Terms of service

  1. DEFINITIONS

    • benkestokmusic.com hereinafter referred to as “Ben Kestok”, “We”, “Us” or “Company”. User of this site, hereinafter referred to as “User”, “You”, “Your” or “Customer”. Terms of Service hereinafter referred to as “Terms”.

  2. APPLICATION AND ACCEPTANCE OF AGREEMENT

    • These Terms shall apply to benkestokmusic.com, any page or section within it and any material or service advertised within it. Please note that your use of this site, its services or any material distributed in accordance with these services constitutes acceptance of these terms.

  3. PRIVACY POLICY

    • Upon usage of the services advertised on this site, or its contact form, certain personal information may be collected and stored by Us. More information can be found in the Privacy Policy.

  4. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

    • BY USING THIS WEBSITE YOU AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING:

      • THAT IN NO EVENT SHALL BEN KESTOK, ITS AFFILIATES, SUBSIDIARIES OR ANY THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERS INVOLVED IN THE OPERATION, DISTRIBUTION AND MARKETING OF THE SITE (COLLECTIVELY, “BEN KESTOK AFFILIATES”) BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL OR SPECIAL HARMS, LOSSES OR DAMAGES OF ANY KIND RELATING TO YOUR USE OF THE SITE, ITS SERVICES OR ANY MATERIAL DISTRIBUTED BY ITS PROPRIETORS, HOWEVER ARISING (INCLUDING TORT OR NEGLIGENCE).

      • THAT IN NO EVENT SHALL BEN KESTOK BE HELD LIABLE FOR AFOREMENTIONED DAMAGES ARISING FROM CUSTOMERS USE OF ANY EXTERNAL OR THIRD-PARTY SITE THAT IS LINKED WITHIN THIS SITE.

      • THAT IN NO EVENT SHALL BEN KESTOK BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES ARISING FROM ERRORS OR INTERRUPTIONS ON THE WEBSITE.

      • THAT YOU BROWSE THIS WEBSITE AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND THAT WE MAKE NO GUARANTEES, REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THE WEBSITE OR ANY MATERIALS OR SERVICES THEREIN, WITH REGARDS TO MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

      • TO HOLD BEN KESTOK AFFILIATES HARMLESS FROM ANY CLAIMS OR ACTIONS RELATING TO AFOREMENTIONED DAMAGES OR DAMAGES ARISING FROM CONDITIONS CAUSED BY EVENTS BEYOND COMPANYS CONTROL.

      • These limitations are not intended to exclude or limit Company’s liability for: (i) death or personal injury, (ii) fraud, (iii) fraudulent misrepresentation or (iv) any liability that cannot be excluded or limited by applicable law.

  5. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

    • 5.1. - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF THIS SITE AND ITS CONTENT

      • The intellectual property rights of this site or any of the content displayed or otherwise presented on it remain the property of Ben Kestok. All rights reserved. No part of the website or any content within it may be downloaded, recreated, manipulated, distributed or manufactured in any format, for any reason, without express permission granted by Ben Kestok.

    • 5.2. - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN NON-EXCLUSIVE BEAT LEASINGS

      • 5.2.1. When leasing a beat or having a song produced through a Non-Exclusive agreement, Customer is granted the right to distribute the song online and commercially exploit it. Ben Kestok retains ownership and authorship of the beat, is entitled to certain royalties from the derivative work (see section 5.4 ROYALTIES or your personal agreement if you’ve already purchased a beat or service) and the intellectual property rights of the beat (NOT THE MASTER RECORDINGS) remains fully and wholly with Ben Kestok.

