Terms of Use

1. Who we are and what these Terms cover

vvault is operated from Belgium by Tom Nsengiyumva (sole proprietor), company number BE 1022.549.155, registered office Zwartleertouwersstraat 40, 8000 Brugge, Belgium ("vvault", "we", "us"). These Terms govern your use of the vvault web app, desktop app, iOS app, public pages served on vvault.app and on custom domains, and every related service and feature (together, the "Service").

You must be at least 16 years old, or the age of digital consent where you live, to use vvault, and you confirm that you are when you create an account. If we learn that an account belongs to someone below that age we close it and delete the associated personal data. If you believe a minor is using vvault, or that an adult is contacting a minor through vvault, report it to vvaultapp@gmail.com and we will treat it as a priority.

If you use vvault on behalf of a company or another person, you confirm you are authorised to accept these Terms for them, and "you" means both you and them.

2. Accounts

You are responsible for your credentials and for everything that happens under your account. Keep your login secure and tell us promptly about any unauthorised use. One person or entity per account unless a team feature says otherwise.

Give us accurate information when you register and keep it current. We may suspend or close an account registered with false information, or one created to evade a previous termination.

3. Your content and the licence you give us

You keep all rights to the music, artwork, text and other material you upload ("your content"). You must hold the rights to everything you upload, share, sell or send through vvault, including samples, splits and collaborations.

You grant vvault a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, process, transmit and display your content solely as needed to operate, secure and improve the Service — for example generating previews, waveforms, cover thumbnails and transcoded formats, or serving the links and pages you publish. Where you make content publicly reachable, that licence extends to showing it to the people you make it reachable to.

This licence exists to run the Service and for nothing else. We do not sell your music, and we do not use your private content to advertise. The licence ends when you delete the content, subject to backups that expire on their normal cycle and to anything we must keep by law.

4. Plan limits and availability of your files

The free plan is capped at 25 tracks. Paid plans are uncapped. The cap applies to NEW uploads only: if your account is already above it, every file you have stays readable, playable, downloadable and shareable — we do not sweep, archive or delete anything retroactively.

We may also set reasonable technical limits — file size, number of formats or versions, upload and download rates — and adjust them with notice where a change would affect you.

vvault is a working tool, not an archive of record. We take backups and we take security seriously, but you should keep your own copies of any master you cannot afford to lose. To the extent permitted by law we are not liable for content that is lost, corrupted or unavailable, except where that results from our own gross negligence or intent.

If your account is over its plan limit or a payment fails, we may restrict new uploads and some features until it is resolved. We will not delete your files without telling you first and giving you a reasonable chance to export them or resolve the problem.

5. Access levels and sharing

Every pack and every track has an access level that you choose: Private, Invite only, Anyone with the link, or For sale. Private means only you. Invite only means the people you name. Anyone with the link means exactly that — a link that works for whoever holds it. For sale means reachable and purchasable.

A track's access level governs the track's own link and nothing else. Inside a pack, the pack's level governs what people reaching it through that pack can do. These are deliberately independent: a private track can sit inside a pack you have published, and its own link stays closed while the pack decides what happens inside it.

You are responsible for who receives the links you create, and for choosing the right level before you share. Passwords, expiry, download switches and purchase gates are available on some levels and plans; using them is your choice, and we cannot recover a link that you have already given to somebody.

We may remove content or revoke access where we reasonably believe these Terms or the law are being broken, or to protect the Service, its users or rights holders. Connecting a custom domain does not change who hosts the content or who must act on a takedown: content served under your domain remains subject to these Terms.

6. Collaborators and editing

You can invite other vvault users to a pack. Depending on the role you give them and whether you turn editing on, they may listen, download, add tracks, add versions, or change details of the tracks in that pack. Inviting someone is a decision to let them act on that material, and actions they take are attributed to them.

Uploading to a shared pack does not transfer ownership of anything. Each contributor keeps the rights to what they contributed, and each is responsible for having those rights. If you remove a collaborator, they lose access to the pack going forward; it does not undo what they already downloaded.

7. Acceptable use

No unlawful conduct, infringement, spam, malware, scraping, automated abuse, circumventing plan limits or access controls, reverse engineering, or behaviour that harms the Service or other users. We may throttle, limit or disable features to protect the platform.

Do not use vvault to impersonate anyone, to harvest other users' contact details for unsolicited messaging, or to publish someone's personal information without their consent.

If you believe content on vvault infringes your rights, notify us at vvaultapp@gmail.com with enough detail to identify the content and your claim. We review such reports, may remove the content, and terminate accounts of repeat infringers.

