Terms of service
Clear scope. Clear responsibilities.
Version 2026-09-13.1. Retain the terms included in your accepted proposal.
1. Parties, agreement and eligibility
Apathy Records is Micheal David Sawyer doing business as Apathy Records, a sole proprietor based in Denver, Colorado, United States. You must be at least 18 and authorized to bind the artist or business you identify. Submitting an application does not hire Apathy or reserve services. A service engagement begins when you electronically accept a written proposal issued by Apathy. The accepted proposal, its scope and the terms copied into it form the agreement. Project-specific provisions expressly identifying a variation control over these standard terms; mandatory law always controls. Prices are in US dollars. We do not take ownership of your masters, act as your lawyer or accountant, or hold and distribute royalties.
2. Scope, schedule and revisions
Only the deliverables, quantities, service period and approved expenses identified in your proposal are included. Mixing, mastering, recording, artwork, original video production, paid advertising, press services and third-party fees are excluded unless separately itemized and prepaid. Unless the proposal provides otherwise, each written deliverable includes one consolidated revision round requested within five business days of delivery. Corrections required to conform our work to the agreed scope do not consume that round. Changes to scope, quantities, fees or delivery dates require a written change order accepted by both parties before additional work or spending. Dates are planning estimates dependent on cleared payment, complete files, documented rights, platform requirements and timely approvals. We communicate material delays and revised plans. No release is submitted or campaign spend committed without the agreed written approval; silence is not approval.
3. Deposits, fees and refunds
One-off projects require a 50% booking deposit and the remaining 50% before final delivery. The deposit reserves calendar time and, once substantive work begins, is non-refundable for a cancellation for your convenience, except for an amount required to be returned by law or the provider-breach provisions below. Before substantive work begins, a cancellation receives a refund of the deposit less only documented, separately authorized, nonrecoverable third-party expenses. We do not keep unearned fees as a penalty. We provide a work and expense accounting on termination and refund amounts exceeding fees properly earned and authorized nonrecoverable costs where required by law. Any recoverable vendor refund is passed back to you. We may pause work for overdue amounts after notice; this can move the schedule. Payment does not buy a result or platform placement. No recovery commission is charged under this agreement.
4. Monthly services
Momentum is offered at $1,850 per service month with a three-month initial commitment ($5,550 total), billed at the start of each month if activated under a separate recurring-billing authorization. Recurring checkout is currently unavailable; no subscription or recurring payment is created by this site. Apathy will not begin automatic billing until an offer states the service start date, exact charge amount and frequency, initial commitment, renewal dates and cancellation mechanism, and you separately consent. The one-off booking deposit is not an authorization for recurring charges. A request through the contact form can be used to discuss monthly work without authorizing payment.
5. Your responsibilities and approvals
You must provide accurate metadata, complete usable files, current contact details, lawful account access and consolidated decisions from an authorized representative. You remain responsible for your backups, artist accounts, taxes and royalty registrations unless a specific administrative task is expressly included. Do not send card numbers, passwords, identity documents or unnecessary sensitive personal data through intake. You must review spelling, credits, splits, artwork, dates and release instructions before approving them. Apathy remains responsible for its own failure to follow an approved instruction. We may suspend an affected task when missing information, unresolved ownership or unsafe account access prevents lawful delivery.
6. Music rights, AI and voice consent
Before use of any material, you represent that you own or have obtained the rights and permissions needed for the specific activities you authorize, including master and composition rights, samples, interpolations, artwork, names, likenesses, performances, features and any synthetic voice. Disclose AI tools and generated elements, applicable tool-license restrictions, human contributions, contributors and split disputes, and provide written voice or likeness consent where required. Identify uncleared material as uncleared; an intention to seek clearance is not a license. Apathy may require supporting documents and decline or suspend disputed material. Split entries and internal rights checks are administrative records, not adjudications of ownership. AI-tool access or a commercial subscription does not by itself establish copyright, exclusivity, noninfringement or platform eligibility. Apathy does not guarantee AI-generated elements are copyrightable. We will not train models on your private materials or submit them to generative-AI services without separate, informed written authorization specifying the material and purpose.
7. Ownership and permitted use
You retain the rights you hold in your music and supplied materials. You grant Apathy a limited, nonexclusive license during the engagement to copy, organize, edit as approved and transmit those materials only as reasonably needed for the agreed services, using necessary providers and contractors subject to confidentiality obligations. This is not a royalty assignment or authority to sign licenses, sell your catalog or settle claims. Upon full payment, Apathy assigns to you its transferable copyright in the final custom written deliverables identified in the proposal. Apathy retains its pre-existing tools, software, templates, methods and general know-how, and grants you a perpetual, worldwide, nonexclusive license to use any of those elements embedded in paid final deliverables for your own business. Third-party materials remain subject to their disclosed licenses. No public portfolio, testimonial or case-study use of your name, unreleased work or results is authorized without separate written consent.