    • 5.3. - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN EXCLUSIVE BEAT LEASINGS

      • When leasing a beat or having a song produced through an Exclusive agreement, Customer is granted full rights to the usage of the beat, and may use it in an unlimited amount of songs, music videos, synchronisations, albums or any other project. Customer stands free to exploit the beat and any derivative works to the fullest, with no limitations on the length of the agreement or the amount of streams, views, plays or sales any derivative work may collect. However, Ben Kestok still retains ownership and authorship of the beat, is entitled to certain royalties from the derivative work (see section 5.4 ROYALTIES or your personal agreement if you’ve already purchased a beat) and the intellectual property rights of the beat (NOT THE MASTER RECORDINGS) remains fully and wholly with Ben Kestok.

    • 5.4. - ROYALTIES

      • 5.4.1. Royalty splits refer to how the monies arising from mechnical rights, publishing rights and writer’s share are divided between the various creators of a song. In relation to this website, each beat you licence, or song you have Us produce, will include definitions on how royalties are to be split when Customer makes and distributes the song or other derivative work with the beat made by Ben Kestok. In all packages, Customer stands free to commercially exploit the song made with a beat produced by Ben Kestok. Upon distribution of their song, Customer accepts full responsibility for registrering the correct royalty split between them and Ben Kestok, and will be in violation of their agreement if this is not done correctly. Updated information on Ben Kestok found in 5.4.3.

      • 5.4.2. Royalties are split into mechanical royalties and performance royalties (publisher’s share and writer’s share). In all packages, except for exclusive deals or otherwise where splits are negotiated, performance royalties will be split 50-50 between Ben Kestok, as the producer of the song, and Customer. If Customer has had other collaborators on their song, splits between them must be further divided ONLY between Customer’s 50 percent, and never so that Ben Kestok receives any less than 50 percent in performance royalties. In all packages, Ben Kestok shall be awarded 5 percent of mechanical royalties as the producer of the song. This is because the packages have no limit on streams or sales, so in the event of any derivative work using a Ben Kestok beat would achieve commercial success and gather a lot of mechanical royalty income, this 5 percent split serves to compensate Us for our work.

      • 5.4.3. Updated identification of Ben Kestok with regards to royalty collection shall always be included in the leasing agreement for Your beat or service, however it can also be checked here:

        • Name: TORD FJERMESTAD

        • TONO Membership Number (for Norway): 23947200

        • IPI Number (International): 1036088178

    • 5.5. - CREDIT FOR THE PRODUCTION

      • 5.5.1. Upon purchase of a service, Customer agrees to permit Ben Kestok to take credit for the production of the material in any public or private capacity. Customer also grants Ben Kestok the right to use the material in any capacity ONLY relating to promotion of a similar service (for example featuring the derivative work as part of the “Production Portfolio” on the Music page"). Ben Kestok is however NOT granted the right to re-sell or otherwise re-distribute the finished material in a commercial or directly monetizable setting.

      • 5.5.2. In all of the packages, credit must be given to the producer when distributing, uploading or otherwise showcasing derivative works that include the beat or material made through a service purchased on this site. Credit may be given as: “Produced by Ben Kestok" or “Mixed by Ben Kestok”, and must be posted at least in the description of social media content using the relevant material, or in any other easily discoverable way. Different wordings are permitted but it must be explicitly obvious that the relevant material has been produced and/or mixed/mastered by Ben Kestok.

  6. ACCURACY OF INFORMATION

    • Any material or information presented on this site may be outdated. We reserve the right to change the material or information presented on this site in any way, at any time.

  7. TERMS OF SALE

    • 7.1. - CUSTOMER INFORMATION

      • Upon purchase of a service, Customer agrees to provide, to the best of their knowledge, true and accurate information to the Company. Pursuant to section 4, Company shall not be liable for any errors, disturbances, interruptions or delays in regards to the production or delivery of material should Customer’s information be faulty or otherwise inaccurate.

    • 7.2. - CUSTOMER’S RIGHTS IN REGARDS TO THEIR ORDER

      • Upon purchase of a service, Customer reserves the right to cancel or modify their order at any time, however delays in the delivery time is also to be accepted if an order is modified by the Customer. Delay time will be calculated solely by Us and Customer shall be informed in due course. Upon cancellation of an order, pursuant to section 8, deposit payments are non-refundable.