8. Prohibited content

The following is not allowed anywhere on vvault — in uploads, cover art, profile pictures and banners, video thumbnails, images used in emails, bios, titles, tags, messages, or any other field: (a) nudity, pornography or sexually explicit material; (b) any sexualised depiction of a minor, without exception; (c) illegal drugs, drug use or drug paraphernalia, or content promoting their sale; (d) gore or graphic real-world violence; (e) symbols or content promoting hatred or violence against people based on protected characteristics; (f) content that depicts, promotes or facilitates illegal activity, including counterfeiting, fraud, weapons trafficking or human exploitation; and (g) malicious or deliberately deceptive content.

We do not condone this content in any form. Where content appears to involve the sexual exploitation of minors or another serious crime, we preserve the relevant material and report it to the competent authorities, as the law requires or permits.

Everyday music-culture imagery — money, jewellery, dark or edgy artwork, artistic themes — is fine. If you are unsure whether something crosses a line, it probably does: choose different artwork, or ask us first.

9. Moderation, and how to complain about a decision

vvault is a hosting service provider: we store and transmit content at our users' direction. We do not review content before it is uploaded, published, sent or shared, and we are under no general obligation to monitor what our users store or transmit. This does not reduce your responsibility for what you upload, send or share.

We review content reported to us at vvaultapp@gmail.com or through the in-product report action. We may refuse, remove, block or restrict any content, and suspend or terminate any account, where we reasonably believe these Terms or the law are being violated. Where reasonably possible we will tell you what was affected and why. Moderation decisions can be wrong in either direction.

If you believe a decision was wrong, contact us at vvaultapp@gmail.com within six months. A human will re-review it in good faith and explain the outcome. This is our internal complaint route; it does not remove your right to go to a court or to an out-of-court dispute settlement body. Repeated or serious violations lead to termination.

10. Messages and collaboration features

Messages, comments, notes and collaboration features are provided as part of the Service. Do not use them to send unsolicited bulk messages or anything prohibited under these Terms. Content you send to another user is visible to that user and, where the feature says so, to others they share it with.

11. WaveMatch results

WaveMatch compares audio and reports similarity. Results are indicative and automated: they are not a legal opinion, not proof of infringement, and not a clearance. Do not rely on them as the sole basis for accusing anyone or for releasing anything. You remain responsible for clearing your own samples and interpolations.

12. Connected accounts and third-party services

vvault can connect to services you already use — for example cloud storage you import from, or platforms you publish to. When you connect one, you authorise us to access it as needed for the feature you asked for, and you confirm you are allowed to grant that access. You can disconnect at any time in Settings.

Those services are run by other companies under their own terms and privacy policies. We do not control them, we are not responsible for them, and if a connection stops working or a provider changes its rules, the feature that depends on it may change or stop. Links to third-party sites from vvault are a convenience, not an endorsement.

13. Publishing to connected platforms

Where vvault helps you post to another platform, you are the publisher. You must have the rights to what you post and must follow that platform's rules. We do not guarantee that a post will succeed, remain available, or be delivered at any particular time.

14. Timestamp certificates

Timestamp certificates record that a specific file existed in your account at a specific time. That is evidence of timing and integrity, not proof of authorship or ownership, and it does not register any right anywhere. It may help you demonstrate priority; it does not decide a dispute.

15. Email campaigns

If you send campaigns through vvault, you are the sender. You must have a lawful basis to contact each recipient, must honour unsubscribe requests, and must comply with applicable marketing and privacy law, including the GDPR and national anti-spam rules. Do not upload lists you did not collect yourself or are not entitled to use.

Engagement figures depend on recipient mail clients, image loading and network conditions, so opens and similar metrics are approximate by nature.

16. Selling on vvault: marketplace, prices and licences

You can price a pack, price the tracks inside it, and sell sound kits. Prices you set on a pack apply to that pack; the same track in another pack sells at that pack's prices. You choose whether buying is required to download, to save, or to add an item to a library, and you can make a sale unlisted so that it is reachable by link without appearing in search.

Sellers set their prices and licence terms and are responsible for holding the rights they license out. Buyers must respect the licence they bought. vvault may generate licence documents and grant downloads based on payment status.

vvault provides the platform; the licence is between buyer and seller, and we are not a party to it except where applicable law says otherwise. We do not guarantee any level of sales. Payouts run through Stripe and are subject to Stripe's identity and verification requirements; we may withhold a payout where we reasonably suspect fraud, a chargeback risk, or an infringement claim, and we will tell you why.

Refunds for a purchase are, in the first place, a matter between buyer and seller, and we may step in where the law requires it or where the Service clearly failed to deliver what was paid for.

17. Subscriptions, billing and withdrawal

Paid plans renew automatically until cancelled. You can cancel at any time in Settings; cancelling stops the next renewal and you keep access until the end of the period you have already paid for. We do not pro-rate a period you have started. Prices are shown before you pay, and we give advance notice of a price change affecting an active subscription.

