Terms of Service

This document contains the Terms of Service for Play-a-Synth platform ("Play-a-Synth", “Platform”, "We", "Us", "Our"). This Terms of Service is binding between the user of the Platform and Play-a-Synth when the user signs up and confirms their sign up.

The Terms of Service is divided into three parts:

  • One common to all persons using the Platform.
  • One for the users (“User”, "You") of the Platform, User refers to a person who uses the Platform to play hardware audio synthesizers (“Synthesizer”).
  • One for the hardware Synthesizer owners (“Owner”, "You") who use Play-a-Synth platform to rent time on the Owners’ Synthesizers’ to the Users of the platform.

Play-a-Synth reserves the right to change the Terms of Service and the Privacy Statement at any time. We will notify all signed up users of Play-a-Synth through the web site or e-mail. Both the Users and Owners must accept new Terms of Service and Privacy Statement when they come into force to continue the use of Play-a-Synth. Continued use of Play-a-Synth is considered acceptance of the Terms of Service and Privacy Statement.

This Terms of Service will come into force on January 13th 2025. Any previous Terms of Service agreements are invalid after this date. You may have previously received credits on the Platform for testing purposes, all of the testing credits are removed before this Terms of Service comes into force.

Play-a-Synth is operated by:

  • Two Line Software Oy in Finland
  • Business ID: 2927837-2
  • You can contact us at: contact@playasynth.com

Common

Do not abuse the Play-a-Synth platform or its Users, Owners or Owners' Synthesizers. If abuse is detected, your user account may be removed or your access to your account may be stopped. This prevents any activity in the account. Play-a-Synth may remove your user account for any reason. Play-a-Synth may also block you from using Play-a-Synth based on your IP address.

Only one user account per person or business entity. You may create one account for the business you are representing and another for personal use.

Play-a-Synth does not guarantee the use of the Platform.

Natural persons using the Platform must be at least 16 years of age.

Play-a-Synth provides a set of software tools for download to be used in conjunction with the Platform. You must not redistribute these tools. You must not modify, reverse engineer, decompile, create other works from or disassemble any of these software tools.

User

Play-a-Synth does not guarantee that the Synthesizers that are available and listed on the Platform are actually the Synthesizer that is described in the listing. While Play-a-Synth takes measures to verify the Synthesizers that require payment to play through photographic and audio evidence, the responsibility of the correctness of the of the listed Synthesizer information is with the Owner of the Synthesizer.

You may play the Synthesizers listed in the "Find Synths" -page of the Platform or you may play a Synthesizer through a link provided by the Owner. You may also play the Synthesizers listed in the front page Synthesizer try out list. Attempting to play a Synthesizer through other means is considered abuse.

Owner may list a Synthesizer to be played for free or for a fee. You, as the User, can then reserve the Synthesizer. Synthesizer reservation period for a free Synthesizer is predetermined. For a paid Synthesizer reservation, you can select the Synthesizer reservation length within a range set by the Owner and Play-a-Synth. While the Synthesizer reservation is valid, you can start individual sessions with the Synthesizer from the "Find synths" -page. Paid Synthesizer reservations are paid through the use of credits, where 1 credit equals 1 euro. If you do not have enough credits, the credits are purchased through our payment platform partner Stripe, see the Payments section of the Terms of Service.

Play-a-Synth offers two methods to play a Synthesizer during a Synthesizer reservation, a web session which is a web browser based player, or a plugin session through the Play-a-Synth VST or AU plugin used in conjuction with a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software. The plugins are available to download through the "Downloads"-page for signed in Users. Play-a-Synth does not guarantee that the VST or AU plugins are compatible with the User's specific DAW. User may use external hardware or software to control the Synthesizer during a session in conjunction with the provided plugins or web player.

Each Synthesizer may have a control panel associated with it, there are currently three levels available: No control panel, partial control panel or full control panel. A full control panel has all or almost all sound synthesis parameters available for the User to change. During a session the User has an option to store a private preset program consisting of a specific set of parameter values for the Synthesizer for later use. The User can also make the preset public for the other Users, but Play-a-Synth approves presets intended for public use. User may not abuse this preset system, for example, by storing a massive amount of presets in quick succession or by using abusive or foul language in the preset names. Play-a-Synth may limit User's access to the presets or User's ability to create presets.

