Terms of use

1. Who can use Stackapella

You must be 13 or over to have an account. Coaching and choir groups are for people 18 and over.

You don't need an account to learn and record: your songs then stay in your browser on that device. Browsers can clear what websites store, so we suggest installing the app or saving your songs to a free account to keep them safe.

2. Your account

• Keep your sign-in details to yourself. You're responsible for what happens on your account.
• Give us an email address you can receive, and keep it up to date.
• One person per account. Don't make accounts to get around a limit, a trial or a suspension.
• Your handle and name must not copy someone else's or Stackapella's, or be offensive.

You can download your data or delete your account at any time in Settings.

3. Your recordings and what you make

You own your recordings. To run the app, you give us permission to store them, copy them between your devices, process them (for example to make a mix, a share video or a share card), and play them to the people you choose: the friends you invite to a project, the people you send a share link to, and a coach or teacher you send a take to. This permission ends when you delete the recording or your account, apart from copies that take up to six weeks to clear from our backups (see the privacy policy).

Only record and share singing (or playing) that's yours, or that the people on it have agreed to share. A shared harmony must be one you made in the app, not a recording of someone else's music.

Templates you make: when you make a template, you confirm that you have the right to use the song and the arrangement. If you publish a template publicly (in the library), you confirm that the song is your own or in the public domain, and that the arrangement and any recordings in it are your own. You give us permission to host and show it, credited to your public profile, and let other people learn from it, rate it, record with it and make their own copies of it (remixes, which credit yours) in the app, for as long as it stays published. Projects people made from it keep their copy after you unpublish it. A creator's first public templates are checked before they're listed, and we may take any of them out of the library under section 12.

4. Sharing by link

When you share a harmony, anyone with its link can hear it. Shared harmonies are unlisted: they aren't listed in the app or offered to search engines, but a link can be passed on. You can stop sharing at any time. The page then goes within a few minutes (a copy can stay in a browser or a link preview that already loaded it a little longer).

Every shared page has a Report button. If enough people report a page, it's hidden until we've looked at it.

4a. Featuring and the gallery

A harmony is public when you say yes to us featuring it (on our accounts, such as X and Bluesky), or put it in the gallery (where anyone can find it, on your public profile). A share link alone never makes it public. Public harmonies, public profiles, comments and follows are for people 18 and over, and everyone who sang on a harmony must agree before it's public.

When a harmony is public, you give us permission to:

• show it to anyone, in the app, on its page and on your profile, with your name and your profile's name;
• feature it on our accounts and in the app, credited to you;
• use its parts as guide voices for other singers learning the same song in the app, as one of the voices they can choose for that part, and we may make one the voice they hear first for that part (they can still switch to another), always credited to you by your profile's name.

This permission ends when the harmony stops being public: when you turn featuring off and take it out of the gallery, delete it, or delete your account (or when a friend who sang on it takes back their yes). We then stop using its parts as guide voices and take down what we posted about it, apart from copies that take up to six weeks to clear from our backups.

Comments are plain text, and you're responsible for yours. You can turn comments off on your own harmonies, delete comments on them, and block anyone.

4b. Ideas

Ideas are for people 18 and over with a confirmed email address, because the writer's and the singers' names are shown in public. When you share a tune as an idea, you confirm it's your own (or traditional), and you let anyone on Stackapella sing (or play) any of its parts, add their recording to it, and listen to and share what they make, credited to you as its writer. When you add your voice to someone's idea, you let it join their tune, credited to you, under the rules for public songs above. You can delete your idea, or your voice on someone's, at any time; deleting your account deletes both. We may take an idea or a voice down under section 12.

4c. Leaderboards

Each song's parts have leaderboards: your friends' (the people you've connected with through a challenge, a song you sing on together, or a group) and, if you choose and are 18 or over, a worldwide one. A score counts only when it's sung as the app asks (on your own or recording, in the song's key, at full speed, the guide off, your timing checked). If you appear on the worldwide board, we may listen to the take behind your score to check it, and we may take a score off a board if it looks wrong. Don't try to game the scores.

4d. Open parts

When it opens, the owner of a public harmony of one of our songs, or of a public template, can leave some of its parts open for others to sing. Open parts are for people 18 and over.

• If you open parts, we keep a copy of the other parts as you shared them, and you let anyone 18 or over (who you haven't blocked) hear them, sing an open part with them, and share the result (a fill) with your recorded parts in it, credited to the singers of the original. Closing the parts deletes our copy, so nobody can start a new fill. Fills already public stay, until your harmony stops being public: then they're made private, because they carry your voice, and only the person who sang the fill can hear it.
• If you fill a part, the fill is your own harmony: private until you choose otherwise, under section 4a. We tell the original's owner when your fill goes public, and they may feature it on their harmony's page.

4e. The virtual choir

When it opens, each of our songs has a virtual choir: everyone who joins sings their part, and we mix the voices into one recording of the whole choir, which anyone can hear on the song's page. It's for people 18 and over with a confirmed email address.

