Last updated: SEPTEMBER 2022

CRUCIALMUSIC, CRUCIALCOVERS AND CRUCIALCUSTOM PRIVACY POLICY

Crucial Music Corporation (“Crucial”) d/b/a CrucialMusic, CrucialCustom and/or CrucialCovers is committed to protecting your privacy. This privacy policy tells you about our online collection and use of data. The terms of this policy apply to all Crucial websites including but not limited to CrucialMusic.com, CrucialCustom.com and CrucialCovers.com unless different terms are specified in a form or contract provided to you online or offline.

By using this site, you understand and agree to the terms of this policy. This site is owned by Crucial and may be accessed in the United States and abroad. For data protection purposes, Crucial is the controller and, unless otherwise noted, is also the processor of data. Information collected may be retained, and may be stored, processed, accessed, and used in jurisdictions whose privacy laws may be different and less protective than those of your home jurisdiction.

Collection of Your Personal Information

Crucial requires some basic “Personal Information” which is any information about one of our users which could, alone or together with other information, personally identify him or her. Information such as an IP address, email address, a real full name, and password are examples of Personal Information and includes Personal Data as defined in the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

Personal Information does not include aggregated, non-personally identifying information. We may use aggregated, non-personally identifying information to operate, improve, and optimize our website and service.

We collect general logging information, including browser type and version, language, IP address, date/time, and the URL that was visited, even if you do not have an account on our system. Additionally, some data from forms such as name, address, email, and/or phone number, will appear in log files. In general, log files are destroyed after 7 weeks. They will persist in backups for another 7 months past that date.

We may combine your visit and navigational information with personal information that you provide. You may always choose not to provide Personal Information, but if you so choose, certain products and services may not be available to you.

If you create an account as an Artist, we collect the following Personal Information you provide in order to evaluate your music for contractual representation. Your Full Name, Email Address, Street Address, Phone Number, Social Security Number and/or Company Federal ID Number, IPI number and PRO Affiliation are collected on the account setup form.

Additionally, when you (Artist) submit music you are asked to provide co-writer or co-owner Personal Information such as Full Name, Email Address, IPI number and PRO Affiliation. If you opt-in to the CrucialCustom service you are also asked to provide biographical information for the clients to review along with your demo submission.

If you as an Artist, have a contract with us, and we have placed your music, we will need to pay your share of synch fees, custom fees, and performance and/or mechanical income, and in order to do that we will collect Personal Information such as Full Name, Address, Email Address, Paypal Email Address, Bank Account Details, and Tax Information including but not limited to Social Security Number and/or Company Federal ID Number.

If you create an account as a Client, you provide Full Name, Email Address, Company Name, Title, Street Address, and Phone Number, VAT/GST number in order to create playlists, download music or start custom projects. Additionally, Credit Card Information and Billing Addresses are collected to process purchase orders or payments on CrucialCustom.com.

Limited demographic information, such as industry you work in, is sometimes collected and may be linked to your Personal Information.

Why We Collect and How We Use Your Personal Information

Crucial collects and uses your Personal Information as follows:

  • (Artist) To review your song submissions for acceptance into the catalog, we will research certain Personal Information on third party sites such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or other PROs and distribution companies such as ITunes, Spotify, Shazam etc, in order to evaluate the accuracy of your submission; specifically to ensure that all copyright owner information is provided.
  • (Artist) Registering your song titles with the performance and mechanical rights organizations in order to ensure the collection of performance and mechanical royalties.
  • (Artist) Attaching certain Personal Information as metadata to your song titles on our websites’ search engine results and other web pages and embedded in the mp3 and wav files we distribute for accurate copyright data dessimInation.
  • (Artist) Using your biographical information to promote your capabilities as a composer or songwriter to the Client who has posted a custom project and requested your submission.
  • (Artist) To pay you income owed and remit tax documents as required by the IRS.
  • (Artist and Client) To draft artist contracts and execute the contractual obligations associated with film/TV placements including but not limited to pitching music, issuing master/synchronization licenses and invoices, posting royalty reports, making payments, and issuing 1099s or 1042s.
  • (Artist and Client) To communicate with you, we will send you service related emails including but not limited to welcome letters, new account confirmations, acceptance or rejection letters, contracts, contract reminders, royalty statements, renewal notices, e-contract signups, placement notices, opt-ins, termination letters, placement notices, project playlists, custom opportunity notices, new demo alerts, winning track selection, track finalization requests, licenses, billing reminders, and purchase confirmations (“Transactional Emails”).
  • (Artist and Client) To inform you of new music or services or other information that may be of interest, we may also send you surveys or marketing emails (“Marketing Emails”). More information regarding opting out of Marketing Emails is found in the Consent section of our Privacy Policy.

