Welcome
to the Indie Distribution Artist Digital Distribution Agreement
("Agreement").
This Agreement contains the terms and conditions under which
Indie Distribution offers the "Digital Download and Distribution Service". Use of the Digital Download and Distribution Service constitutes your agreement
to and acceptance of this Agreement.
Indie Distribution (a division of Xtreme Digital Media Ltd.,
along with our licensees and assignees collectively referred
to in this Agreement as “us,” “we,” and “Indie Distribution”)
reserves the right to add, delete and/or modify any of the
terms and conditions contained in this Agreement, at any time
and in its sole discretion, by posting a change notice or
a new agreement on the Site. In the event of substantive changes
to the terms of this Agreement, you will be notified by email.
If any modification is unacceptable to you, your only recourse
is to discontinue use of the Digital Download and Distribution
Service. Your continued use of the Digital Download and Distribution
Service, following posting of a change notice or new agreement
on the Site (as more fully described below in Paragraph 8),
will constitute your binding acceptance of the changes.
The following, when accepted by you (whether as an individual,
or as the authorized representative for an artist, band, group,
or corporation) and us shall be a binding contract. Please
read this Agreement carefully. By entering your name and clicking
on the “I AGREE” button below, you will become a party to,
and will be bound by this Agreement, which may be modified
as further described in Section 8 below. The “Effective Date”
of this Agreement is the date on which you click the “I AGREE”
button below.
1. Authorization:
(a) You hereby appoint us as your authorized representative
for the sale and other distribution of Your Authorized Content
as described below. While selling your music on indiedistribution.co.uk
is non-exclusive, the rights granted by you to us under this
Artist Digital Distribution Agreement are exclusive, because
online retailers do not want to receive the same content delivered
by multiple companies. Accordingly, you hereby grant to us
the exclusive right, and to our licensees (herein each a “Licensee”)
the non-exclusive right, during the Term and throughout the
Territory, to:
(i) Reproduce and convert Your Authorized Content into Digital
Masters;
(ii) Perform and make available, for promotional purposes
and without remuneration to the artist, portions of Your Authorized
Content (“Clips”) by “streaming” to promote the license, sale
and distribution of Digital Masters;
(iii) Promote, sell, license, distribute, and deliver Digital
Masters (as individual tracks or entire albums) and associated
metadata to purchasers and resellers who may use such Digital
Masters in accordance with usage rules approved by us;
(iv) Use and authorize others to license the use of and sale
of Your Authorized Content in connection with all manner of
phone services, such as, but not limited to, sales or licenses
of Digital Masters as downloads (including, without limitation,
downloads to cell phones) and for use as ringtones and ringback
tones;
(v) Use so-called “kiosks” to distribute, market and promote
Digital Masters, including, without limitation, by allowing
the burning of compact disc copies of any Digital Master or
by allowing a copy of a Digital Master to be transferred to
personal devices;
(vi) Use and authorize others to allow copies of a Digital
Master to be distributed as so-called “conditional” downloads,
whether tethered to a device, time limited, play limited or
otherwise;
(vii) “Stream” and authorize others to “stream” Your Authorized
Content, either on-demand or as part of an internet radio
service;
(viii) Use and distribute Copyright Management Information
as embodied in a Digital Master;
(ix) Display and electronically fulfil and deliver Authorized
Artwork used in connection with Your Authorized Content for
personal use, solely in conjunction with the applicable Digital
Master;
(x) Use Your Authorized Content, Authorized Artwork, and metadata
as may be reasonably necessary or desirable for us to exercise
our rights under this Agreement; and
(xi) Authorize our Licensees to perform any one or more of
the activities specified above.
(b) While you are free to pursue other avenues to distribute
your Content online, you hereby agree to grant Indie Distribution
the exclusive right to digitally distribute your Authorized
Content to our partners in accordance with the grant of rights
chosen in your digital distribution service option (e.g.,
to prevent multiple parties delivering the same content multiple
times to the same partners), for as long as you are signed
up to deliver to those partners through indie distribution.
Furthermore, you grant Indie Distribution the exclusive right
to digitally distribute your content to future partners that
naturally fit within your chosen distribution option, unless
specified otherwise by way of set restrictions in your member
site.
