Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the BDM Royalties platform at www.bdmroyalties.com (the "Service"), operated by BDM Royalties ("we," "us," or "our"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms.

1. Description of Service

BDM Royalties is a software-as-a-service platform that enables cover artists and independent musicians to manage mechanical royalty payments. The Service provides tools for importing distributor sales data, matching songs to your catalog, calculating royalties based on CRB statutory rates, generating royalty letters, delivering letters via email, tracking payments, and tax reporting.

2. Account Registration

You must create an account to use the Service. Authentication is provided by Clerk using Google, Apple, or Microsoft identity providers. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials and for all activity under your account.

Each account represents a single artist or label business (a "tenant"). You must provide accurate business information during setup.

3. Acceptable Use

You agree to use the Service only for lawful purposes. You shall not:

• Upload data you do not have the right to use or process.
• Attempt to access another tenant's data or circumvent access controls.
• Use the Service to distribute malware or conduct denial-of-service attacks.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the Service.
• Use automated tools to scrape or excessively load the Service beyond normal usage.
• Misrepresent your identity or impersonate another person or business.

4. Your Data

You retain ownership of all data you upload to the Service, including sales data, composer information, song catalogs, and generated documents. We do not claim any intellectual property rights over your data.

You grant us a limited license to process, store, and transmit your data solely for the purpose of operating the Service — including matching songs, calculating royalties, generating letters, sending emails on your behalf, and providing AI-powered analytics.

You are responsible for the accuracy of the data you upload. Royalty calculations, letters, and payments are generated based on the data you provide. We are not responsible for errors resulting from inaccurate or incomplete input data.

5. Composer and Payee Data

You are responsible for obtaining any necessary consent from your composers and payees before entering their personal information (names, addresses, email addresses, tax identification numbers) into the Service. You are the data controller for this information; we act as a data processor on your behalf.

6. AI Features (Maestro)

The Service includes AI-powered features branded as "Maestro" that analyze your sales data to provide revenue insights, business strategy suggestions, contract analysis, and revenue forecasting. These features are powered by third-party AI services (Anthropic).

AI-generated content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or business advice. You should independently verify AI-generated insights before making business decisions. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of AI-generated content.

7. Songwriter Auto-Discovery

When enabled, the Service automatically looks up composer credits from third-party music databases using ISRC codes from your imported sales data. Auto-created composer records are tagged with their source for your review.

Third-party music database data is community-contributed and may be incomplete or inaccurate. You are responsible for verifying auto-created composer records and royalty split percentages before processing payments. We are not liable for errors in third-party data.

8. Royalty Calculations

The Service calculates mechanical royalties using CRB (Copyright Royalty Board) Phonorecords IV statutory rates for the applicable sale year. Rate tables are configurable in your account settings. You are responsible for verifying that rate tables are current and accurate for your use case.

Royalty calculations are deterministic — the same inputs will always produce the same outputs. However, the Service is a calculation tool and does not provide legal or financial advice regarding royalty obligations.

BDM Royalties calculates mechanical royalties owed on download sales only. Streaming mechanical royalties are handled by the Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) through blanket licenses held by digital service providers. The Service does not calculate or process streaming mechanical royalties.

9. Notice of Intent (NOI) Service

The Service provides tools to generate Notice of Intent forms based on your catalog and composer data. BDM Royalties generates NOI documents for your review but does not file them on your behalf. You are responsible for reviewing, signing, and submitting NOIs to the Copyright Office or copyright owners. We are not responsible for the legal sufficiency or timeliness of NOI filings.

10. Email Delivery

The Service sends royalty letters to your composers via email on your behalf. Emails are sent from your configured business identity. You are responsible for ensuring that you have the right to send communications to the email addresses you enter and that your use complies with applicable anti-spam laws (CAN-SPAM Act, CASL, etc.).

11. Payment Tracking

The Service provides tools to record and track payments to composers. The Service does not process payments directly — you are responsible for executing payments through your own payment methods (check, PayPal, or other channels). Payment records in the Service are for your tracking and reporting purposes.

12. Service Availability

We strive to maintain high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted access. The Service may be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, updates, or circumstances beyond our control. We will make reasonable efforts to notify you of planned downtime.

13. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including TLS encryption in transit, encryption at rest for sensitive data, row-level tenant isolation, and structured audit logging. See our Privacy Policy for details on data storage and third-party services.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, BDM Royalties shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, data, or business opportunities, arising from your use of the Service.

Our total liability for any claim arising from the Service shall not exceed the fees you paid to us in the 12 months preceding the claim.

15. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless BDM Royalties from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from your use of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any third-party rights (including the rights of your composers and payees).

16. Termination

You may close your account at any time by contacting us. We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms or engage in activity that could harm the Service or other users.

Upon termination, you may request an export of your data within 30 days. After 30 days, your data will be permanently deleted, except where retention is required by law.

17. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by posting a notice on the Service or sending an email to your account address. Your continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

18. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United States. Any disputes arising from these Terms or the Service shall be resolved in the courts of competent jurisdiction.

19. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, contact us at legal@bdmroyalties.com.