8. Outcomes and third-party platforms
Apathy provides the agreed professional efforts and deliverables, not guaranteed streams, listener growth, playlist placement, press coverage, sync licensing, revenue, virality, royalty recovery or release timing. Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, distributors, collecting societies and other independent providers control their own decisions, rules, review times, pricing and account actions. No affiliation, endorsement or preferential access is implied. We do not promise those providers will accept, retain, promote, license or monetize your material. We must still perform our agreed work with reasonable care and communicate material limitations; these terms do not excuse a failure to do that work.
9. Prohibited conduct
Do not request, buy, authorize or knowingly use artificial streams, bots, click farms, fraudulent engagement, deceptive promotional claims, unauthorized identity or voice use, or infringement in connection with our work. Do not use the site to probe other client accounts, upload malicious files or harass staff. An unexplained traffic spike alone does not establish your misconduct. On credible evidence of misuse or a material rights problem, Apathy may immediately pause affected activity, request an explanation and terminate if necessary to avoid harm or unlawful conduct. Refunds and amounts due are determined under the termination provisions, not automatic forfeiture of all fees.
10. Confidentiality and data
Each party must protect the other’s nonpublic music, plans, business information and credentials with reasonable care and use them only for the engagement. Disclosure is permitted to necessary service providers under appropriate confidentiality obligations, with consent, or as legally required; where lawful, give notice of compelled disclosure. Information already public without breach, lawfully obtained elsewhere or independently developed is excluded. Our Privacy Policy describes personal-data handling. We do not promise absolute security. Apathy will address incidents and provide legally required notices. Confidentiality survives termination while information remains nonpublic.
11. Suspension and termination
Either party may terminate by written notice through the contact form or the project communication channel. For a material breach capable of cure, give the other party ten business days after notice to cure; immediate suspension is permitted for credible security, infringement or unlawful-conduct risks. If Apathy ends an engagement for convenience, or you terminate for Apathy’s uncured material breach, we return prepaid fees for unperformed work and deliver work you have paid for. If you cancel for convenience or materially breach, you owe only the agreed earned fees and separately authorized nonrecoverable expenses, subject to the deposit policy and mandatory law. We provide the termination accounting and any refund due within 30 days after termination. Paid deliverables and your supplied files are made available for export for 30 days, subject to security and legal-hold restrictions. No cancellation accelerates a disabled subscription or creates an unaccepted renewal obligation. Payment, ownership, confidentiality, indemnity and dispute provisions survive as needed.
12. Third-party claims
You will indemnify Apathy for third-party claims, reasonable defense costs and amounts finally awarded or reasonably settled to the extent caused by your breach of your rights representations, material misrepresentations, or unlawful instructions or supplied materials. This does not cover Apathy’s own negligence, willful misconduct, unauthorized modifications or breach. Apathy must give prompt notice, reasonable cooperation at your expense and a meaningful opportunity to participate in the defense. No settlement may admit your wrongdoing, impose nonmonetary duties on you, or fail to release you without your written consent, not unreasonably withheld. No party receives double recovery.
13. Liability and remedies
To the extent permitted by law, neither party is liable to the other for indirect, special or consequential loss, including speculative profits or anticipated placements. Apathy’s aggregate liability arising from an engagement is limited to fees paid or payable for that engagement. These exclusions and limits do not apply to fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, liability that cannot lawfully be limited, required refunds, or nonwaivable statutory rights and remedies. Platform decisions outside our control do not establish our breach by themselves. No term waives a right to report misconduct to regulators or requires you to refrain from truthful reviews.
14. Governing law, disputes and general terms
Colorado law governs, without its conflict-of-laws rules, subject to nonwaivable protections in an applicable jurisdiction. Before filing a civil claim, the parties will attempt in good faith to resolve it by written notice and discussion for 30 days, except urgent protective relief or a filing needed to preserve a deadline. Courts of competent jurisdiction in Denver, Colorado are the agreed venue where lawful; an eligible small-claims action may be brought in any court allowed by applicable law. There is no mandatory arbitration or class-action waiver. If a provision is unenforceable, the remainder remains effective to the extent lawful. Neither party may bind the other as an agent or partner. Events beyond reasonable control excuse only the affected performance while they persist, with prompt notice and mitigation, and do not erase refunds for unperformed services. Neither party may assign the agreement without consent, except a business succession that preserves the other party’s rights. Changes require mutual written agreement; a website update does not rewrite an accepted proposal. Electronic signatures and retained electronic records may evidence assent. Contact Apathy through /contact for notices, billing questions and accessibility assistance.