• To join, you pick one of your own takes of the song, at its key and tempo, that sang well enough (the app checks). You choose to be credited by name or anonymously.
• You let us keep a copy of that take, adjust its level, and mix it with the other voices into the choir's recording, which we show to anyone, with the list of who sings in it as you chose to be credited. The mix is remade as voices come and go, with the newest voices of each part.
• You can leave at any time. Your voice and our copy go, and the next mix (within about an hour) leaves it out. Deleting your account does the same. We may take a voice out under section 12.

5. Our songs, arrangements and guides

The songs in our library are in the public domain, or are our own originals. The arrangements, the guide recordings (sung by our beta singers, or from public harmonies as section 4a says) and the app itself belong to Stackapella or the people who made them for us.

What you may do: learn them, record with them, and share and monetise the harmonies you record (for example on YouTube, TikTok or Spotify), crediting "Arranged by Stackapella". The share videos already carry the credit.

The arrangements are open. The arrangements, the courses and their template files are under CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/): use, change and share them, commercially too, crediting "Stackapella (https://stackapella.com)" and sharing what you make from them under the same licence.

What you may not do: sell or hand out the guide recordings (our singers' voices), which stay ours: the singers agreed to them being used by Stackapella only.

6. Stackapella Plus

• What it is: the whole song library, the full course and workouts, your history, more projects and storage, MP3 and stems, and the other features listed on the pricing page.
• Prices: shown before you pay, with tax included where the law expects it (the EU and the UK). If you subscribe at the launch price, you keep it for as long as you stay subscribed.
• Renewal: Plus renews each month or each year, on the plan you chose, until you cancel. Checkout shows the price, when it renews and how to cancel before you pay.
• The free trial: 7 days, once per account and once per card. Checkout shows the date the trial turns into a charge, and we email you before the first charge. Cancel before then and you're not charged.
• Cancelling: online at any time, in Settings, then Plan, then Manage billing. Plus stays on until the end of the period you've paid for, and nothing more is charged.
• Failed payments: Plus keeps working while the payment is retried. If the last try fails, the account moves to the free plan.
• Refunds: see the refund policy. In the EU and the UK you have a 14-day right of withdrawal, explained there.

7. The free plan, and moving back to it

The free plan has the limits shown in the app (for example the number of saved projects and the storage). If you move from Plus to free, nothing is deleted. Projects over the free limit, and projects made from Plus songs, become read-only: you can still play them and export them as WAV, but you can't add or change parts until you upgrade or are back within the limit. "Download and delete" lets you keep a project's mix and parts as files and free its place.

8. Coaching

Coaches on Stackapella are independent. Buying coaching is covered by the marketplace terms, and selling it by the coach agreement.

"Send to my teacher" (on Plus) lets you invite your own teacher to review your takes. No money goes through the app for it, and either of you can end it.

9. Choir groups

A director on Plus can make a group, invite members and assign them parts. Members learn the group's songs while they're in it. The director sees members' names and pictures, when they joined, and whether each assigned part is not started, started or recorded (and when that changed), never their recordings or contact details. Groups are for people 18 and over for now.

10. Connected apps

You can connect Event Schedule (for lessons and choir rehearsals) or Invoice Ninja (for a coach's bookkeeping). Connecting is your choice, and you can disconnect at any time in Settings. Those services have their own terms, and we're not responsible for them.

11. Fair use of the service

Follow the community guidelines. In particular, don't:

• use your storage to host files that aren't your own recordings;
• try to break, overload or get around the app's limits or security;
• copy the song library out of the app, or let others use your Plus account to do so;
• use stolen cards, or test cards on our checkout;
• use the app to send spam, or to reach people who didn't ask to hear from you.

Every action has a limit set well above what a singer does. If you reach one, the app tells you when you can try again.

12. When we act on content or accounts

We may hide or remove something you've shared, limit what your account can do, or suspend or close your account if it breaks these terms or the community guidelines, or the law requires it. When we do, we tell you in the app what we did, why, and under which rule, and by email if you can no longer sign in. You can ask for a review once, within 6 months, and a person answers it. Copyright notices follow the copyright policy.

13. Ending

You can stop using Stackapella and delete your account at any time. Deleting cancels Plus, removes your recordings and takes down your shared harmonies.

14. The service as it is

We work hard to keep Stackapella running and your recordings safe, but the app is provided as it is. We don't promise it will always be available, that it will work on every device, or that your recordings will line up or sound right on every setup. Songs kept only in your browser can be lost if the browser clears them. The singing feedback is a guide, not a judgement by a teacher, and nothing in the app is medical advice: if singing hurts, stop and see a professional.

Nothing here limits rights you have under the consumer law of your country.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the app changes. Each version is numbered. If a change matters to you, we tell you in the app before it applies, and you can delete your account if you don't agree.

16. The rest

Questions about these terms: [email protected], or Contact us in the app.