiction of a minor, real or generated. There is no artistic exception to this and it will be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and to law enforcement.
• Nudity and sexually explicit material. This includes exposed genitals, exposed female nipples, depictions of sexual acts, pornography, and content whose evident purpose is sexual arousal. Suggestive performance and revealing stage clothing are permitted; nudity and explicit sexual content are not.
• Sexual content involving anyone who has not consented, including image-based sexual abuse, upskirt or voyeur material, and intimate images shared without permission.
• Hate speech. Content that attacks, degrades, dehumanises, mocks or calls for the exclusion of people because of race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, religion, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or serious medical condition. Slurs aimed at these groups are not permitted, including in lyrics.
• Praise, support or representation of hate groups, terrorist organisations or violent extremist movements, or their symbols and manifestos.
• Threats of violence, incitement to violence, and content celebrating or encouraging violent acts against a person or a group.
• Harassment and bullying. Targeted abuse, pile-ons, sexual harassment, stalking, and unwanted repeated contact after someone has asked you to stop.
• Doxxing. Publishing someone's home address, phone number, private email, financial details, government identification or other private information without their consent.
• Content that encourages suicide, self-harm or disordered eating, or that mocks people who experience them.
• Depictions of gratuitous gore or animal cruelty presented for shock value.
• Illegal activity: sale of drugs, weapons, stolen goods, counterfeit items, or human trafficking of any kind.
• Fraud and scams, including fake gigs, advance-fee demands, pay-to-audition schemes, fake ticket sales, phishing, and any attempt to move a member off-platform in order to defraud them.
• Spam, bulk unsolicited messaging, engagement manipulation, artificial claps or plays, and bot activity.
• Malware, viruses, or anything designed to damage, disable or gain unauthorised access to any system.
• Impersonation of another person, artist, band, venue or organisation, and false claims of affiliation, endorsement or verification.
• Content you do not have the rights to (see section 7), and content that violates anyone's privacy, publicity or contractual rights.

5.3 Our right to remove content and close accounts

We may remove, hide, restrict, demonetise, refuse to publish or delete any content, and suspend, restrict, ban or delete any account, at our sole discretion, at any time, with or without notice, and with or without giving a reason. We do not have to prove that a rule was broken, and our judgement about what is offensive, harmful, misleading or bad for the community is final.

We are not obliged to monitor the Services, and we do not review everything that is posted. But we have the right to review anything, and we may act on a report, on our own initiative, on a rights-holder's complaint, or on the instruction of law enforcement or a court.

Depending on what happened, we may: remove the content; limit who can see it; restrict features on your account; withhold or reverse a payout; refuse a refund where your own breach caused the problem; suspend you temporarily; ban you permanently; or report you to the authorities. We may keep copies of removed content where we need it for legal, safety or enforcement reasons.

We may act on the whole account, not just the item. If we close your account, we may also close other accounts we reasonably believe belong to you, and you may not create a new one without our permission.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable to you or anyone else for removing content, restricting or closing an account, or declining to act on a report.

5.4 Reporting

If you see something that breaks these rules, use the report control on the item, or write to thedemostop@gmail.com. Reports about copyright go to the process in section 8. Reports involving a child's safety, a credible threat, or an immediate risk to life should also go to your local emergency services — we are not an emergency service and we cannot respond at that speed.

6.1 You keep ownership

Your Content is yours. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of your music, recordings, compositions, images, video, writing or performances to us, and we do not claim a share of your copyright, your masters or your publishing.

6.2 The licence you give us

To run the platform at all, we need your permission to handle your files. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable and sublicensable licence to host, store, copy, encode, transcode, reformat, cache, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, excerpt and stream Your Content, and to create thumbnails, previews, waveforms and audio-only versions of it, solely for the purposes of:

• operating, providing and improving the Services;
• showing your work to the members and visitors you have chosen to show it to, through search, discovery, profiles, rails, playlists and feeds;
• promoting the Services and your presence on them, including in our own marketing, social posts and press material, with attribution to you;
• complying with the law and enforcing these Terms.

