Stemsmith
Legal

Terms & Rights

This framework governs how ownership, payment, and rights work on Stemsmith.

01 — Who owns what
The creator
  • Owns their original track and all stems derived from it.
  • Uploading a track to Stemsmith does not transfer ownership to the platform.
  • Creator grants Stemsmith a limited license to process, separate, and distribute stems to musicians for the purpose of fulfilling the challenge.
The musician
  • Owns their performance until a bounty is accepted and paid.
  • Submitting a take is not a transfer of rights — it's an offer.
  • Once accepted and paid: musician grants the creator a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to use the take in the final track, including commercial release.
  • Musician retains the right to list the work in their portfolio and credits.
Rejected takes
  • All rights revert fully to the musician.
  • Stemsmith deletes rejected submissions within 30 days.
  • Creator has no license to use rejected takes.
02 — Platform role
What Stemsmith is
  • A marketplace and escrow service, not a rights holder.
  • Stemsmith does not own any music that passes through the platform.
  • Stemsmith retains a limited license to use anonymized data for platform improvement.
  • Stemsmith may feature accepted takes (with attribution) in marketing materials unless the creator opts out.
03 — Payment
How it works
  • Bounty amount is set by the creator at challenge creation.
  • Full bounty goes to the winning musician minus platform take rate.
  • Payment held in escrow from the moment the challenge goes live.
  • Released to musician within 48 hours of acceptance.
  • If no take is accepted: full refund to creator.
04 — No winner
If no take is good enough
  • Creator can extend the deadline, increase the bounty, or close the challenge.
  • If closed with no winner: escrowed funds return to creator.
  • Musicians who submitted are notified and retain all rights to their work.
05 — Submissions
Rules
  • Musicians can submit up to 2 takes per challenge.
  • Each submission must be a distinct performance, not minor variations.
  • Creator selects from all submissions across all musicians.
06 — Disputes
Resolution process
  • First pass: platform mediation — Stemsmith reviews the brief, the submission, and the rejection reason.
  • If a creator accepted a take but escrow has not settled: Stemsmith forces release automatically after 72 hours as a safeguard. Standard payouts arrive within 48 hours of acceptance.
  • If a musician believes their rejected take was used without payment: Stemsmith investigates and can ban the creator.
07 — Authenticity
Human performance only
  • Musicians must confirm the performance is human-played.
  • AI-assisted production tools (reverb, compression, pitch correction) are allowed.
  • AI-generated performances are not allowed.
  • Stemsmith reserves the right to reject submissions that are detectably AI-generated.
08 — Credits
Attribution
  • Winning musician is credited on the Stemsmith platform.
  • Creator is strongly encouraged to credit the musician on all commercial releases.