TERMS OF USE & GUIDELINES

Last updated April 26th, 2026

1. Definitions

Platform: The website Station.moe, including all associated mobile applications, APIs, and related web services, which facilitates the distribution, streaming, and monetization of Content.

User: Any individual or entity which accesses, browses, or uses the Platform, whether as an authenticated member or a guest.

Listener: A User who accesses the Platform for the purpose of streaming Content.

Artist / Verified Artist: A User who uploads, manages, and distributes Content via the Platform. The term "Verified Artist" may be used to emphasize a User who has successfully completed the Artist verification process.

Band: An individual Artist, group of Artists, or an entity acting under a single Artist profile to provide Content.

The term "Band" is used by the Platform to describe single Artists, music groups, circles, and similar arrangements of Artists and related contributors.

Content: All media, assets, and data uploaded to the Platform by Artists, including but not limited to audio tracks, albums, album art, metadata, lyrics, and other related digital media.

Marketplace: The electronic environment provided by the Platform that acts as an intermediary to facilitate connections between Listeners and Artists.

Subscription: A recurring payment authorization which allows a User to access Content on the Platform.

2. Introduction

Station.moe provides services to Artists and Listeners through an online music streaming Platform and Marketplace. The Platform allows Artists to directly publish their own works, manage their own Band groups and members, and determine how their earnings are distributed among Band members. Listeners can activate a monthly Subscription to gain access to the Platform's library, select and manage playback behavior using deterministic factors, and play songs on-demand via the Platform's website and applications as streamed media.

In addition to providing streamed media, we may provide additional support options in the future.

Philosophy

At Station.moe, we want to help fans and Listeners more directly support the Artists they enjoy listening to, make it easier for independent Artists to make their works available in a streamable format without requiring a third-party publisher, and enable Listeners to discover additional Artists and music via a transparent, user-adjustable recommendation system.

We also intend to provide this Platform as an independently owned and operated system in order to remain focused on supporting our users and to provide one of the best streaming options for both Listeners and Artists.

Objectives & Methods

There are several things Station.moe does with the intent of providing a valuable music streaming option for Artists and Listeners. Below, we've listed our objectives and methods for achieving them:

Artists should receive more support

We've eliminated the requirement for Artists to use a third-party publisher. Most streaming platforms require a publisher, but not all Artists necessarily want to work with one. Removing this requirement can, in some cases, give more earnings back to Artists.

Listeners should have more opportunities to support Artists

We aim to provide a minimum of 80% after payment processing fees from every Subscription to the Artists that each Listener listens to in a given Subscription period, more than the industry standard of 70%. To accomplish this, we're taking a measured approach with how we're running our service in order to minimize costs on startup, with a plan to keep running costs low as the Platform scales.

Subscriptions should be more approachable for more people

We provide our service at a price which is lower than the majority of streaming services on the market today.

Platforms should have better clarity into how Subscriptions translate into Artist support

We provide access to Listener history and additional stats which explain how much of a Listener's Subscription went to each song, Artist, and Band for a given Subscription period.

There is a growing need for harbors of human creativity

We have an Artist application and verification process in place which helps ensure that the music our Platform hosts is made by humans, not with generative AI tools.

3. Artist Registration & Verification

Users may register an account to access the Platform's music library for streaming with a Subscription. Optionally, Users can apply to become an Artist on the Platform through an Artist application and verification process. To become a Verified Artist and gain access to the Platform's Artist features such as uploading and managing music, users must submit an additional application.

Application Process

A User must submit an Artist Application on Station.moe.
All Artist applications are manually reviewed.
Upon review, an application may receive the following statuses:

Accepted: The application is accepted, and the User becomes a Verified Artist.
Rejected: The application is denied, and the User may try again in the future.
Rejected with Application Restriction: The application is denied and the User is prohibited from submitting further applications. This does not prohibit the User from interacting with the Platform as a Listener. Users who have been restricted from submitting further applications can appeal by contacting support.

An application restriction may be applied to a User's account in situations such as the following:

Application contains material that is strongly suspected of using generative AI tools
Multiple applications are submit with weak evidence
Abuse of the application system

Becoming a Verified Artist is at the sole discretion of the Platform. We suggest that users who are applying to become a Verified Artist have at least a year of previous experience with making music or contributing to a music-related project; this may help Users with providing examples when applying.

Requirements for Verified Artists

Before receiving payment for songs on the Platform, Artists must:

Have Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) enabled on their account.
Complete identity verification for "Know Your Customer" (KYC) compliance if they intend to receive payments through the Platform. You can find more about how this process works in our Privacy Policy.

