music · Believe
You’re creating on TuneCore, which means…
This contract doesn’t take your music — it hands that question to supplemental terms it never puts in front of you. What it does settle is that your feedback becomes their property, and that any argument you have happens in Luxembourg.
What they own
Not your recordings — but only because this document hands that question to another one. What it does take outright is your feedback: anything you suggest to TuneCore or Believe “will become the property of Distributor”, transferred by assignment, not licensed.
What you own
Your uploads to the site. The contract says so itself: “we do not obtain or control any rights in, and do not exert editorial control over, User Content.” The licence you grant on top of that is “non-exclusive”, so the same “media, text, audio and video recordings, photos, graphics, commentary” can go anywhere else. You also carry every warranty about it — you “own, or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions”, and their use of your work “do not and will not: (i) infringe, violate, or misappropriate any third-party right”.
What you don’t
Any of the numbers. There is no royalty rate, no revenue split and no distribution fee anywhere in this contract — the word “royalty” appears once in it, inside “royalty-free”. The terms governing “Compositions” and “Recordings” are carved out to the “Supplemental Terms – Publishing Administration”, and three of the grounds for refusing you a refund are “(as such terms are defined in the Music Distribution Terms and Conditions)”. Neither document is in front of you. The first is a Supplemental Term, and “All Supplemental Terms are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms.” The second is named once in the entire contract and never called a Supplemental Term — pointed at, never pulled in.
What they can do with it
For what you post on the site: “use, reproduce, digitize, encode, store, transmit, distribute, modify, adapt, translate, prepare derivative works of, display, perform, communicate to the public and otherwise exploit” it — worldwide, “fully paid-up, royalty-free”, and “with the right to grant and authorize sublicenses”. They can use “the name that you submit” alongside it. And every other user of the site gets their own licence to adapt and redistribute it.
The clauses
The grant — and the two words that pull your music out of it
The Distributor Site may now or in the future permit you and other Users to post or link media, text, audio and video recordings, photos, graphics, commentary or other information or content ("User Content") … Except with respect to “Compositions” and “Recordings” (each as defined in the Supplemental Terms – Publishing Administration), the terms of service of which are governed by the Supplemental Terms – Publishing Administration, by submitting User Content to Distributor, you hereby grant Distributor and its affiliates a worldwide, non-exclusive, fully paid-up, royalty-free, transferable license, with the right to grant and authorize sublicenses, to use, reproduce, digitize, encode, store, transmit, distribute, modify, adapt, translate, prepare derivative works of, display, perform, communicate to the public and otherwise exploit such User Content in connection with the Distributor Site and Distributor's (and its successors, transferees and sublicensees, as well as their respective affiliates) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Distributor Site (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels or through merchandising. You grant Distributor and its affiliates, transferees and sublicensees (and their respective affiliates) the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such User Content if they choose to do so. You also hereby grant to each User of the Distributor Site a non-exclusive license to access your User Content through the Distributor Site, and to use, reproduce, distribute, modify, adapt, translate, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform such User Content as permitted by the functionality of the Distributor Site and these Terms. … we do not obtain or control any rights in, and do not exert editorial control over, User Content. … In connection with User Content, you affirm, represent, and/or warrant that: (a) you own, or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to use and authorize Distributor to use, all patent, trademark, copyright, or other proprietary rights in and to any and all User Content … your User Content, Distributor's use of such User Content pursuant to these Terms, and Distributor's exercise of the license rights set forth in these Terms, do not and will not: (i) infringe, violate, or misappropriate any third-party right
What counts as User Content
The definition is a short list closed by a catch-all: “media, text, audio and video recordings, photos, graphics, commentary or other information or content”. Anything you post or link on the site sits inside it.
The carve-out is the headline
The grant opens by removing “Compositions” and “Recordings” from its own scope. For a musician that is the whole reason you are here — and this contract says the terms governing it live in a different document, the Supplemental Terms – Publishing Administration, which is not part of this text. Read this section for what happens to what you post on the website, not to what you distribute.
Which way it runs
The clause reads “you hereby grant Distributor and its affiliates” — this is the licence you give. “non-exclusive” sits on that side of it, which is the reassuring part: whatever you post here, you can still post, sell or license elsewhere.
Fully paid-up, royalty-free
Two ways of saying the same thing: nothing is owed to you for any use in this list, including the merchandising and promotion uses named at the end.
Sublicences, transferees, successors
The right to sublicense is explicit, and the licence is transferable. It is written to run to Distributor’s successors, transferees and sublicensees and to all of their affiliates. You will not be told who they are.
