Licence Terms

1. Personal-use licence

After full payment and delivery, the customer receives a permanent, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive and non-transferable licence to use the delivered song for personal and non-commercial purposes.

This licence applies to the delivered audio file and the customer-facing lyrics supplied with that order. It does not grant access to internal prompts, project files, stems, models, production sessions, unused versions or company systems unless the package expressly includes them.

2. What the customer may do

• Listen, download and keep a personal copy.
• Share the private listening link or audio directly with family and friends.
• Play the song at private celebrations, weddings, memorials and family events.
• Use the song in personal, non-sponsored social posts and personal home videos, provided the post is not sold, licensed, monetised as a music release or used to promote a business.
• For a Story By Anyone Song · Instant order, public social-media sharing is included when @storybyanyone is tagged where the platform supports tagging. If tagging is not technically available, a reasonably visible “Story By Anyone” credit is sufficient.
• Make reasonable personal copies for backup and private playback.

3. Uses requiring a separate written licence

• Distribution to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music or another digital service provider.
• Content ID, rights-management, fingerprinting or collecting-society registration.
• Commercial advertising, sponsored content, brand campaigns, paid media or business promotion.
• Sale, resale, sublicensing, stock-music use, NFTs, sample packs or inclusion in another commercial product.
• Film, television, game, podcast, app or broadcast synchronisation outside purely personal use.
• Material alteration presented as an official Story By Anyone or NorthBeat release.

A broader licence, commercial licence, exclusive licence or full-rights buyout must be agreed separately in writing and may require an additional fee.

This licence does not replace any music-use, public-performance, venue or platform licence that a third party may require for a particular use.

4. Rights that are not transferred

No purchase automatically assigns copyright, publishing, neighbouring rights, master ownership, trademarks, source material, internal creative systems or distribution rights. To the extent such rights exist or are held, they remain with the operator, NorthBeat, the relevant human creators or identified third-party rightsholders.

The fact that a song is based on a customer’s life does not by itself make the customer the songwriter, composer, performer, producer or master owner. A customer who supplies original lyrics, melody or another protected work keeps their pre-existing rights in that material unless a separate written agreement states otherwise.

5. Social sharing, credit and reposts

Private sharing with family and friends does not require a public credit. For Story By Anyone Song · Instant, a customer who deliberately posts the song publicly on social media must tag @storybyanyone where the platform supports tagging, or use a visible “Story By Anyone” credit where tagging is unavailable.

When the customer deliberately makes a post public and tags or credits Story By Anyone, the customer grants Story By Anyone a non-exclusive permission to repost, reshare or embed that public post on Story By Anyone-controlled social channels. This permission applies to the public post the customer chose to publish; it does not make the private interview, Story Vault, email address or other non-public material public.

Social-platform rights systems operate independently. A tag or credit is attribution and does not by itself guarantee that an automated platform copyright or music-rights system will not restrict a post.

6. Optional Story By Anyone social feature permission

At checkout the customer may separately choose “Help inspire someone else.” If selected, the customer grants Story By Anyone a non-exclusive permission to feature the delivered song, or reasonable excerpts of it, on Story By Anyone-controlled social-media channels for community and promotional purposes. This permission is separate from NorthBeat Release Selection and does not authorise Spotify, Apple Music or other official music distribution.

If the customer records a “do not publish before” date, Story By Anyone will not intentionally publish under this permission before that date. The date is an earliest permitted feature date, not a promise that publication will occur on that date. The permission may include the delivered audio, title and non-identifying artwork or visuals created for the song. It does not include the private interview, Story Brief, Story DNA, email address, photograph, customer name or other non-public identifying information. If the delivered lyrics or audio contain personal, sensitive or identifying information that would make a social feature inappropriate, Story By Anyone must obtain separate approval before publishing that identifying material.

The customer may withdraw this optional social-feature permission for future use by contacting the support address in the Terms of Purchase. Story By Anyone will stop new uses and, where reasonably within its control, remove existing social features after processing the request. Withdrawal does not affect lawful uses made before withdrawal.

7. NorthBeat and Story By Anyone public releases

Public distribution is not included in the original personal-use licence. After delivery, the customer may separately apply for NorthBeat Release Selection and grant explicit permission for that specific song.

If selected, NorthBeat may edit, arrange, regenerate where necessary, repair where technically possible, master, reproduce, distribute, promote and monetise the official release. The private interview and Story Vault remain private. Public use of the customer’s full name, first name or chosen story name follows the identity option selected in the application.

The standard shared release identity is Story By Anyone as artist and NorthBeat Records as label. A public story credit does not automatically make the customer a performer, featured artist, songwriter, composer, producer or royalty participant.

Unless another written agreement says otherwise, NorthBeat controls the official release master and distribution and retains master, distribution and licensing revenue paid to NorthBeat or its distributor. Actual protected customer lyrics, melody, performance or another verifiable human contribution remain subject to the customer’s pre-existing rights and any separate written agreement required for release.

Historical NorthBeat Unsigned permissions already recorded on older orders remain limited to those specific songs. New song checkout does not grant public-release permission; the new post-delivery application and Release Selection Terms govern new applications.

8. Termination for misuse

The personal licence may be suspended or terminated for material misuse, including unauthorised commercial distribution, false ownership claims or infringement of another person’s rights. Copies already lawfully made for private use may remain usable unless continued use itself infringes rights or law.

9. Mandatory rights

These licence terms do not remove any non-waivable consumer right. Where applicable law gives the customer broader mandatory rights, that law prevails.