1. Agreement
These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and rivalz ("rivalz", "we", "us"), a sole trader based in the United Kingdom at [Trading Address].
The Terms govern your use of the rivalz mobile application (iOS and Android), rivalz.app, our administration tools, and any related services (together, the "Service").
By creating an account, signing in, or using the Service, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, our Community Guidelines, our DMCA / Copyright Policy, and our Cookie & Tracking Notice. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
2. Eligibility
You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. By signing up you represent and warrant that you are 13 or older.
We do not verify your age. We rely on your self-declaration at signup. If we have a reasonable basis to believe you are under 13, we will terminate your account and delete your data.
If you are between 13 and the age of digital consent in your jurisdiction (16 in much of the EU), please read these Terms with a parent or guardian.
You may not use the Service if you have been previously banned from rivalz or if local law prohibits it. If you use the Service via the Apple App Store or Google Play, your use is also subject to those stores' end-user licence agreements.
3. Your account
When you create an account you must provide accurate information, keep your password secret, and notify us promptly at support@rivalz.app if you suspect unauthorised access.
You may sign in with email + password, with Google, or with Sign in with Apple. Where you use Sign in with Apple, our deletion flow will request Apple to mirror your deletion in accordance with App Store rules.
We may suspend or terminate your account for breach of these Terms, the Community Guidelines, or applicable law (Section 14).
4. The Service
rivalz is a UK-focused social music platform. You can upload short snippets (4–60 s), vote, comment, like, save, share, follow, compete in ranked ladder battles (Glicko-2) across BRONZE → ELITE divisions, join artist-led communities, send DMs, see leaderboards, earn badges, build a public Tastemaker reputation, and (where enabled) buy in-app gems.
The Service is provided as is and as available. We may add, remove, change, or pause features at any time and set or change limits on uploads, message rates, and other usage.
5. Your Content
5.1 You keep your rights
You retain all ownership and intellectual-property rights in the content you upload — audio, video, images, captions, comments, bio, community posts, and DMs (your "Content").
5.2 Licence you grant to rivalz
You grant rivalz a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid-up, sublicensable, and transferable licence to:
- (a) host, store, cache, transmit, distribute, display, and perform your Content;
- (b) reformat, transcode, trim, compress, generate thumbnails from, extract waveforms from, and otherwise modify your Content as technically necessary to provide the Service, including in battle, ladder, leaderboard, sharing, and notification contexts;
- (c) sublicense (a) and (b) to subprocessors that operate the Service (including Supabase, Cloudflare, Vercel, Apple, Google, Expo, Sentry, OpenAI, LiveKit);
- (d) use your username, artist name, profile photo, and Content to identify you as the creator wherever your Content is displayed.
This licence persists for the duration of the Service and for a reasonable wind-down period (not exceeding 90 days post-deletion) for backups, caches, and content shared into another user's DMs.
5.3 Your representations and warranties
By uploading Content you represent and warrant that:
- You own or have all necessary rights, licences, and clearances (master recording rights, mechanical reproduction, synchronisation, public performance, sample clearances, rights of likeness/publicity/privacy).
- Your Content does not infringe any third-party IP, moral, privacy, or publicity right.
- You will obtain and pay for any required PRS for Music, PPL, MCPS, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or equivalent performing-rights / mechanical licences.
- Your Content complies with our Community Guidelines and applicable law.
5.4 Your indemnity
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold rivalz, our directors, employees, agents, and subprocessors harmless from any third-party claim, damage, loss, liability, cost, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your Content, your use of the Service, your breach of these Terms or the Community Guidelines, or your breach of any third-party right.
5.5 What we won't do
We do not claim ownership of your Content. We do not fingerprint audio. We do not sell your Content to third parties. We do not use your Content to train AI models.
6. Acceptable use
You agree to use the Service per our Community Guidelines. We allow explicit musical lyrics (the genre demands it) but not nudity, sexual content, hate, harassment, doxxing, graphic violence, CSAM, self-harm content, illegal activity, IP infringement, impersonation, spam, or vote manipulation.
You must not reverse-engineer or scrape the Service, use bots to inflate metrics, circumvent rate limits or moderation, introduce malware, or use the Service unlawfully.
7. Content limits and processing
- Audio: mp3, m4a, wav, aac, flac — up to 200 MB.
- Video: mp4, mov, avi, mkv, webm — up to 200 MB.
- Snippet duration: 4 to 60 seconds. Content over 60 s is auto-trimmed.
- We transcode video for delivery efficiency (typically 720p H.264 ~2.5 Mbps; 128 kbps audio).
- We extract a thumbnail and a waveform.
- We send snippet text (title, description, tags) to an automated text-moderation service.
- We may refuse, hide, or remove Content for breach of these Terms, the Community Guidelines, applicable law, or a valid third-party claim.
8. In-app purchases and virtual currency
8.1 Status
The in-app gem economy is dormant in v1.0: technical scaffolding is present, but the underlying ledger has been removed. When the gem economy is re-enabled, the rules in this Section apply.
8.2 How gems work
Gems are bought through Apple IAP (iOS) or Google Play Billing (Android). Gems have no real-world monetary value and are not convertible to cash, except through the artist payout programme (8.5). Gems are licensed, not sold; non-transferable; non-refundable for cash; may expire on account closure per App Store rules.
8.3 Payment and refunds
Payments are processed by Apple or Google. We do not receive your card details. Refund requests are governed by App Store and Google Play refund policies — contact those stores directly.
8.4 EU 14-day right of withdrawal
If you are an EU/UK consumer, you ordinarily have a 14-day right to withdraw from a digital-content purchase. At the moment you confirm a gem purchase you expressly consent to immediate supply and acknowledge that you lose your right of withdrawal under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and Directive 2011/83/EU Article 16(m). This consent is captured in the in-app purchase flow.
