Anti-Fraud Policy
Anti-Fraud Policy
Effective Date: April 24, 2026
At Sonorous Zen, we take fraud seriously. Our entire business is built on paying artists fairly for real listening, real streams, and real creative work — so when someone tries to game the system, the real victims are other creators, the DSPs we work with, and ultimately our whole community. This Anti-Fraud Policy explains what we mean by fraud, what you as a Creator are responsible for, and exactly what happens when we detect or suspect fraudulent activity on our Platform.
This policy is a binding part of our Terms of Service. When you accept our Terms, you also accept this Anti-Fraud Policy. We will enforce it strictly and consistently.
Purpose of This Policy
This Anti-Fraud Policy is designed to:
Provide a clear definition of what we consider "fraud" on Sonorous Zen.
Summarize your responsibilities as a Creator for keeping your account clean.
Explain the actions we take when we, a DSP, a rights-holder, or any other party suspects fraudulent activity.
Describe how our three-strike framework works, including blocked accounts, held royalties, and escrow timelines.
Protect legitimate rights-holders from being affected by someone else's fraudulent behavior.
Please read this policy together with our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and GDPR Policy.
Definitions
For the purposes of this policy:
"Creator" means any individual, group, label, manager, producer, songwriter, rights-holder, or team member who has an account on Sonorous Zen, or who acts on behalf of such an account.
"Account" means the Sonorous Zen profile used to upload releases, manage royalty splits, run smart links or fan campaigns, withdraw from the Wallet, and access the Platform.
"DSP" means any Digital Service Provider where your music is distributed through us, including streaming services, download stores, short-form video platforms, and similar outlets such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, TikTok, and Deezer.
"Fraud" on Sonorous Zen includes, but is not limited to, any of the following:
Artificial, automated, bot-driven, or otherwise invalid playback, downloads, or engagement on any DSP ("streaming fraud" or "click fraud").
Paid, incentivized, or purchased streams, downloads, saves, or follows, whether from a service, a bot network, or any similar arrangement ("stream-buying" or "incentivized streaming"). This is never permitted, even if the provider claims to be "legitimate" or "guaranteed safe."
Uploading copyrighted material you do not own or do not have documented permission to distribute ("copyright infringement").
Uploading white noise, empty files, distorted audio, looped silence, AI slop, or otherwise low-effort content designed to harvest royalties rather than reach real listeners.
Misleading metadata, such as fake artist names, misleading track or release titles, impersonation of real artists, or artwork designed to trick listeners into clicking ("musical spam").
Falsified KYC documents, identity documents, payout details, bank accounts, or tax information.
Chargeback abuse and payment fraud, including disputing legitimate charges made to your own account.
Multi-account abuse, including creating multiple accounts to bypass a takedown, a strike, or a blocked account, or to concentrate streams on content that would otherwise be flagged.
Manipulating royalty splits, collaborator invitations, or team permissions to misdirect funds from their rightful recipient.
Using Sonorous Zen tools (Smart Links, Fan Blast, Artist Pages, Cover Licensing, etc.) for spam, malware, phishing, or fraudulent activity of any kind.
Any other activity that breaches our Terms of Service or the agreements we hold with DSPs and collecting societies.
What DSPs Do About Fraud
Every major DSP uses a combination of machine-learning models, forensic auditing, and human reviewers to detect artificial streaming and fraudulent uploads. When a DSP identifies fraudulent activity on content distributed by Sonorous Zen, they typically:
Remove the affected content from their service.
Claw back some or all of the royalties previously paid out on that content, either by reversing them in the next statement or by deducting from future payments.
Notify Sonorous Zen and, where relevant, restrict our delivery pipeline for the offending catalog.
These actions are irreversible on our side. If a DSP decides revenue was fraudulent, we must honor that decision — we cannot pay Creators for money that has been retracted by the DSP.
What Sonorous Zen Does About Fraud
We invest real resources into keeping the Platform clean and protecting honest Creators. Among other things:
Audio fingerprinting. Every track uploaded to Sonorous Zen can be fingerprinted and compared to multi-million-track databases using ACRCloud and similar tools to detect duplicate uploads, stolen masters, copyrighted material, and known fraudulent content patterns. Our AI Scan and Audio Recognition features are designed for this purpose.
Metadata and duplicate checks. We run automated checks against release metadata, artist names, ISRC/UPC codes, and existing catalog data to detect impersonation, misleading titles, and unusual patterns.
Behavioral monitoring. We monitor for unusual Wallet activity, unusual login patterns, suspicious IP/country mismatches relative to declared KYC identity, abnormal withdrawal requests, and other behavioral signals.
DSP report auditing. We audit incoming DSP royalty reports for patterns consistent with artificial streaming, such as unusually concentrated play-counts, high-revenue tracks with no fanbase footprint, impossible per-stream rates, or skips inconsistent with real listening behavior.
KYC and identity verification. We require identity verification before most withdrawal activity. Submitting false KYC is itself a Platform-wide violation.
Human review. Automated flags are reviewed by our integrity team before any significant action is taken against your account. We do not block accounts based purely on automated decisions.
Severity Tiers
When we detect or are notified of potentially fraudulent activity, we classify the issue into one of three severity tiers:
F0 — Critical issues related to an account. These include fake or incorrect account information, falsified KYC documents, multi-account abuse, suspicious IP-versus-country mismatches, and any other core identity or account-integrity issue.