As a safeguard, songs on the Platform must be credited with at least one Artist before they can be listed publicly, and that Artist must have completed the above steps. Artists are not required to complete the above steps to be credited on a song, but they will not be allowed to collect any shares of revenue resulting from song plays.

4. Ownership & Licensing

Artists retain full ownership of their original Content and may distribute their work on other platforms simultaneously. By uploading Content, Artists grant the Platform a non-exclusive, worldwide, sublicensable license to host, stream, modify (for delivery optimization) and distribute Content to Users, as well as the right to use Content provided to the Platform for promotional purposes.

5. Payment & Royalties

The Platform aims to provide a service which awards at least 80% of a User's Subscription to Artists after payment processor fees. However, if circumstances become such that the Platform is unable to cover operating costs, this amount may be reduced as necessary to cover such costs. This may happen for a variety of reasons including (but not limited to) excessive User behavior, hosting price changes, disaster recovery, and other operational costs.

Royalty Calculation

By using the Platform, Artists agree to receive a variable royalty amount which is contingent on four primary factors:

The Platform rate
The Subscription price
The number of songs played by a user in a given Subscription period
Payment processor fees

When calculating the portion of a User's Subscription going to Artists, the following formula is used:

A = (S - (S p + f)) \cdot r

where:

A = artist pool; the portion attributed to all songs a Listener plays during a User's Subscription period, given to Artists associated with each song
S = subscription price
p = payment processor's percentage per transaction
f = payment processor's flat rate per transaction
r = artist rate

For example, if the subscription price were $10, the payment processor has a (2.9% + $.30) transaction fee structure, and 80% is used for the artist rate, the artist pool would be about $7.52. Importantly, the numbers for each factor are likely to be different and may change over time, so the result will change accordingly.

In order to calculate the value of a song play, we can take the above example one step further. If a Listener played 1000 songs in one month, each play would be awarded approximately 0.75 cents, or with 500 song plays, each play would be worth about 1.5 cents.

Payment Schedule

Payments are calculated at the end of a Listener's Subscription period and distributed to Artists. Artists may initiate withdrawals at their discretion with no minimum payout amount; however, we recommend avoiding withdrawing very low amounts to minimize transaction fees.

General Fund

The General Fund is a special pool of funds that exists separate from any single Listener's Subscription activity. In certain situations, some songs may be found ineligible for payouts such as in the case of found AI-generated Content or an Artist's ineligibility to receive pending payments. Payouts from the General Fund are determined by Platform-wide song play counts for all songs in a given time period and distributed proportionally. These distributions serve as supplementary payments (bonuses) in addition to any royalties earned through direct Listener Subscription activity.

6. User-Generated Content Policy

Originality Requirements

Station.moe is a Platform for music made by humans. Artists must certify that all uploaded Content is a result of direct human agency where a human Artist is directly responsible for determining and designing every musical element.

By participating as an Artist on the Platform, the Artist warrants and represents that no part of their Content relies on prohibited methods of production.

Guidelines

To maintain clarity in a rapidly changing technological landscape, the Platform evaluates Content based on the following guidelines:

Permitted Methods: Any method where a human determines a sound through the manual manipulation of observable parameters. Some examples of this include the use of Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), synthesizers, MIDI, and real instruments and vocals. Whether the process is analog (like tuning a guitar) or digital (like adjusting EQ values or a parameter in a virtual plugin), these processes are permitted as long as the sound can be controlled at will by the Artist.
Prohibited Methods: Any method that relies on generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), Machine Learning (ML), or prompting to produce audio. This includes any tool where an audio generator uses training data to output or generate audio, regardless of the source of that training data.
Derived Content: The use of digital tools is allowed; however, we do not allow the use of plugins, samples, or software where the resulting sound is derived from a prohibited method.

The Platform reserves the right to update these guidelines as technology evolves. The final determination of what constitutes "human agency" and compliance with this policy remains at the sole discretion of the Platform.

7. Data Protection & GDPR Compliance

Data Collection

We collect various types of information to provide and improve our services, including basic account information, payment identifiers via Stripe, content metadata, audio files, and Artist-exclusive assets. By using the Platform, you acknowledge and agree to the collection and processing of data as described in our Privacy Policy.

For a detailed explanation of what type of data is collected and how it is processed (including the policies of third-party service providers), please refer to our Privacy Policy. Artists may request access, correction, or deletion of their personal data as per GDPR and other applicable regulations.

8. Disciplinary Action

Station.moe reserves the right to restrict or terminate User accounts in response to violations of these terms as well as to protect the integrity of the service.