Under certain international laws (including GDPR), Crucial is required to notify you about the legal basis on which we process Personal Information.

Crucial processes Personal Information on the following legal bases:

  • (Artist) When you create a CrucialMusic account, you provide your Personal Information for the Potential of a Contractual Relationship or the execution of a Limited Licensing Agreement. We collect that data and process it on the basis of performing that (potential) contract.
  • (Artist) When you opt-in to our CrucialCustom service, you provide Personal Information in order to enter into the Terms/Conditions and Work-For-Hire Agreement, Non-Disclosure Agreement and possibly a specific Copyright Assignment, and we process that data on the basis of performing those contracts.
  • (Client) When you create a CrucialMusic and/or a CrucialCovers account, you provide your Personal Information for a Legitimate Business Interest and we process that data in order to perform our service. For example, you are in need of music for a specific scene in a television show, we would need to email (utilizing your email address) you a link to a project with songs appropriate for that scene which might result in a business transaction with us in the form of a master/synchronization license.
  • (Client) When you create a CrucialCustom account, you provide Personal Information in order to enter into the Terms and Conditions Agreement with us, and we process that data on the basis of performing that contract.

Sharing of Your Personal Information

Personal Information collected by Crucial may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Crucial or its affiliates, subsidiaries, contractors or agents maintain facilities, and by using our sites or services, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country.

Crucial shares your Personal Information with any third parties for the sole purpose of performing our licensing services.

We may share and store your personal information with service providers who perform services on our behalf. For example, we hire or work with other companies to handle the processing of payments (Trolley pka PaymentRails, Stripe, PayPal, Bank of America, Quickbooks), to provide data storage (Trolley pka PaymentRails, Amazon, Carbonite, Salesforce), and to host websites and applications (Trolley pka PaymentRails, Amazon, Cloudvara and Michael Chaney). Those companies will be permitted to obtain only the Personal Information they need to provide the service. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information and are prohibited from using it for any other purpose.

Specifically with regards to Artists, if we include your music in the catalog and distribute to third parties for the purpose of exploitation, we will be sharing your Personal Information including but not limited to name, biography and NDA document (CrucialCustom.com), PRO affiliation, IPI number, % share of copyright, publishing (if applicable) in all media including but not limited to our websites, embedded MP3s and WAV files as well as electronic mail, documents (electronic and hard paper copies), hard drives, servers, PRO registration files (such as CWR), performing rights and mechanical rights society website forms, and accounting software as needed to distribute, license, invoice and make payments.

Specifically with regards to Clients, if you or we (on your behalf) create a project of music for review and download on CrucialMusic.com and CrucialCovers.com, the project title (including any music style identification or other data included in the title of the project) will be shared with the Artists who have music in that project for their personal use only.

If you or we (on your behalf), create a custom project on CrucialCustom.com, your nickname, all project details and videos posted will be shared with our Artists and staff in order to perform the services you are engaging. Any comments/revisions/ratings/Top 5 or Winning Track selections you or we (on your behalf) post on any submissions will be shared with the artist and our staff to perform our services.

As a CrucialMusic, CrucialCovers or CrucialCustom client, your personal and/or business data will be collected and stored in our master database on Salesforce.com and Quickbooks for the purposes of communication, legitimate business (b2b) marketing, pitching, licensing and invoicing.

We may share your personal information within our corporate group (including staff), subsidiaries and divisions, all of whom may use your information for the purposes disclosed herein. Personal information may be disclosed as part of any merger, acquisition, or sale of the company and/or its assets, as well as in the unlikely event of insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership, in which personal information would be transferred as one of the business assets of the company. We will notify you of such an occurrence as described in the “Changes to This Privacy Policy” section below.

