These Terms of Use (“Terms of Use”, “Terms”) (together with the documents referred to in it) set out the terms on which you (as a “User”) may make use of our website www.sounded.com (our site) including our associated Android and iOS Mobile Applications (“Mobile App” or “Mobile Apps”). Use of our site or Mobile Apps includes accessing, browsing, or using our site or Mobile Apps or submitting contact information.
Please read these Terms carefully before you start to use our site or Mobile Apps, as these will apply to your use. We recommend that you print a copy of this for future reference.
Your continued use of our site or any of our Mobile Apps, is your confirmation of your acceptance of these Terms of Use and that you agree to comply with them. If you do not agree to these Terms of Use, you must not use our site, Mobile Apps or any other part of our services.
1.1 These Terms of Use refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our site, Mobile Apps or any of our services:
• Our Terms of Use, which sets out additional terms specific to our Mobile Apps
• Our Privacy Policy which sets out the terms on which we process any personal data you provide to us or we collect from your use of our site and/or Mobile Apps
• Our Cookie Policy, which sets out information about the cookies on our site and/or Mobile Apps
• Our Copyright Infringement Policy
• Our Defamation Policy
• Our Publisher Agreement
• Our Content Policy
(collectively the “Applicable Terms”).
2.1 www.sounded.com is a site operated by Sounded Limited (“Sounded”, “we”, “our” “us”), registered in the Isle of Man. Our registered office is located at Second Floor, 18-20 North Quay, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 4LE.
2.2 We provide services online including access to narration tools for the creation, editing and distribution of audio versions of literary works (“Audiobooks”) as well as access to an online branded store from which Audiobooks may be downloaded either for free or for a fee (“Book Store”).
2.3 If you wish to contact us, you can do so by writing to us at the address above, or by sending an email to info@sounded.com.
3.1 In order to access and use some parts of our site, or Mobile Apps, you may need to create an account (“Account”). The type of Account will depend on the nature of your use of our site and services. We have two types of Accounts at present “User Accounts” and “Author Accounts” (defined below). All information you provide to create your Account must be true and accurate, which includes for example providing your legal name, country of residence, your full address details, email address, telephone number and banking details (where applicable for making purchases) (“Account Information”).
3.2 You agree to ensure your Account Information remains accurate and up to date as long as you use our services. You represent and warrant you will (i) always provide true, accurate and complete information; and (ii) not impersonate any other individual or use a username which you are not authorised to use.
3.3 You are not permitted to register more than one User Account or Author Account. In the event we become aware of additional Accounts created by you, we may permanently close such additional Accounts, or all accounts associated with you, with or without notice to you.
3.4 You are not permitted to assign or transfer your User Account or Author Account, including any username, password or other login information to any other person or party, without our express prior written consent. Any Accounts identified as violating this provision will be closed immediately.
3.5 You shall not disclose your login credentials to any third party whatsoever or permit another party to use our services via your Account(s), or share access to your Author Account. You hereby agree you are fully responsible and will be liable for any activity and use (including transactional activity) which takes place in your User Account and/or Author Account.
3.6 You may be able to browse parts of our site free of charge without an Account. We do not guarantee our site, Mobile Apps, and/or any service, will always be available or be uninterrupted.
3.7 Access to our site and Mobile Apps is permitted on a temporary basis. We may suspend, withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of our site and/or Mobile Apps without notice.
3.8 You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site and Mobile Apps. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site or Mobile Apps through your internet connection are aware of these Terms of Use and other applicable terms and conditions and that they comply with them.
3.9 As an online business, we cannot give any guarantee our site, Mobile Apps and services will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error free. We are not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of third party websites or services; unavailability of our site as a result of Events Outside Our Control (defined below); or your inability to use or interruption of our site or any Account due to problems with your device or any third party telecommunications service provider or network you use to access our site, Mobile Apps or service.
4.1 Services we offer include an online portal for authors and publishers (“Author Portal”) to access tools for creating Audiobooks, and an online Book Store allowing end users to browse, download and/or stream, play for free and/or to purchase to play and listen to Audiobooks in various categories and genres.
4.2 In order to use our Book Store as a user to listen or purchase Audiobooks, you are required to register and create a User Account. In order to use our services to create Audiobooks you are required to register and create an Author Account.
4.3 To create a either Account, you must be 18 years old, or the age of legal majority in the jurisdiction where you access our Book Store. Below this age, you are permitted to create an Account where you have permission from a parent or guardian to use our service.
5.1 Our Book Store is solely for the distribution of Audiobooks. Whilst we operate a .com website, our content may not always be available or accessible in a jurisdiction which you are based.