Terms Violations

The Platform uses warnings, strikes, account terminations, and service-level blacklists as deemed appropriate by a Platform administrator.

Some examples of activity which may result in disciplinary action may include:

Unusual service or User activity, whether or not it results in service degradation
Unauthorized access to services or assets
Unapproved or automated methods of accessing the service

Content Violations

The Platform uses a Three-Strikes system which is primarily used to track Content violations (e.g. use of generative AI, unauthorized copyrighted Content, etc.)

Content Strikes are tied to each User account and do not expire.
Each instance of infringing Content (e.g. one song, part of a song, element, etc.) will merit one strike. Any Content receiving a strike will be disabled and removed from public visibility.
If a song is identified as infringing, one strike will be applied to each Artist's account associated with the infringing song, and all pending payouts for the song will be forfeit. This ensures accountability for all parties sharing in the revenue from the infringing work.
If an Artist's account reaches three strikes, they become ineligible to receive any pending payouts from the Platform and their share of song distributions is removed from payout calculations for any songs they are associated with. This allows any pending payouts to go to other Artists credited for non-infringing songs. If a song has no other eligible Artists for pending payouts to go to, funds will instead be held for 30 days by the Platform to allow for appeals before being forfeited to the General Fund.

Fund Forfeiture

This refers to any unpaid funds generated from Listener activity for a song which would have otherwise resulted in a distribution to an Artist. The Platform holds all Subscription-based funds until the end of each Subscription period at which point the Platform calculates the amount to be distributed. Distribution is based on Listener activity, each Listener's respective Subscription share, and the payout split per song as determined by the Band manager or an authorized Band member.

Appeals

If a User believes in good faith that their Content or account incorrectly received a strike or other disciplinary action, they may appeal by logging in to the website, navigating to their account page, and selecting the option to start an appeal, or alternatively by emailing us at staff at station dot moe.

9. Dispute Resolution

The laws of Wisconsin, United States shall govern these Terms and your use of the Service. Your use of the Platform may also be subject to other local, state, national, or international laws. If you have any concern or dispute about the Service, you agree to first try to resolve the dispute informally by contacting the Platform. Use of the Platform constitutes acceptance of these Terms and the procedures outlined herein.

Arbitration

Any dispute or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms shall be resolved through binding arbitration in accordance with the laws of Wisconsin. You and Station.moe agree that all such claims must be brought in your individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class or representative action. All arbitration shall be conducted on an individual basis.

10. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall the Platform or its suppliers be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, or consequential damages whatsoever (including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, loss of data or other information, for business interruption, for personal injury, loss of privacy arising out of or in any way related to the use of or inability to use the Service, third-party software and/or third-party hardware used with the Service, or otherwise in connection with any provision of these Terms), even if the Platform or any supplier has been advised of the possibility of such damages and even if the remedy fails of its essential purpose.

Some states or territories do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, which means that some of the above limitations may not apply. In these states or territories, each party's liability will be limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided to You "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" and with all faults and defects without warranty of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted under applicable law, the Platform, on its own behalf and on behalf of its respective licensors and service providers, expressly disclaims all warranties, whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, with respect to the Service, including all implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement, and warranties that may arise out of course of dealing, course of performance, usage or trade practice. Without limitation to the foregoing, the Platform provides no warranty or undertaking, and makes no representation of any kind that the Service will meet a User's requirements, achieve any intended results, be compatible or work with any other software, applications, systems or services, operate without interruption, meet any performance or reliability standards or be error free or that any errors or defects can or will be corrected.

Without limiting the foregoing, neither the Platform nor any of the Platform's providers make any representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied: (i) as to the operation or availability of the Service, or the information, content, and materials or products included thereon; (ii) that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free; (iii) as to the accuracy, reliability, or currency of any information or content provided through the Service; or (iv) that the Service, its servers, the content, or e-mails sent from or on behalf of the Platform are free of viruses, scripts, trojan horses, worms, malware, timebombs or other harmful components.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain types of warranties or limitations on applicable statutory rights of a consumer, so some or all of the above exclusions and limitations may not apply to you. But in such a case the exclusions and limitations set forth in this section shall be applied to the greatest extent enforceable under applicable law.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold Station.moe harmless from and against all damages, losses, and expenses of any kind arising out of or related to your breach of these terms, any User Content you contribute, any activity in which you engage on or through the Platform's service, and your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.

13. Contact

If you have questions or comments, you may email us at staff at station dot moe or contact us by post at:

Gensokyo Radio
PO Box 365
Somerset, WI 54025
United States