Payments are processed by Stripe, or by Apple for iOS in-app purchases — Apple's own refund and cancellation rules apply to those, and a subscription bought through Apple must be cancelled through Apple.

If a renewal payment fails we may retry it and may suspend paid features until it succeeds. Downgrading a plan can reduce storage and features, which may make some content unavailable until you free space or upgrade again.

EU consumers: by starting a subscription you ask for immediate access to a digital service and acknowledge that, once the service has been fully performed for the billed period, the statutory 14-day withdrawal right no longer applies to that period. This does not affect your right to cancel future renewals, and it does not affect your statutory rights where the service was not delivered as described.

18. Feedback

If you send us ideas, suggestions or feature requests, we may use them freely, without obligation to you and without payment. Please do not send us anything you consider confidential or that you are not free to share.

19. Service data and improvement

We generate technical and usage data about how the Service is used — performance, error rates, aggregate feature usage — and we use it to operate, secure and improve vvault, and to produce statistics. We use it in aggregated or de-identified form for those purposes. Personal data is handled as described in our Privacy Policy.

20. New and experimental features

We may offer features marked beta, preview or experimental. They are provided as-is, may change, may not work reliably, and may be withdrawn at any time. Do not depend on them for anything you cannot afford to lose.

The Service changes over time. We may add, modify or discontinue features. Where a change materially reduces what a paid plan offers, we will give you notice and you may cancel.

21. Availability and warranty disclaimer

vvault is provided "as is" and "as available" to the maximum extent permitted by law. We do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free service. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded under Belgian law, including liability for fraud, for intent or gross negligence, or for death or personal injury, and nothing here removes the statutory rights of consumers.

22. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, vvault is not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or for loss of profits, data, goodwill or business opportunities. Our aggregate liability is limited to the amounts you paid us for the Service in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, except where mandatory law provides otherwise.

23. Your responsibility for your content

You are responsible for the content you upload, share, sell or send through vvault, and for having the rights to do so. If a third party brings a claim against vvault because of your content or your breach of these Terms — for example an infringement claim over audio or artwork you uploaded — you will, to the extent permitted by applicable law, compensate us for the resulting damages and reasonable costs. This does not limit any mandatory rights you have as a consumer.

24. Termination

You can stop using vvault and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate access for breach of these Terms or for risk to the Service or its users; where reasonable we will warn you first.

On termination your right to use the Service ends and we may delete your content after a reasonable period. Licences already granted to buyers, and any sections that by their nature survive — liability limits, your responsibility for your content, governing law — survive termination.

25. Sanctions and restricted use

You may not use vvault if you are subject to EU, Belgian, UK or US sanctions, or if you are located in a territory subject to comprehensive sanctions. You must not use the Service in breach of applicable export control or sanctions law.

26. Notices and electronic communication

We communicate with you electronically — in the app and by email to the address on your account. You agree that electronic notices satisfy any legal requirement that a communication be in writing. Keep a valid email address on your account: a notice we send there counts as delivered even if you do not read it.

You can send us notices at vvaultapp@gmail.com, or by post to the registered office in section 1.

27. Transfer of these Terms

You may not transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours to a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of the business, provided your rights under these Terms are not reduced. We will tell you if that happens.

28. Events outside our control

We are not liable for delay or failure to perform caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including outages at infrastructure or payment providers, network failures, natural events, war, industrial action or acts of authorities.

29. If part of these Terms does not apply

If a provision is found invalid or unenforceable, it is limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary and the rest stays in force. If we do not enforce a provision on one occasion, that is not a waiver of it.

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any feature-specific terms shown to you in the product, are the whole agreement between us about the Service.

30. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. For material changes we give reasonable advance notice in the app or by email and update the date at the top of this page. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the revised Terms; if you do not agree, stop using the Service and cancel any subscription before it renews.

31. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by Belgian law. Disputes go to the competent courts of Belgium — except that if you are a consumer in the EU, you keep the mandatory protections of your country of residence and may bring proceedings in its courts.

Please contact us first: most issues are resolved directly. EU consumers may also use the European Commission's online dispute resolution platform, and may refer a dispute to a competent out-of-court consumer dispute body in their country.

32. Apple and Google app stores

For the iOS app, Apple's Standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement may also apply where required, and Apple is a third-party beneficiary of these Terms as they relate to that app. Apple has no obligation to provide support for it, and this agreement is between you and vvault, not Apple. Where the app is obtained from Google Play, the equivalent applies to Google.

Apple Standard EULA

33. Contact

For legal questions, contact us through the in-app Support page or at vvaultapp@gmail.com. Postal address: Zwartleertouwersstraat 40, 8000 Brugge, Belgium.