5.2 Subject to your agreement with these Terms of Use and your payment of any applicable fees, Sounded grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferrable, non-sublicensable revocable licence to access and make use of our Book Store and our services for your personal use only, which includes browsing Audiobook content, downloading Audiobook content, listening to Audiobook content and/or streaming Audiobook content from our Book Store.
5.3 Content you search for will be displayed in categories as listed by the Author or Publisher of the Audiobook. You accept responsibility for the content you search for and ultimately listen to, it being your personal choice to access such content and you agree we are in no way liable for any of the content you listen to, access or ultimately download. Where possible, we may display age ratings or content guidelines for certain Audiobook content.
5.4 Descriptions of Audiobooks available on our Book Store are provided by the Author or Publisher of the Audiobook. Images for Audiobooks on our Book Store are for illustrative purposes only and have been provided by the ‘Author’ or ‘Publisher’ of the Audiobook. Therefore, we do not provide any warranty the Audiobook descriptions used for content on our Book Store are accurate, complete, reliable, current or error free.
5.5 Although we make every effort to display the Audiobook descriptions and images as accurately as possible, there may be occasions where the description has not displayed correctly, or is inaccurate as a result of an error by the Author or Publisher, or when the size, dimension or measurements of an image do not display correctly, based on technology, such as your device resolution.
6.1 The price of an Audiobook will be displayed on our Book Store as set out in its list price in force at the time you place an order. Audiobook pricing may change at any time, but price changes will not affect an order you have already placed.
6.2 All prices displayed will make clear whether or not they include VAT.
6.3 In order to make a purchase from our Book Store, you must have a valid payment method listed in your User Account (such as a credit or debit card). We accept payment methods including VISA, Mastercard and Paypal Changes to your payment method can be made in your User Account settings.
6.4 It is always possible, despite our best efforts, some of the Audiobooks available on our Book Store may be incorrectly priced. If a pricing error occurs which is obvious and unmistakable and could have reasonably been recognised by you as a mispricing, we do not have to provide the Audiobook to you at the stated incorrect (lower) price.
6.5 For Audiobooks listed for free, no payment is required to download or stream them.
7.1 Once we have received payment in full for an order on our Book Store, the applicable item you have purchased from the Book Store will be delivered to you as an audio file for download or streaming in your Sounded.com User Account.
7.2 It is your responsibility to access your User Account to download the Audiobook content to listen to after your order has been completed. You acknowledge, understand and agree you are not permitted to use the Audiobook, or any part of it, for anything other than your sole personal use.
7.3 We will contact you by email following your order to confirm if your purchase has been successful and your Audiobook is available for download or streaming. Occasionally the timing of our email and the availability to you of the Audiobook may be affected by an Event Outside Our Control.
7.4 The timeframe for delivery of your Audiobook may be dependent on technical items including your device and settings and/or the speed of internet connectivity for the device you are using. You may be charged separately by your telecoms provider for such download and charges will vary depending on your price plan with them.
7.5 Audiobooks available for download and/or streaming by you will remain in your User Account for you to accept the download. It is your responsibility to complete the download of the Audiobook to your Device. You accept loss of content or file corruption is outside of our control. If, due to operational reasons or technical reasons outside of our control, we are unable to deliver the whole of the Audiobook, we may deliver an Audiobook to your User Account in instalments.
7.6 Due to licensing or other restrictions, certain Audiobooks in your User Account may become unavailable after your order has been completed for further download. In the unlikely event of such issue, we are unable to provide you with a refund. You should therefore promptly download any Audiobook delivered to your User Account following completion of your order.
8.1 Subject to the terms in clause 8.3 below, you may cancel your order for the purchase of an Audiobook within 14 days from the date of your purchase. To request a refund, you should email: support@sounded.com.
8.2 We may have to cancel your order, after your purchase and prior to you accessing or attempting to access your Audiobook due to an Event Outside Our Control. If this happens, we will promptly contact you by email or notification to your User Account to let you know and where we have taken payment, we will refund these amounts to you.
8.3 A refund will be available to you provided you have not started or attempted to start to download, stream, or listen to the Audiobook content. Once you start to download, stream or listen to the content, you are unable to cancel your order and you will not be entitled to any refund, or partial refund for your order. By placing an order you acknowledge understand and agree to these refund terms.
8.4 In cases where a refund is applied, we will confirm the refund and cancellation of your order in writing to you by email or in your User Account. If your order is cancelled, you agree to immediately delete any Audiobook content which was made available to you, without taking any other action to attempt to open or stream the content.