The Synthesizer reservation is ended as follows:

  1. If the reservation is made for free:
    • The reservation ends after the reservation period ends OR
    • No sessions have been started for 3 minutes after the latest session ended.
  2. If the reservation has been paid for:
    • The reservation ends after the reservation period ends OR
    • You have been in a session less than 2 minutes and no sessions have been started for 3 minutes after the latest session ended, the reservation is refunded in this case (see Refund policy section).

Play-a-Synth does not guarantee that User's connection to the Synthesizer is always satisfactory, the quality of the connection and the audio is dependent on the location of the Synthesizer and User and the time of day. The 2 minute window for the automatic refund is intended for the User to assess if the connection is satisfactory to the User's standards.

Play-a-Synth may limit the number of reservations you can make.

Any attempt to permanently alter the Synthesizers you play and have access to is forbidden and is considered abuse, for example, permanently overwriting existing sound presets.

Play-a-Synth may offer you complimentary credits, known as free credits, which can be used instead or in addition to credits or credits paid through Stripe.

Payments

The payment platform partner for Play-a-Synth is Stripe. The payments are made through Stripe's payment platform. If you do not have enough free credits or credits on your account to pay the required amount of credits for a Synthesizer reservation, you will need to pay the missing credits through Stripe. 1 credit equals to 1 euro. Free credits and credits can be used in conjunction with credits paid through Stripe to pay the credit cost of a Synthesizer reservation, however, Play-a-Synth may set a minimum amount that can be paid through Stripe when existing credits or free credits are used. Play-a-Synth does not support VAT reverse charge for businesses.

Play-a-Synth uses technical solutions to determine your country of origin and suitability to use payments through Stripe. Play-a-Synth may prevent you from making payments based on the information from these technical solutions.

Payments are currently available for following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

Refund policy

When you pay for a Synthesizer reservation, you may receive a refund through two options:

  1. Play the Synthesizer less than 2 minutes by disconnecting from a plugin session or backing out from a web session before 2 minutes has passed. If these conditions are fulfilled, the refund is applied automatically. The authorization hold placed on your payment method is then released from your payment method after the reservation for the Synthesizer has ended, it may take 7-10 business days before the authorization hold is released.
    • All credits (free credits, credits and credits paid through Stripe) are refunded to you.
    • This refund mechanism is primarily intended for the User to assess the quality and latency of the connection to the Synthesizer as it can highly vary depending on location and time of day.
    • Play-a-Synth may limit your ability to start new Synthesizer reservations based on the frequency of your refunds.
  2. If the sessions in a single Synthesizer reservation last over 2 minutes, you can request a refund from your Profile-page through the "see all user transactions" -list after the Synthesizer reservation has ended. You have an option to request a refund for up to 24 hours after the Synthesizer reservation was started. Play-a-Synth may request additional information to make a decision for the refund. Play-a-Synth reserves the right to decide if the refund is approved or not based on the additional information and Play-a-Synth internal data. Allow 2-3 business days for a response to your refund request. If a refund is approved, allow up to 10 business days for the paid amount to return to your payment method.
    • Only credits and credits paid through Stripe are refunded, free credits are not refunded through this option.

Owner

You must list only hardware Synthesizers on the Platform and you must have permission and the right to list the Synthesizer on Play-a-Synth. When you list the Synthesizer on Play-a-Synth, you must describe it truthfully and accurately on the Platform. Play-a-Synth may request information from you or play the Synthesizer to confirm that the information that you have provided is correct, especially if you request to monetize the Synthesizer. Any sessions to play the Synthesizer initiated by Play-a-Synth are not monetizable. Before the Synthesizer is available for other Users, Play-a-Synth verifies and aligns the Synthesizer information to match existing Synthesizers. Play-a-Synth can rescind the verification at anytime, making the Synthesizer not available to other Users.

