Creator Agreement

1. About this agreement

This agreement is between you and ReadySFX. It works together with the Terms of Service. We record which version you accepted and when; if we change it, we'll ask you to accept the new version before you publish again.

2. Who can be a creator

• •You must be at least 18.
• •Your identity and payout details must be accurate and your own.
• •One creator account per person or studio.
• •You're an independent seller, not an employee, agent or partner of ReadySFX.

3. What you may publish

Every sound you upload must be yours to sell:

• •You created it yourself, or you have written permission that allows you to sell it on a marketplace like ReadySFX.
• •It contains no copyrighted music, and no recordings or samples taken from other sound libraries, packs, games, films, videos or streams, unless their licence expressly allows reselling them as part of a sound library.
• •It doesn't include anyone's identifiable voice without their permission.
• •Its name, description, category, tags, licence and what it's made for (games, video, film) are accurate.
• •It isn't registered with YouTube Content ID or any other content-identification system — by you or anyone else — and you won't register it. Buyers use these sounds in monetised videos and streams; a claim against a buyer's work over a sound you sell here is a breach of this agreement (section 12).

Included parts. You may include up to 8 separate parts with a sound — pieces of that same sound, such as a crossbow's shot and its reload, cut from the full sound or exported from the same session. ReadySFX can find and cut parts for you automatically; you are responsible for checking them before publishing. Parts must not be different sounds. They are sold only together with the full sound, at its price and under its licence, and the rules in this agreement apply to each part like any sound you publish.

Pack trailer music. Trusted Creators may upload their own music (up to 10 MB per song) to play under their pack trailers. You may only upload music you made yourself, or music whose licence allows you to use it in a promotional trailer that is played publicly on ReadySFX and that anyone who hears it could download. Commercial music, other artists' songs and tracks whose licence forbids this kind of use are not allowed, and the music must not be registered with YouTube Content ID or any similar system. You confirm this each time you upload a song, and we record that confirmation. You give ReadySFX the same licence as in section 5 to store the music, mix it into your trailers and play them publicly. Section 12 applies to trailer music like any sound you publish, and we may remove a trailer or stop it using your music at any time — for example after a copyright complaint.

4. Your own work, and AI

Sounds must be substantially your own work. Normal production tools are always fine: recording, editing, EQ, compression, reverb, noise reduction, synthesizers and sound-design plugins.

• •You may use material made with a generative AI tool (for example a text-to-sound, AI voice or AI music generator) as one ingredient of a sound only if you have reworked it significantly — for example by editing, layering and processing it — so that the result is your own work.
• •You may only do so if that AI tool's own terms allow you to sell or give away the result as a sound effect or sample. Some don't: for example, ElevenLabs' Prohibited Use Policy forbids selling or distributing output (or any part of it) from its Sound Effects product as isolated files, samples or sound libraries, so it can't be used in sounds on ReadySFX. Checking the tool's terms is your responsibility.
• •Sounds that are mostly or entirely AI-generated, or only lightly changed from an AI tool's output, are not allowed.

If a sound you publish breaks these rules, you are responsible for it under section 12: we may remove it, refund its buyers, and withhold or recover your earnings from it.

5. The licence you give ReadySFX

So ReadySFX can sell your sounds, you give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store and host them; convert them to other formats; create watermarked previews; analyse them (including automatic checks for duplicates, audio problems and synthetic audio); display, market and sell them; and grant each buyer the licence you chose for the sound (Personal or Commercial), or the licence agreed for a custom request.

You also accepted, when you applied, the following licence for ReadySFX's own use of your sounds:

By becoming a ReadySFX Creator, you agree to grant ReadySFX a free, non-exclusive, worldwide license to use the sounds you submit to the platform. This allows ReadySFX to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, and incorporate your submitted sounds into ReadySFX projects and content, including for commercial, advertising, marketing, promotional, and other business-related purposes.

ReadySFX may also use submitted sounds as reference material or modify them when creating new audio content.

You retain ownership and copyright of the original sounds you create and submit. This agreement simply gives ReadySFX permission to use those sounds as described above.

6. You keep ownership

Copyright in your sounds stays with you. You can unpublish or archive a sound at any time. A sound or pack that someone has bought can't be deleted, only archived or unpublished, so buyers keep what they paid for. Licences that buyers already paid for continue after you unpublish a sound or close your account, and we keep the copies needed for those buyers' re-downloads and for our records.