The sublicensing right exists so we can use ordinary infrastructure — content delivery networks, video encoders, storage and hosting providers. It is not permission to license your music to third parties for their own use, to place it in advertising for other companies, or to sell it on your behalf, and we will not do those things without asking you.

6.3 How long the licence lasts

The licence ends when you delete the content or close your account, except that: (a) we may keep backup and log copies for a reasonable period; (b) we may keep copies where the law requires it or where they are needed for a legal claim, a safety investigation or an enforcement decision; and (c) copies that other members have already saved, downloaded or reshared within the Services under a licence you granted them are not recalled.

6.4 What you promise about your content

Every time you post something, you confirm that:

• you own it, or you have every licence, permission, consent and release needed to post it and to grant the licence in 6.2;
• any samples, interpolations, beats, session performances, features, stems, artwork and video in it are cleared, and any collaborators, co-writers and performers have agreed to it being posted;
• you have permission from every identifiable person in it, including for their name, image, voice and likeness;
• posting it does not breach any agreement you have with a label, publisher, manager, PRO, venue or anyone else;
• it complies with section 5 and with all applicable law.

Cover versions are welcome on DemoStop, and you are responsible for the rights in them. Tagging a recording as a cover, or crediting the original writer, does not by itself give you the right to publish it, and does not transfer that responsibility to us.

6.5 Feedback

If you send us ideas, suggestions or feedback about the product, we may use them freely, without obligation, payment or attribution.

The Services themselves — the software, design, layout, text, graphics, logos, the DemoStop and The DemoStop names and marks, and the structure and selection of the databases and taxonomies behind discovery — belong to The DemoStop, LLC or our licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark and other laws.

We give you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Services as they are intended to be used. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, reverse-engineer or create derivative works from any part of the Services; scrape, crawl, harvest or bulk-download content or member data; use automated systems to access the Services beyond ordinary use; remove proprietary notices; or use our name or marks without written permission.

We respect copyright and we expect our members to. If you believe something on DemoStop infringes a copyright you own or control, send a notice to our designated agent:

Copyright Agent, The DemoStop, LLC — thedemostop@gmail.com — 22770 Yellow Button Lane, Alva, FL 33920, United States

Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), your notice must include:

1. your physical or electronic signature;
2. identification of the copyrighted work you say has been infringed;
3. identification of the material you say is infringing, with enough detail for us to find it (a direct link is best);
4. your address, telephone number and email address;
5. a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent or the law;
6. a statement that the information in your notice is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or authorised to act on the owner's behalf.

We will remove or disable material we reasonably believe is infringing, and we will tell the member who posted it. They may send a counter-notice under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g), in which case we may restore the material after 10 to 14 business days unless you tell us you have filed a court action.

Repeat infringers have their accounts terminated. Misrepresenting that material is infringing can make you liable for damages, including costs and legal fees, under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f).

Gig posts, open calls, collaboration posts, event listings and booking requests are member content. We do not verify that a gig is real, that a fee will be paid, that a venue exists, that a date is free, or that anyone is who they say they are.

You are responsible for agreeing your own terms — fee, times, load-in, equipment, cancellation, deposit, travel, accommodation, insurance — and for putting them somewhere you can rely on. Messages on DemoStop are a record of what was said, not a contract we will enforce for you.

You are responsible for your own tax, licensing, permits, insurance, work eligibility and employment status. Nothing on DemoStop makes you our employee, contractor, partner or agent.

Never send money to someone you have not verified, and treat any request to pay for an audition, a slot or a 'guaranteed' placement as a scam. Report it to us.

Some features require a paid membership. Prices are shown before you subscribe. Payments are processed by Stripe; we do not store your full card details.

Memberships renew automatically at the end of each billing period — monthly or yearly, whichever you chose — at the then-current price, until you cancel. You can cancel at any time from your subscription settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for, and you keep access until then.

Except where the law requires otherwise, membership fees are not refundable for a period that has already started, and we do not give partial refunds for unused time. Members who joined on an earlier plan keep the price they signed up on for as long as that subscription remains active and uninterrupted.

We may change prices. We will give you notice before a change affects you, and a price change takes effect at your next renewal, so you always have the chance to cancel first. Taxes are your responsibility where they apply.