You must use the Play-a-Synth Host application (available to download for signed up Owners for Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS) to connect your Synthesizer to the Platform. Play-a-Synth does not guarantee that you are able to use the application in your specific computer system.

You must not store the Synthesizer audio output resulting from Users playing or using your hardware synthesizers. You may capture the Synthesizer audio only for the purposes of transmitting the audio to the User. You must also not store the control messages used to control the Synthesizer by the User.

Play-a-Synth does not take any liability or responsibility for the Owner's Synthesizer when it is connected to Play-a-Synth. Play-a-Synth advises Owners to backup any data related to the Synthesizer (such as firmware, presets, etc...) before connecting the Synthesizer to Play-a-Synth.

Monetization

Monetization is handled through our payment platform partner Stripe. Currently monetization is available for both natural persons and businesses. Play-a-Synth works with a credit system where 1 credit equals to 1 euro. Play-a-Synth only supports a limited number of countries, currently following countries are eligible for monetization: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

In addition, your bank account must be able to receive SEPA payments to receive any payouts from Stripe.

Play-a-Synth takes a 40% fee from each Synthesizer reservation paid with either credits or credits paid through Stripe. Additionally, if only a portion of the credits used for the Synthesizer reservation are paid through Stripe, Play-a-Synth takes a minimum fee of 0.3 credits. Play-a-Synth will also collect and remit any applicable taxes from the paid Synthesizer reservation. The tax amount will be deducted from the credits before you receive them.

To monetize your synths you must create an Express connected account on Stripe. This is only possible if the country you are located in supports monetization, if it does, you will have an option to start the account creation on your Profile-page. To be able to monetize, you must provide Stripe all necessary information required during the account creation process and accept Stripe's own terms of use related to the connected accounts. Stripe may limit the capabilities of your connected account even after providing the information during the account creation process, in which case you may not be able to receive payouts before supplying additional information.

Monetization is subject to Stripe's and Play-a-Synth's approval, and the approval may be rescinded at any time without prior notice. Play-a-Synth may use the information you have given to Stripe during the creation of the connected account to determine your suitability for monetization. If you do not have approval to monetize, you may not request payouts.

If you are approved for monetization, you are able to request monetization for each individual Synthesizer you have listed on Play-a-Synth. Play-a-Synth will request additional information (such as photographs and audio) about each synthesizer before approving the Synthesizer to be monetized. Play-a-Synth can approve or not approve the Synthesizer for monetization and rescind any prior approval at any time and request further information from you to restore the monetization approval. You also give us a worldwide non-exclusive license to use the provided information within and outside the Platform to advertise and to market the Synthesizer or similar Synthesizers on the Platform.

If your Synthesizer is approved for monetization, you can set an hourly credit cost for each Synthesizer reservation. The User can decide the length of the Synthesizer reservation between Play-a-Synth mandated minimum reservation cost, and a maximum reservation length set by the Owner. Play-a-Synth sets a range of allowed hourly credit cost, and the Owner can set the hourly credit cost within this range. Play-a-Synth may limit the number of daily paid reservations or how many credits you can earn daily for each Synthesizer to minimize risk to Play-a-Synth.

Play-a-Synth will collect and remit taxes related to each individual paid Synthesizer reservation of your Synthesizer on Play-a-Synth according to law. However, You, as the Owner, are responsible for reporting the income related to Play-a-Synth and You are responsible for any taxes from this income. Each Synthesizer reservation paid through Stripe is taxed according to the User's country, thus the tax may vary from country to country. Any collected taxes are deducted from the credits you receive for the Synthesizer reservation.

Play-a-Synth may offer Users complimentary free credits for marketing purposes. You accept that you will not receive credits for Synthesizer reservations paid with free credits.

Play-a-Synth has liability for the payments received from Users. For this purpose, we delay the transfer of credits to you from a paid Synthesizer reservation by 14 days. You accept that Play-a-Synth handles all issues arising from the payments, for example, refunds and fraudulent payments. Any credits you have earned from paid Synthesizer reservations can be deducted from your account due to, for example, User refund requests or fraudulent payments. You accept refund policies set by Play-a-Synth.