7. Review and removal

Uploads are reviewed automatically and may also be reviewed by our team. Reviews check quality and our rules; they don't confirm that you own a sound, which stays your responsibility. We may reject, hide, unpublish or remove any sound, at any time, including after it has been published — for example after a copyright complaint, a failed check, or a breach of this agreement.

Automatic helpers. When you upload, ReadySFX can suggest a name, description, category, mood and tags, and can number sounds that share a name (including continuing a series of names you already use). Suggestions are based on the file, its name, your own earlier sounds and the categories of similar sounds already published; another creator's description is never copied into your listing. These are only suggestions: you are responsible for checking that everything you publish is accurate. You can switch these helpers off in Settings → Upload preferences.

Pack pictures. Any creator can give a pack a picture. You must own the picture or have the right to use it, and it must follow our content rules. Pictures from creators who aren't Trusted Creators are checked by ReadySFX before they show; until then the pack keeps its current look. We may turn down or remove any pack picture at our discretion.

Categories. ReadySFX may move a published sound to a better-fitting category or subcategory — for example when the categories are reorganised. This never changes the sound's name, description, price or licence, and you can change the category yourself (unless you are a Trusted Creator, the change is reviewed before it goes live).

Updating a published sound. You may change a published sound's volume, and you may replace its file only when ReadySFX has paused the sound after a buyer reported the file as broken; to change a sound in any other way, delete it and upload the new version (a sound someone has bought can't be deleted, only archived). Any update must be an improved version of the same sound — for example a fixed volume, trimmed silence or a working file — never a different sound. Every update is sent to ReadySFX for approval: we compare the current and the new file, the current one stays on sale until we decide, and we may approve or reject any update at our discretion. If you are a Trusted Creator, an update that our system confirms is the same sound (for example a volume change) may be approved automatically; we may still review it afterwards and undo it, and the rules in this section still apply. Once approved, everyone who already bought the sound receives the updated file in their library in place of the old one. Trying to swap a sound for a different one is a breach of this agreement (section 12), and we may remove the sound, refund its buyers and suspend your account.

8. What you earn

• •Marketplace sales: you receive 65% of the net sale price. Once your lifetime net earnings pass US$500, this rises to 70%, and past US$2,000 to 75%. Once you reach a rate with sales that are past the 30-day hold, you keep it: refunds that later bring your lifetime net earnings back under a threshold don't lower it. Sales still in the hold count toward your rate only while they stand, so a refund in that time can lower it. ReadySFX may lower it only where the threshold was reached improperly, for example by buying your own sounds, or by sales later refunded or charged back. Passing US$500 makes you eligible for the Trusted Creator badge, which ReadySFX gives after reviewing your account; we may decline it, for example where sales were made to reach the threshold (such as buying your own sounds, or purchases later refunded or charged back). Once given, it stays unless ReadySFX removes it (for example after a breach of this agreement); once removed, only ReadySFX can give it back, whatever your earnings.
• •"Net sale price" means what the buyer paid for your sound after discounts, excluding taxes. For packs, the price is shared across the sounds in the pack.
• •Custom requests: ReadySFX keeps 25% of the agreed price (20% once you're a Trusted Creator), and you receive the rest.
• •If a sale is refunded or charged back, your share of it is deducted from your balance or future earnings.

9. Payouts

• •Each sale's earnings are held for 30 days from the sale, so that a refund in that time simply cancels your share before it's paid. Custom-request earnings are held the same way, for 30 days from when the customer accepts the delivery (or ReadySFX decides a dispute). After that they're ready to pay out.
• •Ready earnings are paid monthly through PayPal to your confirmed payout email, usually around the 15th, once at least US$25 is ready.
• •Paid sounds cost at least US$2.
• •Changing your payout email requires confirming it from your account email, and pauses payouts for 48 hours for security.
• •We may hold or delay payouts while we look into fraud, a copyright complaint, a chargeback or a possible breach of this agreement.
• •You're responsible for the taxes on your earnings. We may ask for tax information where the law requires it.