The name, not your name
The grant is to use “the name that you submit” in connection with the content. That is whatever you typed — an artist name, a label, a legal name — and it travels to the affiliates, transferees and sublicensees named in the same sentence.
Every other user, too
One sentence in this grant is not to the company at all. Every user of the site gets a licence to reproduce, modify, adapt, translate and make derivative works of your User Content — bounded, the clause says, by “the functionality of the Distributor Site and these Terms”. Two bounds, not one.
You keep the rights, and the risk
The contract states plainly that “we do not obtain or control any rights in, and do not exert editorial control over, User Content.” The licence above is the exception to that, not a transfer. What comes with keeping the rights is the warranty: you promise you own or have licensed everything in what you post, and that their use of it will not infringe anyone. If it does, you are the one who said it would not.
Perpetual and irrevocable — with one narrow door
The above licenses granted by you in User Content you submit to the Distributor Site shall be perpetual and irrevocable, except that with respect to any User Content that you have removed or deleted while maintaining your Distributor Site user account, or any User Content following any deactivation or deletion of your Distributor Site user account, you may specifically notify Distributor regarding the termination of the foregoing license from you to Distributor, specifically identifying the item(s) of User Content to which such termination applies, in which case the foregoing license will terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you provide such notice to Distributor. You understand and agree, however, that even following such termination, Distributor may retain, but not display or perform, server copies of such User Content. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, the above licenses granted by you in Feedback (as defined below) you submit are perpetual and irrevocable.
There is a way out, and it is manual
The licence is perpetual and irrevocable by default. The exception is not automatic: deleting the content is not enough. You have to send notice, and you have to identify each item individually. There is no bulk switch in this sentence.
“a commercially reasonable time”
This is the deadline the company gives itself for letting your licence go. No number is attached to it.
They keep a copy either way
Termination stops display and performance. It does not stop retention — server copies survive. What ends is the public use, not the possession.
Feedback has no door at all
The final sentence deliberately excludes Feedback from the escape route above. That licence is perpetual and irrevocable with no notice procedure and no exception.
Feedback stops being yours
TuneCore / Believe International Terms and Conditions — Feedback ↗
You agree that any feedback, analysis, suggestions and comments to Distributor provided by you (collectively, “Feedback”) will become the property of Distributor. … you hereby assign to Distributor all right, title and interest, including all intellectual property rights, in and to the Feedback. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you agree that Distributor shall have the perpetual, irrevocable and worldwide right to use, copy, display, perform, translate, modify, license, sublicense and otherwise exploit all or part of the Feedback or any derivative thereof in any embodiment, manner or media now known or hereafter devised without any remuneration, compensation or credit to User. … Notwithstanding the foregoing assignment, Distributor grants to you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, world-wide, perpetual and irrevocable license to use the Feedback for your own personal, non-commercial purposes that do not compete, directly or indirectly, with our use of such Feedback.
Assignment, not licence
This is where ownership actually moves. Everywhere else in this contract you license; here you assign all right, title and interest. Once assigned, it is not yours to license to anyone.
Read the connective
“Without limiting the generality of the foregoing” does not limit the foregoing — it adds to it. The assignment stands in full, and the list of rights that follows is on top of it, not a cap on it.
The licence that comes back to you
Check the direction — “Distributor grants to you”. This one runs toward the user, and it is narrow: non-transferable, non-sublicensable, personal, non-commercial, and only for uses that do not compete with theirs. Do not read those words onto the licence you gave them; that one is transferable and sublicensable.
No credit either
The Feedback rights run “without any remuneration, compensation or credit to User”. Not paid, and not named.
The contract points at contracts you haven’t seen
When using the TuneCore Site or Believe Site, you will be subject to any additional posted supplemental terms or rules applicable to specific services and features which may be posted from time to time on the applicable site (the “Supplemental Terms”). All Supplemental Terms are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms. … unless mandated by law, TuneCore shall not provide refunds in connection with (i) content (including any Recording) that infringes copyright, trademark, right of publicity or any other intellectual property right; (ii) GenAI Content that is generated, in whole or in part, using Prohibited Platforms; and/or (iii) the commission or attempted commission of Inproper Conduct (as such terms are defined in the Music Distribution Terms and Conditions). … This is the entire agreement between you and Distributor relating to the subject matter herein and supersedes all previous communications, representations, understandings and agreements, either oral or written, between the parties with respect to said subject matter, excluding any Services Agreement that you may have entered into with Distributor.
Named but absent
The body of this contract names the Supplemental Terms – Publishing Administration, the Music Distribution Terms and Conditions, the Privacy Policy and a possible Services Agreement. None of them are reproduced here, and this reading covers none of them. The site’s own legal menu lists further documents beyond these — among them Social Platforms, Facebook Monetization, YouTube Sound Recording Revenue, Store Automator, Copyright Policy, Publishing Administration, Tunecore Social, and an AI and Data Protection Program. Nothing is asserted here about what any of them say.
