Terms of service
The short version: Openwaves hosts openly-licensed music. Artists promise the music is theirs to share; you promise to respect the licenses; we keep the place honest. The details below are written to be read, not skimmed past.
Last updated: August 17, 2026
1. What Openwaves is
Openwaves provides hosting, streaming, and downloads for music published under open licenses (CC0, Public Domain Mark, CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-SA), together with a public API for building players and apps on top of the catalog. What you may do with any particular track is governed by its license, not by these terms — see the licenses guide.
2. Uploads and declarations
When you upload a track, you declare that you hold the rights to publish it under the license you chose — including, for AI-generated music, any conditions the generator service imposes (such as requiring a paid plan for commercial rights). We store these declarations permanently, with a timestamp.
You are responsible for what you upload. Publishing a track under an open license is hard to undo: people may rely on that license forever. Uploading music you do not have the rights to leads to removal of the content and can lead to closure of your account.
3. Content removal
We review every rights complaint sent through the takedown page and may remove content on valid claims. We may also remove content that breaks the law, was uploaded with a false declaration, or abuses the service. Where the claim concerns rights, the uploader’s stored declaration is part of the record we consider.
4. Your account
Signing in requires only an email address — we send one-time sign-in links instead of storing passwords. Keep control of your inbox: anyone who can read your email can enter your account. You are responsible for what happens under your account.
5. API fair use
The API is free to use within the published rate limits (see the API documentation). Do not hammer endpoints, evade limits with multiple keys, or misreport listening events — the anonymous listening statistics feed the catalog ranking, and gaming them hurts everyone. We may throttle or revoke API keys that abuse the service.
6. No warranty
Openwaves is provided as-is, without warranty of any kind. We work to keep licensing metadata accurate, but we cannot guarantee it: declarations come from uploaders, and we are not able to verify every claim. Nothing on this site is legal advice. If a use matters commercially, verify the license yourself against the official deed and keep your own records.
7. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms as the service evolves. The date at the top of this page always reflects the latest revision; material changes will be announced on the site.