Haven Artist Agreement
WORKING DRAFT FOR COUNSEL (David Chatfield). Bracketed items (
[LIKE THIS]) are intentional fill-ins. Align with the consumer Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, andRIDER-OUTLINE.mdbefore publish. This is a working draft for counsel to edit — not a substitute for professional judgment.
Version: HAVEN-AA-2026-09-HUMAN-1
Last updated: [DATE]
Service: Haven music streaming — https://havenmusic.us
Operator: [COMPANY LEGAL NAME], a [STATE] [entity type] (“Haven,” “we,” “us”)
Contact: davidblakechatfield@gmail.com
This Artist Agreement (the “Agreement”) is entered into by and between Haven and the individual or entity accepting this Agreement (the “Rights Holder,” “you”). By clicking to accept, signing electronically, or uploading content after being presented with this Agreement, Rights Holder agrees to these terms.
1. Parties
Rights Holder means the artist, label, manager, or other person or entity that controls (or is authorized to license) the sound recordings, artwork, credits, liner notes, booklet materials, and related metadata submitted to Haven (collectively, “Content”).
Haven means [COMPANY LEGAL NAME], operator of the Haven service at https://havenmusic.us and related apps and APIs (the “Service”).
If Rights Holder acts on behalf of an entity or another rights owner, Rights Holder represents that it has authority to bind that party to this Agreement.
2. Purpose; Lane A direct-upload license
This Agreement covers Lane A direct ingest: Content uploaded by Rights Holder (or an authorized agent) to Haven for hosting and streaming on the Service.
Subject to this Agreement, Rights Holder grants Haven a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing (as described in Section 7) license to:
- host, store, cache, and stream the Content;
- create lossless technical derivatives solely as needed for delivery, playback compatibility, integrity checks, fingerprinting, and archival (including format conversion that does not intentionally alter artistic content);
- display artwork, credits, liner notes, booklet PDFs, and related metadata;
- promote the release on Haven (e.g., New Releases, artist pages, editorial features within the Service); and
- otherwise operate the Service with respect to the Content.
No ownership of masters or publishing is transferred (see Section 3). The license is limited to operating and promoting Haven and does not authorize Haven to sell physical goods or to sublicense Content for third-party generative AI training (see Section 8).
3. Ownership
Haven claims no ownership of Rights Holder’s sound recording copyrights (“masters”) or musical composition copyrights (“publishing”), except for the limited license in Section 2. As between the parties, Rights Holder retains all rights not expressly granted. Haven’s trademarks, software, and Service IP remain Haven’s property.
4. Non-alteration & version transparency
Consistent with Haven’s product rider (RIDER-OUTLINE.md):
- Haven stores the delivered master as an immutable archive (WAV/AIFF/FLAC as supplied), subject to ordinary technical storage and integrity mechanisms.
- Streamable lossless derivatives are derived from that archive. Haven will not substitute a different master without a new version ID and clear labeling.
- Haven will not upsample to claim higher resolution than the source, and will not apply a “Studio Master” (or equivalent) badge without passing Haven’s integrity checks.
- Immersive mixes (if any) are optional separate versions, never a silent replacement for stereo.
- Multiple approved versions may coexist (original, remaster, anniversary, Atmos, etc.), each labeled with year and engineer when known. Haven will not auto-replace an existing version when a new file is delivered.
- Consumer playback defaults are dry (no EQ, loudness normalization, crossfade, or spatializer applied by Haven as a default). Listener-enabled processing, if any, is client-side and indicated in the UI; the source archive remains unchanged.
5. Representations and warranties
Rights Holder represents and warrants that:
- Authority. Rights Holder has all rights, licenses, consents, and authority necessary to grant the license in Section 2 and to perform under this Agreement (including authority from co-owners, featured artists, labels, and publishers as applicable).
- Cleared samples. Any samples, interpolations, or third-party material embodied in the Content are cleared for the uses contemplated here, or no such material is present.
- No infringement. Upload and Haven’s exercise of the license will not infringe or misappropriate any copyright, trademark, right of publicity, privacy right, or other right of any third party, and will not violate applicable law.
- Accurate metadata. Credits, titles, artist names, ownership splits (when provided), and other metadata submitted are accurate to Rights Holder’s knowledge and not knowingly misleading.
- No malware. Uploaded files do not contain malware, viruses, or other harmful code.
- Human-made music only. The performing/credited artist(s) are natural persons (or conventional human bands/ensembles/projects), not “AI artists,” virtual AI personas, or synthetic performers presented as artists. The musical composition(s), sound recording(s), and any lyrics embodied in the Content were created by humans and were not authored, composed, generated, or substantially written by generative artificial intelligence (including AI lyric generators, AI composition tools, or AI vocal/instrument synthesis marketed as replacing human authorship). Ordinary digital tools (DAWs, plugins, tuning, sampling of cleared human performances) do not by themselves violate this warranty; generative AI authorship of the music or lyrics does.