Payouts

  • You can request payout to your Stripe connected account through your Profile-page. The payout to your connected account is subject to Stripe's approval.
  • Any credits earned from paid Synthesizer reservations are eligible for payout after 14 days.
  • You can request payout to your connected account any time when you have eligible credits. However, the payout amount must cover Stripe's fees for payout to your bank account, currently the payout fees are:
    • For the first payout of the month: 2 credits
    • For every payout: 0.10 credits + 0.25% of the payout amount (rounded up to nearest cent)
  • The payout fees may change at any time to match the Stripe's fees.
  • Payout to your bank account is subject to Stripe's approval.
  • Stripe may place additional delays for payouts to your bank account.

Privacy statement

Registry name

Play-a-Synth user registry.

Registrar

  • Two Line Software Oy
  • Business ID: 2927837-2
  • Post address: Orkoniitynkatu 2 A 4, 53850 Lappeenranta, FINLAND

Registry contact person

Jonna Laaksonen, jonna.laaksonen@playasynth.com

Purpose of processing personal data

We process personal data to be able to give our users access to Play-a-Synth platform and to its features, including features provided by our partners. We also process the data to inform users about changes and new features to Play-a-Synth. We may also process the personal data to run surveys about the Play-a-Synth platform and its features.

We may use the personal data in the registry to investigate abuse of Play-a-Synth platform.

The data is processed according to national laws and EU data privacy directive, General Data Protection Regulation.

The grounds for processing user's personal data is the user's consent and the agreement between user and Play-a-Synth.

Persons and groups the personal data is collected from and the data collected from them

We collect personal data from the users of Play-a-Synth platform who have agreed to share their information when signing up for Play-a-Synth.

The personal data that we collect is the user's e-mail address. This personal data can be connected to other non-personal data, such as username and the country of the user that is collected from the user. The personal data can also be connected to the synthesizer reservations made by the user or to the synthesizers the user has setup on the Play-a-Synth platform.

We may collect additional personal data, if required by national law.

Additionally we temporarily store the user's IP address. The IP address can be stored for up to 2 weeks. The IP address is stored to detect and prevent abuse of the Play-a-Synth platform.

We may also use data that our users have given to our partners to detect abuse.

By giving Play-a-Synth their personal data, the user accepts that the personal data is used according to this privacy statement.

Sources of information

We collect information from the users through the Play-a-Synth website sign up process and while the users are on the Play-a-Synth website. We may also collect the information through internet, e-mail or through our partners.

Lawful information sharing

We provide information about our users to our partners, such as payment platform partners, when the functionality of the Play-a-Synth platform requires it.

Personal data is not provided to third-parties without the user's agreement.

We may provide personal data to government officials when the law requires it.

We may compile statistical information about our users and provide the information to third-parties. This statistical information cannot be connected to individual users.

Personal data processed outside of EU or ETA countries

Data is processed only within EU or ETA countries.

Data retention time

Play-a-Synth will retain the user's data until the user requests removal of the the data or until user has been inactive for 5 years. Play-a-Synth may retain the data after this period if there is a lawful reason to retain the data.

Protection of the data in the registry

The registry is maintained as a database inside the ETA-region. The database is protected by appropriate technical means against security breaches.

The data can be accessed only by predetermined persons. These persons are identified by their personal credentials when accessing the data.

Persons that have access to the data are under confidentiality agreements.

Right to be informed, to correct and to complain about personal data processing

User may request their data from Play-a-Synth once per year for free. For further information requests, Play-a-Synth will charge a reasonable fee. You must provide a written and signed request to the registrar. The information is given only when the identity has been confirmed through a valid identification method, such as photo identification.

If user notices that the personal data on Play-a-Synth is incorrect or used against this privacy statement, the user may request the data to be corrected, modified or removed.

If user requests removal of their data, the user may no longer use Play-a-Synth.

Marketing

Play-a-Synth can use the data provided by the users to market new features and changes to Play-a-Synth if given consent. User can give or remove their consent at any time.

Changes to privacy statement

Play-a-Synth reserves the right to change privacy statement if changes to the laws governing the personal data privacy are changed.