Terms & Conditions

Membership grants access to the ZAOUND library.

Members receive monthly credits according to their plan.

Credits accumulate while the membership remains active.

Cancelling the membership pauses future credits but does not remove previously unlocked beats.

Every beat in the library can be streamed as a 30-second preview. Previews are available to all members at any time, at no credit cost, and are there so you can browse and decide before spending credits.

The full-length beat becomes available once you unlock it with credits. Unlocking any format of a beat lets you stream that beat in full inside ZAOUND.

Downloading a beat file is separate from streaming it. Each format — MP3, WAV and Stems — is its own product with its own credit price, and downloading a given format requires unlocking that specific format.

Beats you have unlocked remain yours to keep and use under these Terms, even if your membership later lapses.

ZAOUND launches on August 1. Founding Membership ($11 / month) and Founding Pro Membership ($16 / month) pricing is available to anyone who joins during the first 12 months after launch.

Your Founding price is locked in for as long as your membership stays active without interruption — it will never increase, no matter what future pricing looks like.

Once the 12-month founding window closes, standard pricing applies to everyone who joins after that point: $22 / month for the standard Membership and $33 / month for the Pro Membership. Members who joined during the founding window and have stayed active keep their original $11 or $16 price.

You may cancel your membership at any time from your account settings. There is no long-term contract.

Cancelling ends your Founding price. If you rejoin after cancelling, or after the 12-month founding window has closed, you will be charged the then-current standard pricing rather than your original Founding price.

Standard pricing may change in the future. We will give at least 30 days’ notice by email before any price change takes effect, and it will only apply from your next billing cycle onward. This does not affect the locked Founding price described above.

All sales are final. Memberships, membership renewals and credits are non-refundable.

Credits are digital access to a digital library, not a physical product. Every beat can be streamed as a free 30-second preview before you spend anything, so you can hear exactly what you are unlocking before you commit credits to it.

Once credits have been spent to unlock a beat, that transaction cannot be reversed and those credits cannot be returned to your balance.

You may cancel your membership at any time and will not be charged again. Cancelling does not refund the current billing period, and any credits already issued remain available to spend under Section 1.

Nothing in this section limits refund rights that cannot legally be waived under the consumer protection laws that apply to you.

You are not purchasing the beat. You are purchasing a license to use it.

The producer remains the owner of the beat.

This license covers two kinds of use: (1) using the beat to create your own song or recording, and (2) using the beat as background or incidental music in video content, advertisements, or other audiovisual projects — including monetized content on platforms like YouTube.

Both uses are included under the same license, at no extra cost, for as long as you keep the beat you unlocked — even if your membership later lapses.

Every license granted through ZAOUND is non-exclusive. The same beat is licensed to many different artists, and other artists may release songs built on the same beat as yours.

Unlocking a beat does not make it exclusive to you, does not take it out of the library, and does not prevent anyone else from unlocking it.

ZAOUND does not sell exclusive rights, and credits cannot buy them. If you want exclusive rights to a beat, you arrange that directly with the producer — see Section 7.

ZAOUND includes a messaging feature so you can contact a producer directly, mainly to ask about buying exclusive rights to one of their beats. Starting a conversation with a producer requires an active membership. Producers can always reply, and once a conversation is open both sides can continue it.

An exclusive is an agreement between you and the producer. ZAOUND is not a party to it. We do not set the price, do not negotiate on anyone’s behalf, do not take any commission, and do not receive, hold or transfer the money. You agree the price and the payment method directly with the producer.

Because ZAOUND is not part of that agreement, we do not verify either side, do not guarantee that a producer will deliver the files or the rights they promise, do not guarantee that a buyer will pay, and cannot recover money or rights for you if the other side does not do what they said. Treat it exactly as you would a deal arranged anywhere else: agree the terms in writing, and use your own judgement.

Whatever you and the producer agree between yourselves is your own contract and is not governed by these Terms — except for the rules in this section about how you behave on the platform, which continue to apply.

When a producer sells a beat exclusively, they are required to remove that beat from ZAOUND. Licenses that members already unlocked before that point survive — see Section 13.

Messaging is for genuine enquiries about a producer’s work. You may not use it to harass, threaten or spam anyone, to advertise unrelated products or services, to impersonate someone, or to attempt to obtain beats or files outside these Terms. We may suspend messaging access, or an account, for any of this.

Conversations are private between the two people in them and are not published. ZAOUND may access message content where it is necessary to investigate a report, to prevent fraud, abuse or harm, to enforce these Terms, or to comply with the law.

Producer owns: the beat, and the production.

Artist owns: the lyrics, and the vocal performance.

Neither party owns the other’s work.

Every official release must credit the producer — for example, "Produced by [Name]."

Credit must be clear, legible and placed in the credits/description.

Under the Standard ZAOUND License, producer and artist share revenue 50% / 50% on songs and recordings made using the beat.