    • 7.3. - CUSTOMER’S INSTRUCTIONS

      • Upon purchase of a service, Customer is advised and expected to provide references, personal material or other instructions that will aid Us in the production of an instrumental or beat. This is optional, but Customer is advised that as this site provides a bespoke service, a satisfactory result will only be possible if Customer’s wishes have been made clear to Us. Pursuant to section 4, We make no guarantees as to a finished product’s fitness for purpose.

    • 7.4. - RESTRICTIONS OF SALE

      • No age or geographical restrictions currently apply for the purchase of this service, however Company pledges to never include explicit or otherwise age-restriced content in any beat unless the appropriate age of Customer has been established.

    • 7.5. - COMPANY’S RIGTHS IN REGARDS TO ORDERS

      • Company reserves the right to accept, decline or cancel an order at any time for any reason. Modifications of an order will only be undertaken if Customer wishes and/or with Customer’s explicit consent. If Company cancels an order before any work has been undertaken, ALL PAYMENTS WILL BE REFUNDED INCLUDING DEPOSIT. If Company cancels an order after work has begun, but before the material is finished (is only to apply in extraordinary cases), any payment beyond the initial deposit will be refunded, and the material in its most recent form will be supplied to Customer.

  8. TERMS OF PAYMENT

    • 8.1. - PAYMENT

      • 8.1.1. Payment for all orders must be made by credit or debit card via the Payment page, via Paypal to ben@benkestokmusic.com, or via bank transfer; details found in your agreement. Customer is reminded that upon paying via the Payment page on this site, Customer accepts Stripe’s Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.

      • 8.1.2. Payment functions on a two-stage basis. Before We start working on any order, a negotiable deposit is to be paid in full via any payment method found in your agreement. This is to provide security and compensate Us if Customer should for any reason cancel their order or otherwise deny, refuse or neglect payment for the full service. After the material is finished, Customer must pay the remaining part of the service fee, meaning the initial deposit will be subtracted from the final payment price. Customer may pay the full fee up front if they want, refunds or additional payments will then be applicable if the order is in any way modified or cancelled afterwards.

    • 8.2. - PRICING

      • 8.2.1. The price of the services advertised on this site are negotiable. The total price for a service is calculated by taking the negotiated package price and adding on one-time fees for extra services in accordance with Customers wishes.

      • 8.2.2. Customer shall not be obliged to pay any fee beyond what has been explicitly expressed in the written and signed agreement pertaining to their order. The applicable price of any order shall always be made clear to Customer before payment is made.

      • 8.2.3. The deposit payment ONLY applies to main packages, pricing for extra services are not subject to change.

    • 8.3 - MISSED/DELAYED PAYMENTS & REFUNDS/RETURNS

      • 8.3.1. Missed, late or otherwise delayed payments will not be accepted. Work will be only be undertaken once deposit has been received IN FULL, and the finished material will only be delivered if the remaining fee has been received IN FULL.

      • 8.3.2. Deposit payment is non-refundable in all cases except for cases where We decide no work has been undertaken and a return of the deposit is reasonable. As this is a site for music production and beatmaking that produces a material in a bespoke fashion, returns are not possible, therefore once full payment has been received and the material has been delivered, NO REFUNDS OR RETURNS ARE APPLICABLE.

      • 8.3.3. Revisions (beyond the two free of charge) will only be undertaken once payment has been received IN FULL. Customer remains liable for delays in delivery in cases of delays in payment.

  9. DELIVERY OF PRODUCT

    • 9.1. - DELIVERY TIME

      • 9.1.1. After the deposit has been received by Us, a finished beat shall be created. Unfortunately, at this time no specific delivery time can be guaranteed, unless the “express delivery time” extra service has been purchased.

      • 9.1.2. Company reserves the right to extend delivery time by any amount, for any reason, however explanation shall always be given in due course. Pursuant to sections 5 and 6, cancellations and eventual refunds remain available to Customer.