2. Term: The Term of this Agreement will commence on the Effective
Date and will continue, unless and until terminated by either
you or us, upon thirty (30) days written notice.
3. Payments to You:
(a) Wholesale rates: For content LICENSED TO AND/OR resold
through our distribution partner network Licensees (including
iTunes, Amazon.com, eMusic, Rhapsody, and other partners)
we will pay you an amount equal to ninety percent (90%)
of the net AMOUNT that we receive from Licensees for the sale
or other licensed uses of your Digital Masters ("License
Fee")..
(b) Retail sales rates: For content sold at retail prices
directly through our retail store we will pay you an amount
equal to seventy-five percent (75%) of the retail price that
we receive from the customer for the sale or other licensed
uses of Your Authorized Content
(c) All accounting details will be available to you and
accounted monthly. We will make payments to you when
the amounts credited
to you exceed £20.00 with Indie Distribution. Such payment
will constitute full and adequate consideration for all
rights granted, and all obligations undertaken, by
you in this Agreement.
For the avoidance of doubt, you have the right to affiliate
with a performance rights society and Sound Exchange or
other entity to collect monies that may be payable
to you for the
public performance of Your Authorized Content.
(d) We will maintain books and records which report the
sale or other licensed uses of your Digital Masters. You
may, but
not more than once a year, at your own expense, examine
those books and records, as provided in this Section 3(b),
only.
You may make those examinations only for the purpose of
verifying the accuracy of the statements sent to you. All
such examinations
will be carried out by Qualified Chartered Accountants.
You may make such an examination for a particular statement
only
once, and only within one (1) year after the date we send
you that statement. You may make such an examination only
during our usual business hours, and at the place where
we keep the books and records to be examined. If you wish
to
make an examination, you will be required to notify us at
least thirty (60) days before the date when you plan to begin
it. We may postpone the commencement of your examination by
notice given to you not later than five (5) days before the
commencement date specified in your notice; if we do so,
the running of the time within which the examination may be
made will be suspended during the postponement. If your examination
has not been completed within one (1) month from the time
you begin it, we may require you to terminate it on seven
(7) days' notice to you at any time; we will not be required
to permit you to continue the examination after the end of
that seven (7) day period. You will not be entitled to examine
any other records that do not specifically report sales or
other licensed uses of the Digital Masters. You may engage
a certified charted accountant to make such an examination
for you, but not if (s)he or his/her firm has begun an examination
of our books and records for anyone else, unless the examination
has been concluded and any applicable audit issues have been
resolved. Such certified charted accountant will act only
under an acceptable confidentiality agreement, which provides
that any information derived from such audit or examination
will not be knowingly released, divulged or published to any person, firm or corporation, other than to you or to a judicial
or administrative body in connection with any proceeding relating
to this Agreement.
(e) If you have any objections to a statement, you will
give us specific notice of that objection and your reasons
for
it within one (1) year after the date when we are required
to send you that statement. Each statement will become conclusively
binding on you at the end of that six (6) month period,
and you will no longer have any right to make any other
objections
to it. You will not have the right to sue us in connection
with any statement, or to sue us for License Fees on sales
and licenses during the period a statement covers, unless
you commence the suit within that six (6) month period.
If you commence suit on any controversy or claim concerning
statements
rendered to you under this Agreement in an English court
of competent jurisdiction, the scope of the proceeding will be
limited to determination of the amount of the License Fees
due for the accounting periods concerned, and the court will
have no authority to consider any other issues or award any
relief except recovery of any License Fees found owing.
Your recovery of any such royalties will be the sole remedy
available to you by reason of any claim related to our statements.
4. Your Obligations: You or a licensee (on your behalf)
will obtain and pay for any and all clearances or licenses
required
in the Territory (or any portion thereof) for the use of
Your Authorized Content, and Authorized Artwork and metadata
as
intended by this Agreement. By way of example, you will
be responsible for the payment of mechanical royalties in
territories
where such royalties are not collected by a rights society.