If a payment fails we may retry it and may suspend paid features until it succeeds. Chargebacks and unpaid balances may lead to loss of access.

If you sell music, courses, tickets or other items through DemoStop, or earn through subscriptions or referrals, payouts are handled by Stripe Connect. You must complete Stripe's onboarding and identity verification, and you agree to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement as well as these Terms. We cannot pay you until Stripe has verified you.

We charge a platform fee on transactions, shown to you before you sell. Fee rates may change on notice. Stripe's own processing fees also apply.

You are the seller of your own items. You are responsible for describing them accurately, delivering them, honouring the refund rights of your buyers, and accounting for your own tax.

We may delay, withhold, reverse or refuse a payout where we reasonably suspect fraud, a rights problem, a breach of these Terms, an unusual chargeback pattern, or where the law or Stripe requires it. If a refund or chargeback happens after you have been paid, we may recover the amount from your balance or from you directly.

Refunds on digital purchases follow the refund policy shown at the point of sale. Where you have waived a statutory right of withdrawal in order to get immediate access to a download, that waiver is recorded with the purchase.

If you teach on DemoStop Academy, you are responsible for your course content, for the accuracy of what you claim it teaches, and for delivering the lessons you promised. Once a student is enrolled, the lesson structure of a course is locked, so plan it before you publish. Removing a course that people have paid for is not permitted.

Live streams are subject to the same content standards as everything else, and are harder to take back — a stream that breaks section 5 may be cut without warning and may cost you the feature or the account.

Messaging exists so members can arrange work. Do not use it for unsolicited promotion, bulk outreach, chain messages or harassment. We may scan messages for spam, fraud and safety reasons, and we may read a conversation when investigating a report.

You agree not to:

• interfere with, disrupt or place unreasonable load on the Services or the networks behind them;
• probe, scan or test the vulnerability of any system, or breach or circumvent any security or authentication measure;
• access any part of the Services, any account, or any data you are not authorised to access;
• use bots, scrapers or automated means to collect member data or content;
• circumvent paywalls, access controls, drip schedules or download protection;
• create accounts by automated means, or evade a ban;
• manipulate metrics, rankings, reviews or discovery;
• resell, sublicense or commercially exploit access to the Services.

Good-faith security research is welcome. If you find a vulnerability, tell us at thedemostop@gmail.com before you tell anyone else, and do not access other people's data while investigating.

The Services rely on third parties — including Stripe for payments, Supabase for data and authentication, Vercel for hosting, Bunny and Cloudflare for video delivery, Mapbox for location lookup and Google for optional sign-in. Your use of those features may also be subject to their terms.

Links to other websites are provided for convenience. We do not control them, we do not endorse them, and we are not responsible for their content or their handling of your information.

We are building this product actively. We may add, change, suspend or remove features at any time, and we may limit or discontinue the Services in whole or in part without liability to you. We will try to give notice of significant changes where we reasonably can.

We do not promise that the Services will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, or that any content will be preserved. Keep your own copies of your masters and any work you cannot afford to lose.

You may stop using DemoStop and delete your account at any time from your settings.

We may suspend or terminate your access at any time, with or without notice, for any reason, including a breach of these Terms, a risk to other members, a legal requirement, or a prolonged period of inactivity.

When an account ends: your paid membership stops renewing; content you posted may be removed; entitlements to things you bought may be lost where we are not able to keep providing them; and any balance owed to you is settled subject to section 11. Sections that by their nature should survive — including 5.3, 6.2, 6.3, 7, 11, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 24 — survive termination.

THE SERVICES AND ALL CONTENT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, THAT THEY WILL BE AVAILABLE OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, THAT THE SERVICES ARE FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT ANY CONTENT OR MEMBER IS ACCURATE, LAWFUL, RELIABLE OR TRUSTWORTHY. WE MAKE NO PROMISE THAT YOU WILL GET WORK, BOOKINGS, EXPOSURE, FOLLOWERS, SALES OR INCOME FROM USING DEMOSTOP.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER THE DEMOSTOP, LLC NOR ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AGENTS, AFFILIATES, LICENSORS OR SERVICE PROVIDERS WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, REPUTATION, BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY OR ANTICIPATED SAVINGS, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR ANY OTHER THEORY, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY.