    • 9.2. - METHOD AND CONTENT OF DELIVERY

      • 9.2.1. The product shall be delivered by email, but other arrangements can be made in accordance with Customer’s wishes. Company reserves the right to reject any alternative delivery method.

      • 9.2.2. As specified in all packages, the material in its completed form shall always be delivered as ONE (or more) 320 KBPS MP3 FILE, and ONE (or more) 24-BIT WAV FILE. If stems are to be provided, they shall be provided as 24-BIT WAV FILES. Customer can request stems to be delivered both as 24-BIT WAV FILES and 320 KBPS MP3 FILES, or request MP3 files only. ALL MATERIAL WILL ALWAYS BE DELIVERED IN ONE ZIPPED FILE. Customer can also request any file to be delivered in any other quality or format, however Company retains the right to reject any of these requests.

  10. PACKAGE & SERVICE DEFINITIONS

    • 10.1. - CUSTOM BEAT

      • Upon purchase of a service, a beat will be made, either from scratch or through one of the demos featured on the “Music” page, not to exceed 5 minutes, 0 seconds in length (unless extra service has been bought). The beat will be made to the best of Ben Kestok’s ability, and in accordance with Customer’s wishes.

    • 10.2. - UNLIMITED INSTRUMENTS & EFFECTS USED

      • The beat will not be limited in any way with regards to the amount of instruments or effects used. Each beat may feature few or many instruments or effects. Ben Kestok will utilize the amount of sounds We feel is necessary to achieve a professionally sounding beat. Customer is always free to ask for additions or removals of sounds.

    • 10.3. - 2 REVISIONS FREE

      • 10.3.1. Revisions defined in clause 11.2.2. After finished material has been delivered, Customer may ask for changes to the beat. There are no limits to what the Customer can ask to be done, but Company reserves the right to reject any alteration should they be unreasonable in nature or otherwise impossible to achieve. The first 2 revisions shall be free of charge, after that each revision will be charged at $ 40.

      • 10.3.2. If Customer orders a product that includes a fully mixed beat, Customer will have 2 free revisions for the mixing phase as well. Company will make clear to Customer when the production phase has finished and the mixing phase has begun.

    • 10.4. - MIXING

      • 10.4.1. If the service does not include mixing, the beat/song will only feature gain-staging. Gain-staging includes setting the volume levels for each instrument appropriately, but does not include effects like EQ, Compression, Stereo imaging, Saturation, Reverb + Delay, etc. This will lead to a decent sounding beat, but mixing will probably be necessary to achieve a radio-ready sound. Customer may order the “Stems” package and get the beat mixed on their own accord, or order a package that includes a fully mixed beat.

      • 10.4..2. If the package includes full mixing of the beat/song, a mixing phase will be undertaken after the production phase. Effects such as, but not limited to, EQ, Compression, Saturation, Reverb, Delay and Stereo Imaging will be used to mix the beat to a professional standard. Pursuant to clause 4.4., Company makes no guarantees as to a finished products fitness for purpose.

    • 10.5. - NON-EXCLUSIVE VS EXCLUSIVE COMMERCIAL USE

      • 10.5.1. Non-Exclusive commercial use means that Customer will not be exclusively allowed to use the beat. After creating and delivering the finished beat/song, the underlying beat will be uploaded to the “Beat Leasing” page and will be available to anyone who wishes to lease it for themselves.

      • 10.5.2. Exclusive commercial use means that only Customer will be allowed to use the beat. Customer is permitted to distribute, monetize, promote or otherwise use the derivative work in any way, and is allowed to monetize the derivative work in any way, for any period of time. Please note that in all packages, Ben Kestok will always remain the owner of the beat, and credit must be given for the production of the beat. In exclusive packages, the finished beat will not be uploaded to benkestokmusic.com for others to lease.

    • 10.6. - LIMITATIONS ON USAGE

      • Upon purchasing a music production or music mixing service, there are no limitations on usage, unless said usage damages the repuation of Ben Kestok, either by malice or excessive negligence. Refer to clause 10.6.2. for details.