We reserve the right to disclose your personal information if required to do so by law, or in the good-faith belief that such action is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process, respond to claims, or protect the rights, property or safety of our company, employees, customers, or the public.

Crucial respects your right to make choices about the use and disclosure of your personal information. If at any time you decide that you do not want to receive Marketing Emails from us, please let us know by: (1) unchecking the “Email List” box on your online registration form or under My Account: Change My Account Information; or (2) sending an email to customunsubscribe@crucialcustom.com or unsubscribe@crucialmusic.com.

If you choose not to receive Marketing Emails, please be advised that you will continue to receive Transactional Emails that are required to perform our service or execute contractual obligations. (Examples: acceptance and rejection letters, contracts, reminders, renewals, royalty statements, termination letters, opt-ins, new account confirmations, playlists, new custom opportunity notices, new demo notices, etc.).

Crucial currently does not engage in third party Marketing Email services to contact our users; nor do we purchase, rent or lease lists from third parties in order to acquire users.

Accessing Your Personal Information and Change Requests

If you would like to review or revise information that you previously provided to us, you have access to all of your information in the “My Account” section of the website and you may make changes as you wish.

To change your Performing Rights Organization (PRO) affiliation, you will have contact us at info@crucialmusic.com to let us know that you have changed your PRO affiliation. If you need additional assistance, please contact us at info@crucialcustom.com or info@crucialmusic.com. You can expect a response from us within 10 calendar days.

Portability

Your Artist data at Crucial consists of your basic account information and e-contracts as well as your submissions and music that has been accepted for publication along with the metadata associated with each song. You can download your data at any time in a format appropriate for each specific item.

CSV files are available for the following items when you select “Data Portability” in your “My Account” section:

  • Tracks in the catalog
  • Submission History
  • Royalty statements
  • Account Profile

PDF files are available for the following items when you select “Data Portability” in your My Account section:

  • E-contracts and E-Renewals
  • Copyright assignments
  • Additional Addendums and e-contracts

You may request copies of your manual (hard copy) contracts, if you do not have them, by emailing info@crucialmusic.com.

WAV and MP3 files are available for all the songs we have accepted into the catalog when you select “Data Portability” in your My Account section. Please note that your audio file submissions are destroyed after processing.

Your Client data at Crucial doesn’t really lend itself to portability, so therefore we do not offer batch download files of that data.

Data Deletion and Retention

The “Right to Be Forgotten” is not an absolute right. In certain instances we may not be able to remove your account and all the Personal Information associated with it. You’ll find details below regarding our data deletion and retention procedures.

CrucialMusic.com and CrucialCovers.com

If you have or had a song in our catalog, your account cannot be removed and Personal Information and other data cannot be deleted due to contractual obligations (i.e. reporting/payment of residual royalties, providing direct contact info for licensing after termination, etc.). We will retain your data in perpetuity.

If you have a song that is accepted into the catalog but you have not provided all the deliverables within 12 months of the submission accepted date (ie executed contract, completed questionnaires, uploaded wavs, etc), your submission will be rejected. You are welcome to resubmit the song.

If you do not have a song in the catalog (Artist) or have not created any projects or downloaded tracks (Client), and would like to have your account removed, please email us at info@crucialmusic.com. Removing your account will lose all music submission history. If you would like to submit in the future, you will have to setup a new account.

If you have not logged into your account in 3 years, and you do not have/had songs in our catalog (Artist) or have not created any projects (Client), we will remove your account automatically and delete all data associated with it including Personal Information. If you would like to submit or create new playlists in the future, you will have to setup a new account.

If Crucial has emailed you a project (playlist of music) for consideration in your productions from the site, we will retain your name, project title and email indefinitely.

Metadata on BWAVs, and MP3s that are disseminated to third parties may remain on their drives indefinitely; Crucial will not send out removal requests. Metadata includes Personal Information such as artist name, composer(s) name(s), publisher(s) name(s), and their %, and PROs; this is all information related to your copyright which is also public information.

