Legal

Terms of Service

Last updated: July 18, 2026

The short version

The deal, plainly: the server, the web player, and the desktop app are free. The iPhone and Android apps are paid via the Songstress Pro subscription. Your music is yours and your responsibility; your server is yours and your responsibility. We sell software, not your data.

The rest of this page is that paragraph with the details filled in. The short version doesn't replace the long one, but the long one contains no surprises.

1. The agreement

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and Pacholo Amit, an independent software developer based in the Philippines ("Songstress", "we", "us"), covering the songstress.app website and download service, the official Songstress applications for desktop, iPhone, and Android, and the Songstress Pro subscription (together, the "Services"). By using any of them, you agree to these Terms and to the Privacy Policy.

2. What Songstress is

Songstress is self-hosted music software: a server you run on your own hardware, plus players for web, desktop, and mobile that connect to it. We provide the software and the surrounding services; we do not host your music, operate your server, or provide the content you play.

  • Free: the Songstress server, the web player, and the desktop apps.
  • Paid: the iPhone and Android apps, unlocked by the Songstress Pro subscription (section 5).

3. The source-code license

Songstress's source code is available on GitHub under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0. That license — not these Terms — governs what you may do with the source code, including building and modifying it for noncommercial use. These Terms govern the Services we operate and the official builds we distribute. If these Terms and the source license ever conflict about the source code, the source license wins.

4. Accounts and eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old (or the higher minimum your local law sets) to use the Services. Accounts on a Songstress instance are created and managed on that instance — by you or whoever operates it — not by us. You are responsible for keeping your credentials secure and for what happens under your account on your instance.

5. Songstress Pro

Songstress Pro unlocks the mobile apps. Without it, the mobile apps offer a limited number of free plays (currently ten) so you can try them; browsing your library is always free.

  • Plans. Monthly (US$4.99/month), Yearly (US$39.99/year), and Lifetime (US$149.99, one time). Prices are in US dollars; the store shows the equivalent in your local currency, which may vary by region and by store adjustments (taxes, exchange rates).
  • Free trials. Subscriptions start with a 7-day free trial. Trials convert to a paid subscription automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends.
  • Billing and renewal.Pro is billed by Apple or Google, not by us. Subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled in your App Store or Google Play subscription settings; cancelling stops future renewals but doesn't refund the current period.
  • Refunds.Refunds are handled by Apple and Google under their policies, because they are the merchants of record. We can't issue card refunds ourselves, though you're welcome to email us and we'll help you navigate the store process.
  • Lifetime. The Lifetime plan is a one-time purchase that unlocks Pro for as long as we offer the Songstress apps, on every device signed in to your account.
  • Scope.Pro attaches to your account and covers your personal devices. It doesn't license commercial redistribution of Songstress — the source license governs that.
  • Price changes. If prices change, the change applies prospectively — at your next renewal, with notice through the store — never retroactively.

6. The free-stays-free promise

The covenant published on our homepage is part of how we operate: features that are free today will not become paid later. The core player, your library, and everything self-hosted keep working without an account with us and without a subscription. New premium conveniences may be added to Pro over time; existing free features will not be moved behind it.

7. Your content and your responsibility

Songstress plays media that youprovide. We don't supply, license, or verify your content, and we can't see your library. You are solely responsible for the media on your server and for how you acquired it:

  • You represent that you have the legal right to possess, store, and play the content in your library in your jurisdiction.
  • You will not use the software or Services to infringe copyright or other intellectual-property rights.
  • If you connect third-party services (metadata, lyrics, artwork, playlist import, or any other integration), you do so under those services' own terms, and you are responsible for complying with them.
  • If you operate an instance for others (family, friends), you are responsible for their use of it and for having the rights needed to share your library with them under local law.

8. Running your own server

Self-hosting means you are the operator. You are responsible for your server's security, backups, network exposure, and lawful operation. We ship the software with care, but we cannot see, manage, repair, or recover your instance or its data. Back up your library.

9. Acceptable use

When using the Services you agree not to:

  • Break the law, or use the Services to help anyone else break it.
  • Probe, overload, disrupt, or abuse the website, the download service, or any infrastructure we operate.
  • Misrepresent purchase or entitlement state to our systems, or interfere with the purchase verification that Songstress Pro relies on.
  • Resell, sublicense, or commercially redistribute the Services or official builds without a separate agreement with us.
  • Remove or falsify notices of origin, or pass Songstress off as your own product.

10. Updates and changes to the software

The apps check for and install updates (including over-the-air updates on mobile) so everyone runs current, safe builds. We may add, change, or retire features over time, always subject to section 6. We may discontinue a Service with reasonable notice; your self-hosted software keeps working regardless — it never depends on us being online.

11. Intellectual property

The Songstress name, logo, and branding belong to us; these Terms don't grant you rights to use them except to truthfully refer to the product. The source code remains available under its own license (section 3). If you send us feedback or ideas, you grant us a perpetual, royalty-free license to use them without obligation — that's how suggestions become features.

12. Disclaimer of warranties

The Services and software are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We don't warrant that the software is error-free or uninterrupted, or that it will suit your particular setup. Some jurisdictions don't allow certain warranty exclusions, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

13. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary damages — including lost data, lost profits, or the cost of substitute services — arising from your use of the Services or software. Our total liability for all claims is capped at the greater of (a) the amounts you paid us for Songstress Pro in the 12 months before the claim and (b) US$50.

Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law, including under Philippine consumer-protection law or the mandatory consumer laws of your country of residence.

14. Indemnity

You will defend and hold us harmless from claims arising out of your content, your instance and how you operate it, or your violation of these Terms — including reasonable legal fees. This matters because we distribute software; we don't control what you play with it.

15. Termination

You can stop using the Services at any time; subscriptions are cancelled through the store. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Services we operate if you materially violate these Terms. Sections that by their nature should survive (7, 11–14, 17) survive termination.

Termination of these Terms does not switch off your self-hosted server — the software you run under the source license continues under that license.

16. App-store terms

The mobile apps are distributed through the Apple App Store and Google Play, and their terms apply on top of ours. For apps obtained from Apple: these Terms are between you and us, not Apple; Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app and is not responsible for any product-liability, legal-compliance, or intellectual-property claims relating to it; and Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms with the right to enforce them against you. For apps obtained from Google Play, the Google Play Terms of Service also apply.

17. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of the Philippines, and disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of the Philippines — except that if you are a consumer, you keep any protections and venue rights that the mandatory laws of your country of residence give you.

18. Changes to these terms

If we change these Terms, we'll update the date at the top; for material changes we'll say so on this website or in the apps before the changes take effect. Continuing to use the Services after that means you accept the updated Terms. Changes never apply retroactively.

19. Miscellany

These Terms plus the Privacy Policy and the source license are the whole agreement between us about the Services. If a provision is found unenforceable, the rest stands. If we don't enforce a provision, we haven't waived it. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them as part of a transfer of the product, and section 6 binds any successor.

20. Contact

Pacholo Amit — pacholoamit.tech@gmail.com. Questions about these Terms, store purchases, or anything unclear on this page are welcome.