Specifically, and without limiting the generality of the
foregoing, you or a licensee on your behalf will be responsible
for and
shall pay (i) any royalties and other sums due to artists,
authors, co-authors, copyright owners and co-owners, producers
and any other record royalty participants from sales or
other uses of Digital Masters, (ii) all mechanical royalties or
other sums payable to publishers and/or authors or co-authors
of musical compositions embodied in Digital Masters from sales
or other uses of Digital, (iii) all payments that may be required
under any collective bargaining agreements
applicable to you or any third party, and (iv) any other royalties,
fees and/or sums payable with respect to Your Authorized Content,
and Authorized Artwork, metadata or other materials provided
by you to us. You agree that the amount payable to you is
inclusive of any so-called “artist royalties” that might otherwise
be required to be paid for sales or exploitations pursuant
to the applicable laws of any jurisdiction.
5. Right to Withdraw Material: You have the right, at any
time during the Term, to withdraw your permission for the
sale or other uses of Your Authorized Content and Authorized
Artwork, upon written notice to us (“Withdrawal”). Within
5 business days following our receipt of your notice of
Withdrawal, we will advise our Licensees that they are no
longer authorized
to offer the sale or other use of Your Authorized Content
or Authorized Artwork. Sending of your notice of Withdrawal
will not limit your responsibility for sales and other uses
of Your Authorized Content and/or Authorized Artwork that
occurred prior to the implementation of such Withdrawal
and will not limit in any way the rights of end users who
have
acquired Your Authorized Content or Authorized Artwork. Indie
Distribution is not responsible for any delays of our Licensees
in removing Your Authorized Content and Authorized Artwork.
6. Names and Likenesses; Promotional Use and Opportunities:
(a) You hereby grant to us, during the Term, the right to
use and to authorize our Licensees to use the names and
approved likenesses of, and biographical material concerning
any artists,
bands, producers and/or songwriters, as well as track and/or
album name, and Authorized Artwork, in any marketing materials
for the sale, promotion and advertising of the applicable
Digital Master, which is offered for sale or other use under
the terms of this Agreement (e.g., an artist or band name
and likeness may be used in an informational fashion, such
as by textual displays or other informational passages,
to identify and represent authorship, production credits,
and
performances of the applicable artist or band in connection
with the exploitation of applicable Digital Masters).
(b) You hereby grant to us and our Licensees the right to
market, promote and advertise the Digital Masters as available
for purchase or license, as we and they determine in our
and their discretion.
7. Ownership: Subject to our rights hereunder or under any
prior agreement between you and us, as between you and us,
all right, title and interest in and to (i) Your Authorized
Content and Authorized Artwork, (ii) the Digital Masters,
(iii) the Clips, (iv) all copyrights and equivalent rights
embodied therein, and (v) all materials furnished by you,
will be yours.
8. Modification, Termination and Effect of Termination:
(a) We reserve the right to change, modify, add to, or remove
all or part of this Agreement, in our sole discretion. Notice
of any such change will be sent to you by email at least
seven (7) days prior to its effective date. In the event
that you
do not consent to any such proposed changes, your sole recourse
shall be to terminate the Term of this Agreement, by notice
to us as provided above, and your failure to do so within
ten (10) days of the date of any such email from us to you
shall constitute your acceptance of such changes.
(b) The expiration or termination of the Term will not relieve
either you or us from our respective obligations incurred
prior to or during the Term. Accordingly, applicable provisions
of this Agreement will continue to apply even after the
expiration of the Term.
9. Indemnification: You hereby indemnify, save, and hold
us harmless from any and all damages, liabilities, costs,
losses
and expenses (including, but not limited to, legal costs
and attorneys' fees) arising out of or connected with any
claim,
demand, or action which is inconsistent with any of the
warranties, representations, covenants or agreements made
by you in this
Agreement, including, but not limited to, your representations
and warranties regarding copyrights or any other rights
in and to any other forms of intellectual property. You
will
reimburse us, on demand, for any payment made by us at any
time with respect to any damage, liability, cost, loss or
expense to which the foregoing indemnity applies. Pending
the determination of any claim, demand, or action, we may,
at our election, withhold payment of any monies otherwise
payable to you hereunder in an amount which does not exceed
your potential liability to us pursuant to this paragraph.
10. Additional Representations and Warranties of the Parties:
(a) You represent and warrant that you have the full authority
to act on behalf of any and all owners of any right, title
or interest in and to Your Authorized Content or Authorized
Artwork, or metadata.