8.5 Artist payouts
Where enabled, gem earnings may be converted into a cash payout subject to: published payout rate (currently £0.005 per gem); minimum withdrawal (currently 5,000 gems); hold period (currently 7 days); identity verification where applicable; and compliance with UK tax/accounting rules. We may change, suspend, or end the programme on reasonable notice.
8.6 Boost
A boost increases the chance your snippet is shown but does not guarantee specific views, votes, follows, or wins. Effects are subject to the Service's ranking algorithms, which may change.
8.7 Monthly credits
We may grant a monthly allocation (currently 250 credits) to eligible users for optional features. The allocation and eligibility may change. We may pause or end the credits programme at any time.
9. Competitive systems and outcomes
Battle pairings use a Glicko-2 matchmaker (rating, RD, recent history, genre, slot inventory). No manual rigging.
Vote weighting uses automated signals (voter activity, follow-graph distance, diversity, account-health). Aggregate vote totals are produced by a server function that does not expose individual voter identities.
Outcomes are final, except where overturned via the appeals process for moderation-related forfeits.
Disputes: file a report within 48 hours of the result via the in-app report flow; we review and respond within 14 days.
Tier promotion/demotion is computed by automated systems at fixed intervals (monthly for artist tier, continuous for Tastemaker). Inactivity (no battle 14+ days) causes RD decay, which affects matchmaking.
Participation does not create an employment, prize-winning, contractor, or agent relationship with rivalz. Monetary outcome arises only through the artist payout programme (8.5).
10. Early Backer
You become an Early Backer of an artist when you cast a battle vote for them while their follower count is below 1,000. The relationship is bilateral and permanent:
- A snapshot of the artist's follower count at the moment of your vote is recorded against your vote.
- A badge appears on the artist's profile when you view it (and on your profile when they view it). The badge is private to the two of you.
- If you delete your account, your identifier is removed from the vote row, but the snapshot remains so the artist's "early supporter count" is preserved.
11. Moderation, enforcement, and appeals
We use automated text screening on upload + human review on reports.
If your Content or behaviour breaches these Terms, the Community Guidelines, or applicable law we may: remove or hide the Content; send a warning; suspend (24h / 7d / 30d); ban permanently; forfeit ladder rank, rating change, or points attributable to removed Content.
We aim to action user reports within 24 hours for safety-critical issues.
When we restrict, we explain why via a system message in the App, including the rule and (where applicable) the duration.
Appeals: reply to the system message OR email support@rivalz.app with the action reference. We respond within 14 days.
Repeat violators: 3 valid moderation actions in 6 months → suspension pending review; 5 in 12 months → permanent ban. A separate counter applies to copyright (DMCA) strikes.
12. Copyright (DMCA and UK E-Commerce Regs)
If you believe content on rivalz infringes your copyright, see our DMCA / Copyright Policy for takedown and counter-notice procedures and our designated Copyright Agent.
We take down content following a valid notice without undue delay. The uploader is notified and may submit a counter-notice. Repeat infringer policy: 3 valid takedowns in 12 months → suspension; 5 → permanent ban.
13. Direct Messages and Communities
DMs are person-to-person but are stored on our servers in plaintext and are not end-to-end encrypted. rivalz staff may access DM content only when strictly necessary for safety, abuse-prevention, or legal compliance. Do not use DMs for sensitive personal data.
Communities are artist-owned and artist-moderated. Artists are responsible for their communities' conduct. We may suspend or terminate communities for breach.
14. Termination
By you: delete your account in Settings → Account → Delete Account. Subject to retention notices in the Privacy Policy.
By us: we may suspend or terminate immediately for breach of these Terms, the Community Guidelines, or applicable law, or where required by a third party (e.g. a valid copyright claim).
We may also terminate or pause the Service as a whole on reasonable notice.
On termination, your right to use the Service ends. Sections that should survive (Content licence for backups, indemnity, liability limits, governing law) will survive.
15. Disclaimers
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", with all faults and without warranty, to the maximum extent permitted by law. We do not warrant uninterrupted/secure/error-free operation, defect correction, freedom from viruses, accuracy of any user content, or any specific outcome from using the Service.
16. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law:
- Our total aggregate liability for any claim shall not exceed the greater of £100 or the amount you have paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim;
- We shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, goodwill, or data.
Nothing limits or excludes our liability for: death or personal injury by our negligence; fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; any liability that cannot be excluded under the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015 or equivalent legislation; breach of EU/UK consumer non-excludable rights.
17. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold rivalz, our directors, employees, agents, and subprocessors harmless from any third-party claim, damage, loss, liability, cost, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your Content, your use of the Service, your breach of these Terms or the Community Guidelines, or your breach of any third-party right.
18. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms. When we make material changes we will notify you via a system message in the App and update the "Last Updated" date. Continued use 14 days after notification constitutes acceptance. If you do not accept the changes, you may delete your account.
19. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.
You and rivalz submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales, except that:
- If you are a consumer based in another part of the UK or in the EU, you may bring proceedings in the courts of your country of residence under Rome I / Brussels Recast protections;
- Either of us may seek interim or injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction.
20. Miscellaneous
Entire agreement: these Terms with the Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines, DMCA Policy, and Cookie Notice constitute the entire agreement.
Severability: if any part is invalid, the rest remains in force.
No waiver: our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.
Assignment: you may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign to a successor entity.
No third-party beneficiaries except for our subprocessors and our agents (re indemnity / liability provisions).
21. Contact
- General support, appeals: support@rivalz.app
- Privacy, data requests: privacy@rivalz.app
- Copyright (DMCA): copyright@rivalz.app
- Safety, suspected under-13 accounts: safety@rivalz.app
Postal address: [Trading address — to be supplied]