6. Moral rights / credits
[PLACEHOLDER — counsel to localize.] Where moral rights or analogous rights apply, Rights Holder (a) consents to Haven’s technical processing described in Sections 2 and 4 to the extent permitted by law, and (b) requires that Haven display credits and liner materials as reasonably provided by Rights Holder, subject to Service formatting limits. Nothing in this draft waives non-waivable moral rights under mandatory law.
7. Commercial terms
Commercial economics are [subject to then-current payout policy] published by Haven. Product targets currently referenced in Haven materials include:
- ~70% of net subscription revenue allocated to rights holders on a user-centric basis;
- Tips: Haven processing fee only (product target ~5%), not a content cut;
- Equal on-platform share rules for majors and independents using Haven;
- Direct Haven ingest: no extra Haven distributor cut on the recording share for independents using Haven upload (Lane A).
Exact rates, definitions of “net,” holdbacks, integrity adjustments, payment thresholds, tax forms, and timing are governed by Haven’s then-current payout policy and any separate commercial schedule. This Agreement does not itself guarantee any minimum payment.
8. No exclusivity; human-made catalog; no AI training on catalog
- This Agreement is non-exclusive. Rights Holder may distribute the same Content on other storefronts and services.
- Haven is a human-music service. Rights Holder shall not upload Content that violates the human-made warranty in Section 5. Haven may remove Content, suspend privileges, or terminate this Agreement if it reasonably believes Content or the credited artist is AI-authored or an AI artist persona.
- Haven will not train generative models on Rights Holder’s licensed/uploaded catalog for generative audio features, and will not offer synthesized “in the style of” audio presented as the artist, as a product policy under this Agreement. [Counsel: align with final ToS/Privacy language.]
9. Takedown, fingerprinting, suspension
- Haven may fingerprint Content for collision detection, uncleared-sample signals, and integrity enforcement.
- Haven may remove or disable Content, suspend upload privileges, or terminate this Agreement for breach, legal risk, fraud/stream abuse, repeated infringement notices, or as required by law.
- Rights Holder may request takedown of its own uploads via the contact in Section 15; Haven will process in a commercially reasonable time subject to legal holds and payout reconciliation.
- Repeat-offender and notice-and-takedown procedures: [PLACEHOLDER — align with DMCA / ToS copyright section.]
10. Indemnification (core)
Rights Holder shall defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Haven and its officers, directors, employees, agents, and contractors from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and costs (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or related to:
(a) the Content uploaded or submitted by or on behalf of Rights Holder;
(b) breach of Rights Holder’s representations, warranties, or obligations under this Agreement;
(c) alleged infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property or other rights arising from the Content or its metadata; or
(d) failure to clear rights, samples, or third-party materials embodied in the Content; or
(e) any breach of the human-made / no-AI-artist warranty in Section 5, including claims that the Content or credited artist was AI-generated or misrepresented as human-authored.
Control of defense. Haven may participate in the defense with counsel of its choosing at its own expense. Rights Holder will not settle any claim in a manner that admits fault by Haven or imposes obligations on Haven other than payment of amounts indemnified hereunder, without Haven’s prior written consent (not to be unreasonably withheld).
11. Limitation of liability
[PLACEHOLDER — counsel to finalize; align with consumer ToS.]
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, HAVEN’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY UNDER THIS AGREEMENT SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) AMOUNTS PAID BY HAVEN TO RIGHTS HOLDER UNDER THIS AGREEMENT IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US $100). HAVEN SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR LOST PROFITS, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY. These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited under applicable law. Rights Holder’s indemnification obligations under Section 10 are not subject to the foregoing cap [confirm with counsel].
12. Term; termination; survival
This Agreement begins on acceptance and continues until terminated. Either party may terminate for convenience on [X days’] written notice, or immediately for material breach if uncured within [X days’] notice (or immediately if incurable). Upon termination, Haven will cease public streaming of the affected Content within a commercially reasonable period, subject to cached copies, offline licenses already issued to subscribers, legal holds, and payout reconciliation. Sections 3, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 survive termination.
13. Governing law
This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of [STATE], without regard to conflict-of-law principles. [Venue / arbitration placeholder — counsel to set.]
14. Electronic acceptance
Rights Holder acknowledges that electronic acceptance (including clickwrap checkboxes, typed signature, and dated acceptance records stored by Haven) constitutes a valid signature and agreement under the E-SIGN Act and applicable state law, to the extent permitted. Haven may retain records of acceptance (name, email, role, entity/DBA if provided, agreement version, timestamp, and technical metadata such as user agent). Passwords are not collected via this Agreement flow.
15. Contact
Questions about this Agreement: davidblakechatfield@gmail.com
Operator: [COMPANY LEGAL NAME], [ADDRESS]
Service: https://havenmusic.us
Document ID: HAVEN-AA-2026-09-HUMAN-1 — working draft for counsel.