9.1 From time to time we may need to suspend our site and services, if we have to deal with technical problems, or to make improvements to our site and/or service. In the unlikely event of downtime, we will contact you either by email or notification in your User Account to let you know in advance where this occurs, unless there is an urgent matter we need to deal with. If, during any period of downtime, you experience any issues with your Audiobook download, please send an email to: support@sounded.com confirming the issue.
9.2 In the unlikely event there is any defect with our Book Store or services please contact us at: support@sounded.com and tell us as soon as reasonably possible.
9.3 We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay in performance of any obligations under these Terms caused by an Event Outside Our Control.
9.4 An Event Outside Our Control means any act or event beyond our reasonable control, including without limitation, strikes, lock-outs or other industrial action by third parties, civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attack or threat of attack, war (whether declared or not) or threat or preparation for war, fire, explosion, storm, flood, earthquake, subsidence, epidemic or pandemic or other natural disaster or failure of public or private telecommunication networks or other acts of God.
9.5 If an Event Outside Out Control takes place affecting the performance of our obligations under these Terms, we will
(a) contact you as soon as practicable to notify you; and
(b) our obligations under these Terms will be suspended and the time for performance of our obligations shall be extended for the duration of the Event Outside Our Control.
9.6 You many cancel any order if an Event Outside Our Control takes place and continues for more than 4 consecutive weeks and after this time you no longer wish us to fulfill any order for delivery of an Audiobook or other service to you. Please see your cancellation rights.
10.1 If you are an Author or Publisher using our site and services, these Terms of Use apply in addition to those terms contained in our Publisher Agreement.
11.1 Sounded.com permits users of our Book Store to post reviews and comments on the Audiobooks they have purchased or downloaded for free (“UGC” and/or “Book Reviews”).
11.2 You agree any UGC contributions you make on our Book Store by way of reviews, comments or similar, will not contain anything which may, without limitation, be considered illegal, defamatory, libelous, slanderous or otherwise, or contain any threatening or harmful content, or involve doxxing, or infringe the rights of any third party, or otherwise contain statements or comments which may be considered questionable or objectionable or involve solicitation.
11.3 If you do submit a Book Review or feedback regarding content available on our Book Store, you warrant and represent the comments or statements you make are your own views and opinion and you are solely liable for such statements and shall forever hold us harmless in respect thereof.
11.4 We reserve the right to monitor and remove in our sole discretion any content forming part of Book Reviews, where we consider it is in breach of our Terms of Use, or for any other reason we determine in our sole discretion. Accounts associated with Book Reviews which are in breach of our Terms of Use may be suspended or closed permanently.
12.1 We may revise these Terms of Use at any time by amending this page. Changes may be required by us to reflect changes in laws and regulatory requirements or such other circumstances. Please check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we make, as they are binding on you.
12.2 If we have to make material amendments to these Terms, where possible, we will give you at least 1 months written notice of any changes before they take effect. If you do not agree to the changes, you can close your User Account in accordance with clause 24.
13.1 Our Privacy Policy (together with any documents referred in it) sets the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or which you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read it carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. By visiting the site, you accept and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Policy.
13.2 Our Cookie Policy explains the cookies we use from time to time for our site. Please read it carefully. By visiting the site, you accept and consent to the practices and use of cookies described in the Cookie Policy
14.1 In these Terms, “Intellectual Property Rights” means patents, utility models, rights to inventions, copyright and related rights, trade marks and service marks, trade names and domain names, rights in get-up, goodwill and the right to sue for passing off or unfair competition, rights in designs, rights in computer software, database rights, rights to preserve the confidentiality of information (including the know-how and trade secrets) and any other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered, including all applications for (and rights to apply for and be granted), renewals or extensions of, and rights to claim priority from, such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or will subsist , now or in the future in any part of the world.
14.2 All rights, title and interest in and to our site, Mobile Apps, and services and all Intellectual Property Rights therein belong exclusively to Sounded and/or its third party licensors and you have no rights in or to our site, Mobile Apps and/or service other than a right to use them in accordance with these Terms and the Applicable Terms.. To the extent any such rights do not reside or vest in Sounded as a result of your use of our service, you hereby assign all right, title and interest in and to all Intellectual Property Rights to Sounded and/or its licensors as it may direct. .
14.3 All rights, title and interest in any Book Reviews, UGC shall belong exclusively to you as a user and you hereby grant to Sounded and irrevocable world wide exclusive licence to publish and make use of such Book Reviews UGC as it decides in its sole discretion.
14.4 For Author Accounts, please read our Publisher Agreement which contains information regarding your rights to Audiobooks created using our services.
14.5 You agree, warrant and undertake you shall not infringe any Intellectual Property Rights of Sounded, its affiliates or licensors.
