Community & Content Guidelines

Artist Launcher works because artists send music to people who actually choose what gets heard, and because those people answer honestly. Both halves are fragile. An artist who sends the same message to four hundred stations makes every genuine submission harder to see; a curator who returns the same three sentences to everyone makes the feedback worthless. These guidelines exist to protect both.

They form part of the Terms of Service. Where something here is stricter or more specific than the Terms, this document applies to conduct on the Platform.

1. Treat people as colleagues

Everyone here is working. Curators, programmers, editors and service providers are professionals making decisions about their own audiences, and artists are sending work that took months to make. Both deserve to be addressed accordingly.

Do not:

• abuse, threaten, demean or harass anyone, in submissions, feedback, messages or Discord
• discriminate against, or direct hostility at, anyone on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, age, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity
• pressure, argue with or retaliate against a curator, station or reviewer for a decision you disagree with
• contact anyone through details found on the Platform for a purpose they did not invite
• share private correspondence, feedback or contact details publicly without permission

A decline is a decision, not an invitation to negotiate. If you believe a decision was made in bad faith, report it to us rather than pursuing the person.

2. Submitting music

A submission is a request for someone’s time. Send it like one.

• Read what the recipient actually accepts — genre, format, territory, submission window — before sending.
• Send the strongest single track for that recipient, not your entire catalogue.
• Keep your Track Page accurate: correct title, credits, release date, artwork and links.
• Do not send the same untargeted message at volume. Mass, undifferentiated outreach is spam here regardless of how it is sent.
• Do not create additional accounts to exceed submission limits, or to re-submit something already declined.
• Do not follow up repeatedly with someone who has not invited it.

Where you contact a directory listing using their published address, you are contacting them directly, in your own name, under your own obligations. Anyone who asks not to be contacted is removed from our directory and stays removed.

3. Reviewing and responding

If you receive submissions here — as a curator, station, show, blog or Page owner — the artist is owed a real answer.

• Listen before you decide. Where you are paid for a review, listen to the extent you have represented that you will.
• Give feedback that is specific to the track. Recycled boilerplate returned to every artist is a breach of these guidelines and, where paid for, of the service you sold.
• Be honest rather than kind. A clear no with a reason is worth more than an encouraging maybe.
• Decide within the time you have advertised.
• Do not solicit payment, favours or services in exchange for placement, airplay or coverage, whether on the Platform or off it.
• Do not accept submissions you have no genuine intention of considering.

Your editorial judgement is entirely your own — that is the point of the Platform, and nothing in these guidelines directs what you choose. What is required is that the process you advertise is the process the artist gets.

4. Honesty about your work

The declarations attached to a Track Page travel with it to stations, curators and partners who rely on them. Misstating them misleads people making programming and licensing decisions.

• Declare generative AI accurately, including which parts of the work involved it and how much. Declaring AI use does not disqualify a track.
• Do not claim authorship, credits, ownership or rights you do not hold.
• Do not misstate territory, eligibility or content classification, including Canadian Content and explicit-content declarations.
• Do not present another person’s recording, artwork or likeness as your own.
• Do not use another person’s voice or likeness — synthesised or otherwise — without their permission.
• Keep metadata truthful: ISRC, UPC, PRO and publisher details are used by other people to pay and clear your work.

Misdeclaring AI involvement, rights or eligibility is grounds for removal of the Track Page and for reversing any payouts it earned.

5. What may not be published

Do not upload, publish or submit content that:

• infringes copyright, trademark, moral rights or any other right you have not cleared
• sexualises minors in any way, or depicts child sexual abuse
• incites, threatens or glorifies violence, or promotes a violent or hateful organisation
• attacks or dehumanises people on the basis of a protected characteristic
• harasses, doxxes or targets a specific private individual
• is unlawful in Canada or in the territory you are publishing from
• impersonates a person, station, label or organisation, or falsely implies their endorsement
• is deceptive commercially — false claims, fake scarcity, fabricated credentials, invented press coverage
• contains malware, or attempts to compromise the Platform or its users

Explicit language, difficult subject matter and confronting art are welcome. Declare explicit content accurately so that stations and programmes with broadcast obligations can make their own call.

6. Gaming the Platform

The Platform’s value is that its signals mean something. Do not manufacture them.

• no fake or duplicate accounts, and no accounts created on another person’s behalf without their authority
• no artificial inflation of streams, followers, saves or engagement, here or on the services we display
• no coordinated or reciprocal review, rating or placement schemes
• no bots, scrapers or automation against the Platform outside a documented integration
• no bulk extraction of directory contacts, and no resale or redistribution of them
• no circumventing suspensions, submission limits, verification or suppression lists

7. Reporting a problem

Report conduct, content, listings or copyright concerns to founders@artistlauncher.com, or through the reporting controls on a Page, Track Page or directory listing where available. Tell us what you saw, where, and when.

For a copyright complaint, include the work concerned, the material you say infringes it, your relationship to the rights, and contact details we can reply to.

We do not disclose the identity of a reporter to the person reported unless we are legally required to.

8. What happens when guidelines are breached

We aim for the smallest action that fixes the problem, and we take context into account — a first mistake is not treated as a pattern. Depending on severity and history, we may:

• ask you to correct or clarify something
• edit or remove the specific content
• restrict a feature, such as submissions, messaging or Page publishing
• remove verification
• suspend the account
• remove the account permanently and reverse related payouts

Serious harm — sexual content involving minors, credible threats, fraud, coordinated manipulation — skips the ladder and results in immediate removal and, where appropriate, referral to the relevant authority.

If you believe we got a decision wrong, reply to the notice we sent, or write to founders@artistlauncher.com. Tell us what you think we misread. A person will look at it again.

9. Changes to these guidelines

We may update these guidelines as the Platform changes. Material changes are reflected in the “Last updated” date above. Continued use of the Platform after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised guidelines.