Put creators’ terms on the record
Clef helps artists and songwriters shape how their work is used. Organizations that administer music rights can install it themselves or commission Clef to set it up in their infrastructure.
What pays for the music
Haydn spent nearly fifty years on the Esterházy princes’ payroll. Few artists today can count on a patron like that, so what lets them afford to keep making music is being paid each time their work is used, on terms they agreed to.
Rights holders license a new way of copying music once they can attach terms they trust to it.
When Apple opened its iTunes Music Store in 2003, the major labels licensed their catalogues only on condition that every song be copy-protected, and five years later the market researcher NPD ranked it the largest music retailer in the United States. The labels dropped copy protection on downloads by 2009 and went on licensing. Licensed streaming now brings in about 70 percent of recorded music’s revenue worldwide.
AI is the newest way music gets copied. Clef puts creators’ terms on the record, where each AI request can be checked against them.
Operating commitments
Six commitments shape how Clef is built, funded and governed.
- Your installation, your team
- Clef’s current software release is free to self-host. We ask adopting teams to contribute reusable improvements to the main project. Assisted installation is priced by scope. See pricing and ways to contribute. Grants, sponsorships, and donations can support development, documentation, and installations.
- Your organization holds its data
- Organizations retain control of private catalog, contract, identity, and payout data.
- Portable records
- Policies, receipts, exports, and corresponding source remain available outside a hosted service.
- Evidence status
- Self-asserted, disputed, rejected, contradictory, and inconclusive evidence stays named.
- Creator representation
- Our governance goal is representation for working artists, songwriters, and the organizations administering their rights.
- Accurate attribution
- Institutional feedback retains its original speaker, wording, and technical scope.
Run it for your own catalogs
Current release
The published alpha, v0.1.0-alpha.1, is available under AGPL-3.0-only. Its existing permissions, including commercial use and redistribution, continue under that license.
Planned terms for a future release
The proposed Clef Own-Node License allows organizations to run their own node commercially for catalogs they own or genuinely represent. Their employees can self-install using cloud services and coding assistants, or Clef can set up the node in their infrastructure. Outside providers can install and maintain client-owned nodes under a separate Clef Partner License. Partner-hosted services, OEM distribution and other resale require a separately scoped agreement. Explore the proposed partner program.
Labels and publishers can continue charging for music licensing and rights administration for their artists and songwriters. The proposed software terms cover a source-available release and take effect once the legal licensor and covered release are identified and the completed license is adopted.
What happens to what you send
Clef uses the business and contact details you submit to send the requested pack, respond to your inquiry and assess demand for the partner program. Netlify processes form submissions; Resend processes transactional email when delivery is enabled. Access is limited to people and services operating the program.
Sponsorship interest sent from this page is also processed by Netlify. Clef uses those details to reply to you and assess funding for installations.
Partner and sponsorship inquiries are kept while the conversation is active. Inactive inquiries are reviewed for deletion after 12 months. Delivery records support retries and troubleshooting. Page analytics receive page and form names; inquiry fields stay in the intake system. You can request access, correction or deletion by replying to the pack email or writing to admin@clef.pro.
Fund an installation
Clef accepts grants, sponsorships, and donations for open implementation, documentation, review, and deployment support. The preferred first result is a sponsor-funded installation delivered free to the adopting rights organization.