14.6 You may not without our prior written consent, copy, convert, make derivative works of, alter or modify our service or attempt to do so, or any of the supporting documentation or software used for our service, or disclose or assist any third party to do the same.
14.7 All rights not expressly granted to you in these Terms of Use or any applicable Terms are expressly reserved by Sounded and our licensors.
15.1 Sounded has no editorial control over the content on our Book Store. Any audio content, opinions, advice, statements, comments, other information (including content) expressed or made available by third parties on our site are those of the respective users, authors and publishers and not of Sounded.
15.2 If you believe any content on or available through our Book Store contains a defamatory statement, you should read our Defamation Policy and use our Defamation Take Down Notice Form (”Defamation Notice”) to notify us of your concerns. Once we receive your Defamation Notice, we will use reasonable endeavours to investigate the matter and remove any defamatory content within a reasonable period of time.
16.1 Sounded does not permit or condone the unauthorized use of any content in breach of copyright. If you believe any content on or available through our Book Store is in breach of your copyright, in accordance with our Copyright Policy, you should use our Copyright Take Down Notice Form (“Copyright Notice”) to notify us of your concerns. On receipt of a Copyright Notice, we will use reasonable endeavours to investigate the matter and remove any content in breach of copyright within a reasonable period of time.
17.1 Sounded, Sounded.com and related words, domain names, logos and favicons are the property of Sounded Limited. All rights reserved.
18.1 Some of the Audiobooks available on our Book Store may be identified as being literary works which are available in the public domain, meaning the copyrights applicable to those works have expired. Sounded does not verify the accuracy of public domain works and is not liable for any use of, or access to such works by users. It is your responsibility as a user to check the laws of the country in which you reside prior to downloading or accessing such works.
18.2 Users who submit public domain work through an Author Account, are required to comply with those terms contained in our Publisher Agreement.
19.1 Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources.
19.2 You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it. You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists. You must not establish a link to our site in any website that is not owned by you.
19.3 We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. If you wish to make any use of content on our site other than that set out above, please contact info@sounded.com
20.1 We do not guarantee our site, Mobile Apps and/or service will be secure or free from errors, bugs or viruses. You are responsible for configuring the computer programs, devices and technology you use to access our site, Mobile App and/or service.
20.2 In using our site, Mobile App, Book Store or any other services we offer, you hereby warrant and undertake you will not, and will not permit or knowingly assist any third party to: (i) interfere with the integrity or security of our site, Mobile App, services or our related systems; (ii) take any action that imposes or may impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our service infrastructure; (iii) sell, licence or sub-licence, lease, assign, transfer, pledge, or share any rights granted under these Terms of Use or Applicable Terms with any third party except as expressly permitted; (iv) disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer or attempt to discover the source code or any part of it, technology or component included in the services; (v) in accordance with clause 20.3, upload or attempt to upload any viruses, worms, trojans or other malicious code or information through the services or permit or assist any third party to do so; (vi) interfere with the proper functionality of the Services; (vii) circumvent or attempt to circumvent the measures Sounded may use or put in place to prevent or restrict access to our services; (viii) use our services for anything which may be considered illegal, immoral, or similar, or could give rise to civil liability or similar lawsuits; (ix) modify the services or insert any code or product or in any other manner manipulate the services or create any derivative work from the use of our services; (x) use our services in any manner that violates or infringes the rights of any third party, including Intellectual Property Rights; (xi) attempt to frame our services or similar, or add code to, or attempt to copy, crawl, index, cache or store any information on our site, Mobile App and/or services.
20.3 Furthermore, you must not misuse our site, Mobile Apps and/or service by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to the servers on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site, Mobile Apps or services. You must not attack our site or any of our services via a distributed denial-of service attack or similar. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 (An Act of Parliament). We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities.
20.3 We reserve the right to terminate your Account, our site, Mobile Apps or any related service for violating any of the above clauses. You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit any portion of our site, Mobile Apps or service, without express written permission from us.
21.1 We do not give any representation, warranty or guarantee our site, Mobile Apps and/or service will be secure or free from viruses or run error free.
21.2 We warrant and undertake: (i) we have the right, power and authority to enter in these Terms and the Applicable Terms;
(ii) we will provide the service in accordance with applicable laws, and using reasonable skill and care as a responsible service provider; and (iii) to the best of our knowledge, we own or have appropriate contractual arrangements to the rights for our service and to the best of our knowledge our site and services do not infringe the Intellectual Property Rights of any third party.