This applies until 100,000 total streams on that song, unless both parties agree otherwise or applicable law requires a different arrangement. After 100,000 streams, the license enters a renegotiation stage.

If your song crosses 100,000 streams, you must notify ZAOUND within 30 days by emailing support@zaound.com so renegotiation can take place.

Using a beat as background or incidental music in video content, advertisements, or other audiovisual projects does not trigger this revenue share, no matter how many views or plays that content receives — this use is licensed at no additional cost and does not require renegotiation.

This section describes the Standard ZAOUND License only. If you buy exclusive rights directly from a producer under Section 7, whatever the two of you agreed replaces this for that beat, and ZAOUND has no share in it.

If a song made with a ZAOUND beat crosses 100,000 streams and this is not disclosed as required, and ZAOUND later becomes aware of it, ZAOUND and the producer reserve the right to claim up to 100% of that song’s earnings from the date the threshold was crossed until new terms are agreed — in addition to any other remedy available under these Terms, including termination under Section 15.

Publishing, copyright registration and royalty administration may vary depending on the country and applicable law.

Users are responsible for properly registering their works where required.

Nothing in these Terms limits rights that cannot legally be waived under applicable law.

ZAOUND is invite-only for producers. Producers join by invitation and accept a separate Producer Agreement covering ownership, sample clearance, payment and conduct.

Producers publish their own beats. ZAOUND reserves the right to review, unpublish or remove any beat, and to suspend a producer account, where there is a rights claim, a breach of these Terms or of the Producer Agreement, or content that does not meet our standards.

Producers warrant that everything in the beats they upload is their own, royalty-free, or properly cleared. A rights claim against a beat is handled between the claimant and the producer; ZAOUND will remove the beat while the claim is examined.

Revenue sharing between ZAOUND and each producer is set out in that producer’s agreement with ZAOUND and does not affect the license you receive under these Terms.

Beats may be removed from the ZAOUND library at any time — for example if a producer withdraws it, if we remove it under Section 12, or if the producer sells the beat outright to a third party.

Removal never affects licenses that were already granted. If you unlocked a beat before it left the library, your license to that beat continues permanently under these Terms, and you keep the right to use any format you unlocked.

A surviving license survives on the same terms it was granted under — it does not become a bigger licence. In particular, the 100,000-stream limit and the 50% / 50% revenue share in Section 10 continue to apply to any song you made with that beat, exactly as they did before.

A producer may later sell full or exclusive rights in a beat to a third party. From the date of that sale, the new owner holds those rights and the beat is no longer offered through ZAOUND. Licenses granted to members before that date survive the sale and remain valid.

If a beat has been sold on and a song you made with it later crosses 100,000 streams, the renegotiation required by Section 10 is with whoever holds the rights at that time — the new owner, not the original producer. Contact support@zaound.com and we will put you in touch. Your obligation to disclose the crossing within 30 days is unchanged, and so is the consequence of not disclosing it: up to 100% of that song’s earnings from the date the threshold was crossed.

A beat leaving the library does not entitle you to a refund of credits already spent, and it does not entitle you to unlock formats of that beat that you had not already unlocked.

You may not resell the beat by itself or as part of a sample pack.

You may not claim ownership of the beat.

You may not remove or alter producer credits.

You may not upload the beat to any platform as your own instrumental.

You may not use the beat in any way that violates applicable laws or third-party rights.

ZAOUND may suspend or terminate your account and license rights immediately if you violate these Terms, infringe copyright, misuse the platform, or engage in fraudulent or harmful activity.

Upon termination, unlicensed use of any beat is strictly prohibited.

ZAOUND provides the platform and the tools. We are not responsible for how you use the beats or for any consequences resulting from your release.

ZAOUND is not a party to any exclusive-rights agreement between a member and a producer. We provide the place to have that conversation and nothing more. We do not vet those agreements, take no commission, never hold or transfer the money, and cannot recover funds, files or rights for either side if the other does not perform. Any dispute about such an agreement is between the member and the producer.

Artists and producers are responsible for their own registrations, legal compliance, and royalty collections.

We may update these Terms as ZAOUND grows, as the law changes, or as we add new features.

When we make a material change, we will notify registered members by email to the address on their account at least 30 days before the change takes effect, and the version number at the top of this page will be updated.

Continuing to use ZAOUND after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms. If you do not accept them, you may cancel your membership before the effective date under Section 3.

Changes are not retroactive. Licenses you already hold for beats you already unlocked continue under the Terms that applied when you unlocked them.

These Terms are governed by the laws of New Zealand, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of ZAOUND will be brought exclusively before the competent courts of New Zealand, and both parties consent to that jurisdiction.

Before starting any formal proceeding, both parties agree to first attempt to resolve the dispute informally by contacting support@zaound.com and allowing 30 days to reach a resolution.

Nothing in this section removes any right you have to bring a claim before the courts or consumer authorities of your own country where the law of that country gives you that right and it cannot be waived by agreement.