THIS INCLUDES, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY DAMAGES ARISING FROM: THE CONDUCT OF ANY MEMBER OR THIRD PARTY, ONLINE OR IN PERSON; ANY BOOKING, GIG, COLLABORATION, PAYMENT OR AGREEMENT BETWEEN MEMBERS; UNAUTHORISED ACCESS TO YOUR ACCOUNT OR DATA; ANY CONTENT THAT IS REMOVED, LOST OR UNAVAILABLE; AND ANY DECISION WE MAKE UNDER SECTION 5.3.

OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICES IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (a) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (b) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless The DemoStop, LLC and its officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, affiliates, licensors and service providers from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses and fees (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to: your use of the Services; Your Content; your breach of these Terms or of any law; your infringement of anyone's intellectual property, privacy or publicity rights; and any dispute between you and another member, including any booking, engagement or payment.

These Terms and any dispute arising out of them or the Services are governed by the laws of the State of Tennessee, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and by applicable United States federal law, because The DemoStop, LLC is formed in Tennessee. Subject to section 24, you and we submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Florida, where the company operates. A Florida court applying Tennessee law is ordinary and intended, not an error.

Any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services must be brought within one (1) year after it arises, or it is permanently barred, except where applicable law requires a longer period.

We may update these Terms. When we make a material change we will update the version and effective date at the top, and we will ask you to accept the new version the next time you sign in. Continuing to use the Services after a change takes effect means you accept it. If you do not accept, your remedy is to stop using the Services and close your account.

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any policy referenced at the point of sale, are the entire agreement between you and us about the Services, and replace any earlier terms including our previous Terms of Use.

If any provision is found unenforceable, it is severed and the rest stays in force. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them, including in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets. There are no third-party beneficiaries. We are not liable for failures caused by events outside our reasonable control. We may give you notice by email, by a message in the Services, or by posting on the Services.

Contact: thedemostop@gmail.com, or the support form at thedemostop.app/support.

Please read this section carefully. It affects your legal rights, including your right to bring a case in court and to participate in a class action. You can opt out within 30 days and keep those rights.

24.1 Talk to us first

Most problems can be sorted out quickly. Before starting a formal proceeding, you agree to contact us at thedemostop@gmail.com with a description of the dispute and what you want, and to give us 60 days to try to resolve it.

24.2 Arbitration

If we cannot resolve it, you and we agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. The arbitration will take place in Florida, or by video or telephone, or in your home county if you prefer. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section.

Either of us may still bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and either of us may seek injunctive relief in court to protect intellectual property or to stop unauthorised access to the Services.

24.3 Who pays for the arbitration

If your claim is for $10,000 or less, we will pay the filing, administrative and arbitrator fees, unless the arbitrator finds your claim frivolous or brought for an improper purpose. You are always free to represent yourself, and each side otherwise bears its own legal costs unless the law or the arbitrator says otherwise. We will not seek our legal fees from you in an individual arbitration unless the arbitrator finds the claim frivolous.

24.4 Class-action waiver

YOU AND WE AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. THE ARBITRATOR MAY NOT CONSOLIDATE MORE THAN ONE PERSON'S CLAIMS OR PRESIDE OVER ANY FORM OF CLASS PROCEEDING. If this waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim is severed and proceeds in court.

24.5 Coordinated filings

If 25 or more people bring substantially similar claims represented by the same or coordinated counsel, those claims will be administered in batches of up to 50 at a time. Each batch is heard by a single arbitrator as a set of individual claims, with a single set of filing fees, and the outcome of one batch does not bind the next. This keeps individual arbitration workable at volume rather than turning it into a class action by another name. It does not limit anyone's individual right to relief, and the deadlines in section 21 are paused for any claim waiting in a later batch.

24.6 Your right to opt out

You may opt out of this arbitration section by emailing thedemostop@gmail.com with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out", including your name and the email address on your account, within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Opting out costs you nothing and affects nothing else in this agreement. If you opt out, section 20 governs and disputes go to the courts of Florida.