21.3 You warrant, represent and undertake: (i) you have the right, power and authority to enter into these Terms and fulfill your obligations contained in them; (ii) you shall comply at all times with these Terms when using our services and be solely responsible for any Audiobook you create, Book Reviews or UGC you submit; (iii) you shall not, or attempt to use our service for any illegal activity, anything contrary to clause 20, and will comply with all applicable laws when using our service; (iv) you shall not infringe the rights of any third party, including Intellectual Property Rights; (v) the performance of your obligations under these Terms does not conflict with your obligations under any other agreement.
21.4 Except as set out in these Terms, we make no representation or warranty, express or implied whatsoever. All conditions, or other terms concerning the use of the service which might otherwise be implied into these Terms are expressly excluded.
22.1 Nothing in these terms of use excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, or our fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by Isle of Man law.
22.2 We will not be liable to any user for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with: (i) use of, or inability to use, our site, Mobile App or service; or (ii) use of or reliance on any content displayed on our site, Mobile App and/or service.
22.3 You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and that we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of actual or anticipated profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity, loss of money, loss of anticipated savings; loss, damage or corruption of data, goodwill or reputation; or any indirect or consequential loss or damage, in each case , howsoever arising, whether such loss or damage was foreseeable or contemplated and whether arising or caused in breach of contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise.
22.4 We will not be liable, and you acknowledge, understand and agree we will not be liable, for any loss or damage caused by a virus, distributed denial-of-service attack, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or by your downloading of any content on it, or on any website linked to it.
22.5 We assume no responsibility for the content of websites linked on our site. Such links (such as to social media pages) should not be interpreted as endorsement by us of those linked websites. We will not be liable for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.
22.6 Subject to clause 22.1, you agree our aggregate liability in respect of any claim arising under these Terms, either in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, shall in no circumstances exceed the total amount payable by you to us in the last 12 months.
23.1 You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Sounded, its licensors and affiliates and their respective directors, officers and employees and agents from and against any and all claims, actions, demands, damages, costs, liabilities, losses and expenses (including reasonable attorneys fees), as a result of or arising out of your use or misuse of our site, Mobile App and/or services or anyone using your User Account who misuses our Mobile App and/or services..
24.1 These Terms will commence with your continued use of our site, Mobile App and/or services.
24.2 You may terminate these Terms at any time by closing your User Account.
24.3 We may, with or without notice to you, suspend your User Account immediately, or terminate your User Account permanently and terminate these Terms and your use of our site, Mobile App and/or services.
24.4 On termination of your User Account, you will no longer be able to access any Audiobook purchases which have not already been downloaded.
24.5 We may also terminate an Author Account in accordance with the terms of our Publisher Agreement. If we terminate your Author Account, you will no longer have access to any content in the Author Account.
24.6 If your Account has been suspended or terminated and you believe this has been in error, you can notify us at support@sounded.com.
24.7 Termination or expiry of these Terms shall not affect any of our rights, remedies, or your obligations or liabilities accrued up to the date of termination or expiry, including our right to claim damages in respect of any breach by you of these Terms or the Applicable Terms which existed at or before the date of termination or expiry or any provision which can reasonably be inferred as continuing or is expressly stated to continue shall continue in full force and effect.
25.1 You may not assign or transfer any rights or obligations under these Terms. We may at our discretion transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms to any company. This includes where we use sub-contractors to provide services.
25.2 Nothing in these Terms is intended to, or shall be deemed to, establish any partnership or joint venture between you or us.
25.3 No failure or delay by Sounded to exercise any right or remedy provided under these Terms or by law shall constitute a waiver of that or any other right or remedy by us, nor shall it prevent or restrict the further exercise of that or any other right or remedy by us. No single or partial exercise of such right or remedy shall prevent or restrict the further exercise of that or any other right or remedy by us.
25.4 If any provision or part-provision of these Terms is or becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it shall be deemed modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid, legal and enforceable. If such modification is not possible, the relevant provision or part-provision shall be deemed deleted. Any modification to or deletion of a provision or part-provision under this clause shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the rest of these Terms.
25.5 If any provision or part-provision of these Terms is invalid, illegal or unenforceable, the parties shall negotiate in good faith to amend such provision so that, as amended, it is legal, valid and enforceable, and, to the greatest extent possible, achieves the intended commercial result of the original provision.
25.6 A person who is not a party to these Terms shall not have any rights (whether under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 2001, or otherwise) to enforce any provision of these Terms.
26.1 Sounded.com is operated from its offices in the Isle of Man, but its service may be available in other jurisdictions and countries around the world. No part of our service is intended to be used in any jurisdiction in which such use would be prohibited by local laws. You should only use our service if you are permitted to do so under the local laws in your country.
26.2 These Terms of Use, its subject matter and its formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by Isle of Man law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Isle of Man.
25 March 2023