Privacy Policy

Account data. Your email address, display name, avatar, artist profile details (bio, slug, links, artwork), a contact phone number where you provide one, and the roles assigned to your account.

Content you upload. Audio files, artwork, lyrics, "Story Behind the Song" material, AI disclosures, registration identifiers such as ISRC and ISWC, and any consent evidence you submit for voice protection.

Listening and usage data. Plays, play duration and completion, skips, likes, dislikes, follows, playlists, downloads for offline use, searches, and which source a play came from (library, radio, AI DJ, playlist).

Social and presence data. Comments, live chat messages, reactions, poll votes, tips and reports you submit or receive, and an online/listening status that is visible to other signed-in users while you are active. You can be signed in without interacting, but presence is part of the shared experience — sign out to stop appearing as online.

Technical data. Device and browser type, app version, approximate location derived from your IP address (used for country-level trending and the live music map), connection type, error logs and diagnostic events. If you enable push notifications, we store the browser push subscription for your device.

Payment data. Subscription status, plan, tier and transaction records for paid plans. Card payments are processed by Yoco; card numbers never reach AI Stage and are never stored by us. AI Stage does not sell songs and does not pay artist royalties at this stage, so we hold no payout details.

• to run the service: authentication, streaming, offline caching and playback resume;
• to personalise discovery, radio, recommendations and AI DJ sets;
• to give artists analytics — streams, unique listeners, completion and skip rates, follower growth;
• to screen uploads for copyright, safety and duplicate-audio issues before publication;
• to detect stream manipulation, spam and abuse;
• to process subscriptions, renewals and cancellations where paid plans apply;
• to show your online/listening status to other signed-in users while you are active;
• to send push notifications to devices where you have switched them on;
• to send service messages, and product updates you can opt out of;
• to meet legal, tax and rights-holder obligations.

Messages to artists. Where an artist has given us a phone number, we may send platform announcements and release-related updates by WhatsApp or SMS. These are sent by AI Stage staff, never sold or shared with advertisers, and you can opt out at any time by replying to the message or emailing us — opting out does not affect your account or your uploads.

Artist analytics are aggregated. Artists see counts and trends, not the identities of individual listeners, except where you interact publicly — for example by following them or leaving a comment.

Some features send data to AI providers to work: text prompts for playlist generation, short spoken requests for the AI DJ, and audio transcription used for lyric and safety screening. These are processed to return a result to you and to keep the platform compliant; they are not used to build advertising profiles.

Uploaded audio is analysed to produce transcodes, loudness normalisation, BPM and key estimates and acoustic fingerprints. Fingerprints are compared against reference material to detect duplicates and possible infringement. We do not license your recordings to third parties for generative model training.

We share data only with service providers who help us operate the platform — cloud hosting, database and media storage and delivery, live-streaming infrastructure, AI model providers, email delivery, WhatsApp/SMS messaging, card payment processing (Yoco), and error monitoring. They may process data only on our instructions, and we do not give them permission to use it for their own marketing.

Public parts of your profile — display name, avatar, artist page, public playlists, comments and follows — are visible to other signed-in users by design. We also share data where required by law, to respond to valid rights-holder notices, or to protect the safety of users and the platform. We do not sell your personal data.

We use cookies and browser storage that are necessary for the service: keeping you signed in, storing player state so playback resumes where you left off, remembering settings such as crossfade length and Wi-Fi-only downloads, and caching audio you download for offline listening. We use limited analytics to understand feature usage and reliability. We do not run third-party advertising trackers.

Account and content data is kept while your account is active. When you delete a release or your account, we remove it from the live service and delete or anonymise associated personal data, except where we must keep records longer — moderation and copyright decisions, fraud investigations, payment and tax records, and short-lived backups. Offline audio cached on your device is deleted when you remove the download or clear storage from Settings.

Data is encrypted in transit. Database access is protected with row-level security so records are readable only by the accounts entitled to see them, and audio and premium media are served through short-lived signed URLs rather than public links. Administrative and moderation actions require an elevated role and are written to an audit log. No system is perfectly secure — if you find a vulnerability, please report it to us before disclosing it publicly.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal data, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to withdraw consent. You can update your profile and preferences, manage downloads and delete your account from Settings, and you can contact us for any request we cannot fulfil in-app. We respond within the period required by applicable law.

AI Stage is not intended for children under 16, or under the minimum age of digital consent where that is higher. Users between 16 and 18 need the consent of a parent or legal guardian to use the platform, to upload music and to take out a paid plan. If we learn that an account belongs to a child below the minimum age, we close it and delete the associated data.

Our providers may process data in countries other than yours. Where that happens, we rely on the safeguards those providers offer, such as standard contractual clauses, to keep the level of protection consistent.

We update this policy as the platform changes. Material updates are announced in the app and the date at the top of this page is revised.

For privacy questions or requests — including access, correction, deletion, or opting out of WhatsApp and SMS messages — email support@aistage.co.za, marked for the attention of the Information Officer. For copyright matters, use the copyright claim or DMCA forms.