10. Refunds and recovering earnings

• •If we paid you earnings for a sound that breached this agreement (for example stolen, infringing, or using AI material in a way section 4 doesn't allow), or for a sale that was later refunded or charged back, we may recover that amount by deducting it from your future earnings or asking you to repay it.
• •We refund buyers under our Refund Policy, which can cover a single sound from an order. When we refund a sale of your sound we tell you which sound, why, and how much was deducted, in your notifications and under Your stats → Refunds.
• •When the problem was caused by ReadySFX (for example a fault on our website), we cover the refund and you keep your share. When it comes from the file or the listing (for example a corrupted file, or a sound that doesn't match its listing), your share of that sale is deducted. Other refunds, such as a duplicate charge or a buyer who changed their mind before downloading, cancel the sale, so the share is deducted too.
• •If a buyer reports a sound as corrupted and we refund it, we pause that sound so nobody else buys a broken file. It goes back on sale once you replace its audio with a working file and we approve it.
• •ReadySFX pays the payment processor's fees on refunds; they are never deducted from your earnings.
• •Some buyer requests are refunded automatically under the Refund Policy (for example a sound not downloaded and asked about within 14 days, or a duplicate charge). These cancel the sale, so your share of it is deducted, and you are told the same way as for any other refund.

11. Custom requests

• •Keep all communication and payment on ReadySFX. Don't share or ask for emails, phone numbers, links, social media or messaging usernames, or payment details (PayPal, crypto and similar). They are hidden automatically wherever people write on ReadySFX — including your creator name, specialties, and sound and pack names, descriptions, tags, section names and the sound names shown in pack trailers — and repeated attempts can get your account suspended.
• •The customer chooses how many days you get. Those days start when the customer pays into escrow, not when the request is sent, so a late payment never shortens your time.
• •Deliver on time, or ask for more time through the platform. The customer may accept, adjust the payment, or decline and be refunded.
• •You may decline a request at any time before the customer pays, and the customer may cancel it. Either way it is closed for good, and the other side is told.
• •Provide the revisions included in the order.
• •If you accept a lower price for an order (a customer's price proposal, or a reduced payment for more time), your share is based on the lower price and ReadySFX refunds the difference to the customer.
• •Deliver through Deliveries. The customer reviews an automatically watermarked preview (up to the first 5 minutes); your clean file is released to them only when they accept and the payment is released. Audio you send in messages before then is watermarked automatically. Don't send the clean file any other way before you're paid.
• •Reference files a customer attaches (such as video clips) are for making their sound only. Don't reuse, publish or share them.
• •Order files are deleted 30 days after the order closes, so keep your own copy of everything you deliver.
• •When you deliver a non-exclusive custom sound you may choose to also sell it in your store. It's added 30 days after the customer accepts it, through the same checks and review as any upload. Only choose this if the sound contains nothing the customer provided (their recordings, voice, music, names or brand) and isn't made only for their project; never mention the customer in the listing. Exclusive-buyout sounds can never be listed.
• •Customers can rate a completed request. Their stars, category scores and written reviews are shown on your profile without the customer's name. You can't remove a rating, but you can report a review that breaks our rules; we may hide its text, never the stars.
• •Creator Payment Protection: if you complete the work but the customer doesn't accept it after their revisions are used, we review it and at least 25% of the price may be paid to you.
• •With an exclusive buyout, you may not sell or license that sound to anyone else.

12. Your responsibility for what you publish

You alone are responsible for everything you upload and deliver. ReadySFX is a platform that hosts and sells your sounds: we don't check who owns them before they go live, and to the fullest extent the law allows, ReadySFX isn't responsible for them.

• •Complaints go to you. If someone says your sound infringes their rights, we'll send you their complaint. The dispute is between you and them, and you handle it at your own cost.
• •Hidden, not deleted. Copyright law only protects platforms like ReadySFX if they act on valid complaints, so we'll hide a sound that gets one. It stays in your account, and if you send a valid counter-notice (see our Copyright & DMCA Policy) and the person complaining doesn't go to court, we can restore it.
• •You cover our costs. You agree to defend and compensate ReadySFX (including its owner) for any claim, demand, lawsuit, loss or cost — including reasonable legal fees, settlements and damages — that arises from your content or your breach of this agreement, including sounds that are stolen, infringe someone's rights, or use AI material in a way section 4 doesn't allow.
• •While a claim about your content is open, we may hold the earnings from the sounds concerned (and, if the claim is made against ReadySFX, your balance) until it's resolved, and use them toward those costs.
• •We may also remove the content, refund its buyers, recover related earnings, and suspend your account.

13. Suspension and ending this agreement

We may suspend your publishing or close your creator account if you breach this agreement or the Terms of Service. While your account is suspended you can't add or edit listings (sounds, packs, pack sections and pictures), but you can still deliver orders that were already paid for. You may stop being a creator at any time. Sections 5 (for licences already granted to buyers), 6, 10 and 12 continue after this agreement ends.