(b) You represent and warrant that you own or control the
necessary rights in order to make the grant of rights, licenses
and permissions herein, and that the exercise of such rights,
licenses and permissions by us and our Licensees shall not
violate or infringe the rights of any third party.
(c) You and we represent and warrant that we will not act
in any manner which conflicts or interferes with any existing
commitment or obligation of the other party, and that no
agreement previously entered into by you or us will interfere
with our
performance of our obligations under this Agreement.
(d) Each party represents and warrants that it shall perform
its obligations hereunder in full compliance with any applicable
laws, rules and regulations of any governmental authority
having jurisdiction over such performance.
(e) We make no guarantees whatsoever about there being any
minimum sales or uses of any Digital Master.
11. General Provisions:
(a) The parties hereto agree and acknowledge that the relationship
between them is that of independent contractors. This Agreement
shall not be deemed to create a partnership or joint venture,
and neither party is the other's agent, partner, or employee.
(b) This Agreement contains the entire understanding of
the parties relating to the subject matter hereof. This
Agreement
supersedes all previous agreements or arrangements between
us pertaining to the digital distribution of content, provided
that if you previously entered into a digital distribution
agreement with us in the past, and elected any options,
those options will remain in place under this Agreement.
This Agreement
cannot be changed or modified except as provided herein.
A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this
Agreement
will not be deemed or construed as a waiver of such term
or condition, or of any subsequent breach thereof. If any
provision
of this Agreement is determined by a court of competent
jurisdiction to be unenforceable, such determination shall not affect any
other provision hereof, and the unenforceable provision shall
be replaced by an enforceable provision that most closely
meets the commercial intent of the parties.
(c) This Agreement will be binding on the assigns, heirs,
executors, affiliates, agents, personal representatives,
administrators, and successors (whether through merger,
operation of law,
or otherwise) of each of the parties.
(d) Any notice, approval, request, authorization, direction
or other communication under this Agreement shall be given
in writing and shall be deemed to have been delivered and
given for all purposes on the delivery date if sent by electronic
mail to the addresses provided to and by you upon registration
with the Indie Distribution site, or as properly updated.
(e) This Agreement will be governed and interpreted in accordance
with the laws of the State of California applicable to agreements
entered into and to be wholly performed in California, without
regard to conflict of laws principles.
(f) To the extent permitted by applicable law, the rights
and remedies of the parties provided under this Agreement
are cumulative and are in addition to any other rights and
remedies of the parties at law or equity.
(g) The titles used in this Agreement are for convenience
only and are not to be considered in construing or interpreting
this Agreement.
(h) This Agreement is for the sole benefit of the parties
hereto and their authorized successors and permitted assigns.
Nothing herein, express or implied, is intended to or shall
confer upon any person or entity, other than the parties
hereto and their authorized successors and permitted assigns,
any
legal or equitable right, benefit or remedy of any nature
whatsoever under or by reason of this Agreement.
12. Certain Definitions: The following capitalized terms
shall have the following meanings for purposes of this Agreement:
(a) “Authorized Artwork” means album cover artwork and any
other artwork relating to Your Authorized Content that you
provide to us. All such artwork will be deemed to have been
properly cleared and/or licensed by you for all purposes,
unless you provide us with written notice to the contrary.
(b) "Authorized Territory”
means the Universe, or more limited territories, if you so
choose, in the registration process.
(c) “Copyright Management Information” means the digital
information conveying information regarding a Digital Master,
such as
your name, the title of the applicable album, the name of
the song and the record company name, and same shall be
subject to the protection of Title 17, Section 1202 of the
United
States Copyright Law.
(d) “Digital Master” or “Digital Masters” means a copy or
copies of Your Authorized Content in digital form.
(e) “Licensee” means any third party licensee, by way of
example, Apple iTunes, MediaNet, Rhapsody, Napster or others
that we
may authorize to carry out the marketing, distribution and
sale or other use of Your Authorized Content and Authorized
Artwork pursuant to the terms of this Agreement.
(f) “Your Authorized Content” means sound recordings and
underlying musical compositions that you have designated
for digital
distribution by us. Any such sound recordings and the underlying
musical compositions must be owned or controlled by you
and/or have been cleared by you for all purposes and rights
granted
and authorized hereunder by you.
|