What the incorporation sentence catches
Read it for what it names: “All Supplemental Terms are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms.” Supplemental Terms are the additional rules “which may be posted from time to time on the applicable site”. So the Supplemental Terms – Publishing Administration is caught by its own name: it binds you whether or not you opened it, and more can be added later without you signing anything new.
What it does not catch
The Music Distribution Terms and Conditions is different. It is named once in the whole contract — in the refund clause, to define three grounds on which your money is not coming back — and this contract never calls it a Supplemental Term. It is pointed at, not pulled in. A document that decides your refunds and is never formally incorporated is its own problem.
The money is somewhere else
Only two dollar amounts appear anywhere in this document: a $25.00 charge if you transfer or resell one of the free bar codes, and the $100 in the liability clause. No royalty rate, revenue share or distribution fee is stated here at all.
A typo worth noticing
“Inproper Conduct” is how the refund clause spells it. It is a defined term that lives in a document you were not shown, and it is one of three grounds on which your money is not coming back.
Two companies, and your counterparty can change
Welcome to www.tunecore.com , the official website for TuneCore, Inc., a digital music distribution service for individuals based in the United States, and www.believemusic.com , the official website for Believe International, a digital music distribution service for individuals based outside the United States. … You expressly acknowledge that in the event you change your residency for tax purposes as described above, TuneCore or Believe, as applicable, may assign the Terms to which you are a Party to Believe or TuneCore, as applicable. As a result of such assignment, you will no longer have a contractual relationship with the same Party with whom you have had a contractual arrangement prior to your change in residency. … You further acknowledge that TuneCore and Believe are separate entities and that (i) TuneCore shall not be held liable for any action or omission of Believe whether or not occurring during your contractual relationship with Believe; and (ii) Believe shall not be held liable for any action or omission of TuneCore … You agree that you may only bring a cause of action against such Party (i.e. TuneCore or Believe) with whom you have or had a contractual relationship at the time of occurrence of the event giving rise to such cause of action. … These Terms, and any rights and licenses granted hereunder, may not be transferred or assigned by you. These Terms, and any rights and licenses granted hereunder, may be transferred or assigned by Distributor to an affiliate of Distributor or to any third party, without restrictions.
One contract, two counterparties
The document opens by splitting the world in two: TuneCore, Inc. for individuals based in the United States, Believe International for individuals based outside it. Moving country for tax purposes can move you from one company to the other, and you must notify them within thirty (30) days of the change.
The liability firewall
The two entities disclaim responsibility for each other, and the Claims section says you may only bring a cause of action against the Party you had the relationship with when the event happened. If your history spans both, so does the question of who you can actually sue.
Assignment runs one way
You cannot transfer your side at all. They can transfer theirs to an affiliate or to any third party, “without restrictions” — the licences you granted travel with it.
What it’s worth, and where you’d have to argue it
in no event shall Distributor or its third-party partners, licensors or suppliers’ total liability to you for all damages, losses, and causes of action arising out of or relating to these terms or your use of the Distributor Sites (whether in contract, tort (including negligence), warranty, or otherwise) exceed the greater of One Hundred Dollars (USD $100) or one-half of the annual fees paid by you to Distributor (if applicable) in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the date that such claim arose. … These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Luxembourg, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law. … You agree that any action at law or in equity arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Distributor Sites shall be filed only in Luxembourg and you hereby consent and submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction and venue of such courts for the purposes of litigating any such action. … You agree that you will not file or participate in a class action against us. … you hereby waive any right you may now have or hereafter possess to a trial by jury. … You agree that any cause of action brought by you arising out of or related to the Distributor Sites must commence within one (1) year after the cause of action accrues. Otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.
The greater of two caps
Read it exactly: the ceiling is the greater of $100 or one-half of your annual fees. It is still a ceiling — just the larger of two. If you paid nothing, $100 is it. If you paid $600 across the year, the ceiling is $300 — the fee measure is halved before it is compared, so you would have to have paid more than $200 in twelve months for it to beat the flat $100 at all.
Luxembourg, only
Governing law is Luxembourg and the courts are Luxembourg’s, exclusively — for a TuneCore user in the United States as much as for a Believe user in Europe. Class actions are barred and jury trial is waived.
One year, from accrual
Any claim you bring has to commence within one (1) year after the cause of action accrues. The contract’s own words for what happens after that: “Otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.”
Due Dilly reads the paperwork and reports what it says. This is not legal advice.