    • 10.7. - LENGTH OF LEASE

      • No agreement as of now limits the length of the agreement’s validity with regards to the leasing of material produced by Us for use in a derivative work.

  11. OTHER SERVICE DEFINITIONS

    • 11.1. - UNLIMITED SONG LENGTH

      • In all packages, a maximum song length of 5 minutes is listed. Should Customer wish to extend this length, a fee is applicable. This fee is non-negotiable, will apply for any instrumental length above 5 minutes, 0 seconds, and will extend the instrumental length to unlimited. Delay times may occur if the instrumental needs to be longer. Company pledges to NEVER artificially extend the instrumental length beyond 5 minutes and subsequently require a fee to be paid.

    • 11.2. - REVISIONS

      • 11.2.1. As this is a bespoke service, Company shall always value the wishes of the Customer highest in the production of the material. However, revisions are always available to the Customer. Upon placing an order, Customer is excepted to make their preferences known to Us about what they would like the instrumental to sound like.

      • 11.2.2. Any requests, instructions or wishes made known to Us before work has been started will not be counted as a revision. Any further requests made known to Us by Customer while the work is in progress (i.e. no FINISHED material has yet been presented to the Customer) will not be counted as a revision. A REVISION IS DEFINED AS ANY REQUESTS, INSTRUCTIONS OR WISHES, IN ANY QUANTITY, MADE TO US BY CUSTOMER FOR ALTERATIONS OF THE FINISHED MATERIAL. Further revisions are also defined as any requests made to Us after delivery of altered material. TWO REVISIONS ARE FREE OF CHARGE REGARDLESS OF PACKAGE. Any revision beyond the two free of charge will be charged for each revision. BEN KESTOK PLEDGES TO ALWAYS MAKE IT KNOWN TO CUSTOMER WHEN THEIR FEEDBACK WILL COUNT TOWARDS AN OFFICIAL REVISION.

      • 11.2.3. If the instrumental is to be fully mixed, two free revisions will apply for BOTH the production phase and the mixing phase.

    • 11.3. - EXPRESS DELIVERY TIME

      • Customer may request finished material quicker than the delivery time listed, but it will come at a fee. Express delivery time is defined as 3 business days. This express delivery time will only apply to the initial delivery, any revisions will increase the delivery time. (i.e. revision delivery time is not “express”-able).

    • 11.4. - STEMS

      • If stems are purchased, We will provide Customer will all the tracks of all sounds, instruments and effects used to generate the finished material. Customer and Us may negotiate as to the specific content of these stems, but in theory every individual sound shall be delivered as one stem without the interference of other sounds occuring in the same stem. Delivery specified in clause 9.2.2.

  12. TERMS OF USE

    • User agrees to not use this site, its services, any material produced via these services, external advertising of the site or any other content found within or relating to this site or Ben Kestok as a company, to violate the rights of any other party.

  13. DISPUTE RESOLUTION

    • 13.1. - DISPUTE JURISDICTION

      • Customer agrees that their use of this site, and any disputes that may arise as a result of this usage, will be governed by the laws of the country of Norway and the county of Oslo. Customer waives any objection to such jurisdiction. If you are a consumer based in the European Union, the preceding provision does not apply, and you may make a claim in the courts of the country where you reside.

    • 13.2. - DISPUTES TIME LIMIT

      • Any claim or dispute relating to these Terms of Service must be brought within one year after the cause of action arises, or such claim or cause of action is barred.

    • 13.3. - RESOLUTION

      • In the event of any controversy of dispute between Ben Kestok and you relating to, arising out of or in connection with your use of this site or any of its services, both parties shall attempt, promptly and in good faith, to resolve any such dispute. If we are unable to resolve any dispute within a reasonable time (not to exceed thirty (30) days), parties shall be free to pursue any right of remedy available to them under applicable law.