CrucialCustom.com

If you (Artist) have opted-in for our CrucialCustom service, and would like to stop receiving custom opportunities, email us at info@crucialmusic.com and we will opt you out of the service. You will still have access to your CrucialCustom.com account to view your past invites, projects, and submission history as your account will remain valid indefinitely and may not be deleted due to contractual obligations of the blanket Terms and Terms/Conditions and Work-For-Hire Agreement you signed. However, you will stop receiving custom opportunities. If you (Artist) sign up as a “Client” on CrucialCustom.com your account will be deleted; as your CrucialMusic.com login/password is the same for CrucialCustom.com; you do not need to create a separate account.

If you (Client) have posted a custom project, your account cannot be removed, and data Is kept indefinitely. If you have never posted a custom project and would like to have your account removed. Please email us info@crucialmusic.com.

If you (Client) have not logged into your account in 3 years, and you have not posted any custom projects nor created any Quick Projects, we will remove your account automatically. If you would like to post a custom project or create a Quick Project in the future, you will have to setup a new account.

Specific and automated account removals will result in deletion of all information associated with the account including Personal Information from our servers. However, a backup file of only the full name and email address will be downloaded and stored in an encrypted drive in the case of breach notification.

Use of Cookies and Other Technologies

Crucial uses "cookies" to enable you to sign in to our services and to help personalize and improve your online experience. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard drive or device. Cookies contain information, including personal information that can later be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. All information stored in cookies by our web sites is encrypted.

Cookies offer you many conveniences:

  • They allow us to identify registered users when they return to the site.
  • Cookies save you time by eliminating the need to repeatedly enter the same information.
  • Cookies remember your preferences when using the site.

We strive to make this site user-friendly and relevant. Our goal is to deliver efficient, time saving services to you.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your browser setting to decline cookies. Please be aware that the site is designed to operate with cookies enabled in your internet browser. If you choose to decline cookies, you will not be able to sign in or use other interactive features of our sites and services that depend on cookies.

Security of Your Personal Information

The security of your Personal Information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to help protect your Personal Information. For instance, when you enter sensitive information (such as a Social Security or Federal Tax ID number and password) on our registration form, we encrypt that information using industry standard encryption and encrypt the transmission using secure socket layer (SSL) technology. Banking and Paypal information is collected, encrypted and transmitted using secure socket layer (SSL) technology to our third party payment processor (Trolley pka PaymentRails) who secures the storage and transmission using standard industry technology. We do not store credit card information as we utilize a third party provider (Stripe) who secures the storage and transmission using industry standard technology.

Physical security is implemented in the form of “lock and key” cabinets to store hard copy documents containing Personal Information.

Additionally, our applications, computers and hard drives are either password protected or encrypted.

No method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Password Policy

It is your responsibility to use a non-duplicative password and keeping it secure. Crucial employees do not have access to your password, as the password is encrypted.

If you ask us to setup an account for you or reset your password because you cannot remember your password, we will create a password and then it will be your responsibility to login immediately and change the password.

Interactive Services

On CrucialCustom.com, you may have a chance to interact with the Client or Artist affiliated with a project. Any personal information you post will be viewable by others. We are not responsible for personal information you submit in connection with the project, nor are we responsible for how others might use that information. Comments may be retained indefinitely. If at any time you would like to remove a comment, please email us at info@crucialcustom.com or info@crucialmusic.com. Keep in mind that removal of a comment from a project does not necessarily mean that the information has not been copied and stored elsewhere by other users with access to the project.

Children

We do not intend to solicit or collect personal information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are under 18, you should not use or enter information on this site.

We may link to websites (including those of our third-party content providers) that have different privacy policies and practices from those disclosed here. We assume no responsibility for the policies or practices of such linked sites, and encourage you to become acquainted with them prior to use.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change the terms of this privacy policy at any time. When we make changes, we will revise the “last updated” date at the top of the policy. If there are material changes to this statement or in how Crucial will use your personal information, we will notify you by prominently posting a notice of such changes here or on our home page, or by sending you an email. We encourage you to review this policy whenever you visit one of our sites.

Contact Information

You can contact Crucial by emailing info@crucialcustom.com or info@crucialmusic.com, or by phone at 818-985-5810, or by postal mail at Crucial Music Corporation, 12031 Ventura Blvd. Ste. 2, Studio City, CA 91604.