F1 — Click and streaming fraud. These include sudden revenue spikes on releases with no corresponding fanbase, obvious signs of bot-driven streaming, paid streaming-service providers, unexplained engagement on tracks from unknown artists, or any DSP notice citing artificial activity.
F2 — Musical spam and copyright issues. These include misleading metadata, impersonation of real artists or labels, uploads of copyrighted material without permission, DSP copyright-infringement tickets, PRO or CMO complaints, and direct claims from legitimate rights-holders.
In all severity tiers, we may withhold related royalties while we investigate. If an issue straddles multiple tiers, we classify it by the most severe applicable tier.
Three-Strike Framework
Sonorous Zen enforces a three-strike framework for F1 and F2 issues. F0 issues may result in an immediate account block without going through the strike framework, because they represent a fundamental breach of account integrity.
When a strike-eligible issue is detected, you will receive a ticket or notification in the Platform describing the concern. We may request documentation, licenses, contracts, social media proof, fanbase evidence, KYC updates, or other information. You have five (5) working days to respond. If you do not respond, or if the response does not resolve the concern, a strike will be applied.
Strike One:
You are informed via in-app notification and email.
The questioned content is taken down from DSPs.
You receive a warning that Strike Two will delay payouts and Strike Three will block the account.
Related royalties remain held pending resolution.
Strike Two:
You are informed via in-app notification and email.
The questioned content is taken down from DSPs.
Withdrawals may be paused on the account while we investigate further.
You receive a formal warning that Strike Three will block the account.
Related royalties remain held pending resolution.
Strike Three:
You are informed via in-app notification and email.
Your account is blocked from the Platform.
All content associated with the account is taken down from DSPs.
All affected royalties are moved into escrow for up to 5 years (see below).
The contractual relationship under our Terms of Service may be terminated.
For repeat offenders, for large-scale fraud, or for any F0-tier issue (including falsified KYC, payout fraud, chargeback abuse, or multi-account evasion), we may skip directly to account block without sequential strikes.
Blocked Account Policy
When an account is blocked:
The Creator loses access to the Platform and all associated tools (dashboard, wallet, analytics, smart links, fan blast, and so on).
Affected releases are taken down from DSPs where contractually possible.
Pending withdrawals are cancelled, and any disputed funds in the Wallet are held pending investigation.
Royalties connected to the fraudulent content are moved into a restricted holding state described in the "Escrow" section below.
Team members, collaborators, and tenant sub-accounts linked to the blocked owner may also have their access restricted where necessary to prevent abuse continuation.
We reserve the right to terminate the contractual relationship and to report serious cases to the relevant DSPs, PROs, CMOs, and, where appropriate, law enforcement.
Unblocking an Account
Where the issue is not egregious and can reasonably be resolved, we may offer a path to unblock the account. Depending on the severity, we may require some or all of the following:
A complete and truthful Creator profile, including up-to-date contact and payout details.
A valid government-issued identity document (passport or national ID) submitted through our secured KYC flow.
Proof of ownership for the disputed content, including licenses, contracts, split sheets, registration certificates, writer splits, or publishing administration agreements.
Links to verified social media profiles (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X, etc.) with activity and engagement history consistent with the reported streaming performance.
Written cooperation with our integrity team while we investigate.
Removal of the disputed content and any related releases from the Platform.
Unblocking is at our sole discretion. We may decline to unblock an account where we have reasonable concerns about continued risk, or where a DSP has specifically requested that the account remain restricted.
Resolving a Strike Before It Escalates
Once a strike has been applied, you can reduce the risk of it escalating into a blocked account by acting quickly. Depending on the issue, resolution may include:
Correcting release metadata, including artist names, track titles, and credit information.
Providing proof of ownership or the appropriate license for the uploaded content.
Acquiring the correct cover-song mechanical license (we offer this through our Cover Song Licensing feature).
Withdrawing a release that you no longer have the right to distribute.
Identifying and stopping the source of artificial streams (for example, terminating any paid-streaming contract you signed with a third-party promoter).
Cooperating with our integrity team's investigation.
If the information you provide is complete and verifiable, the strike may be resolved. If it is not, the strike remains and counts toward the three-strike threshold.
Held Royalties and Escrow
When royalties are received from a DSP in connection with content we believe, in our sole discretion, violates our Terms of Service or this Anti-Fraud Policy, we may block and withhold those funds in your Wallet or hold them in an internal escrow state. Funds in this state cannot be withdrawn until the issue is resolved.
The maximum holding period is five (5) years. We use this timeframe because most DSPs contractually reserve the right to claw back royalties for up to five years after payout, and we must be able to honor a DSP claw-back if one occurs.
During the holding period, held royalties may be used for the following purposes:
Returned to the Creator if the Creator demonstrates, to our reasonable satisfaction, that the revenue was legitimate.
Returned to the DSP if the DSP submits a valid claw-back request.
Paid to the legitimate rights-holder if a verified copyright owner asserts a claim and the claim is upheld.
Applied against amounts the Creator owes us, including (but not limited to) chargeback-related fees, investigation costs, legal costs, and costs incurred by our DSP partners that we are contractually required to bear.
After the 5-year period has passed and no competing claim has been upheld, any remaining funds will be released to the Creator, less any amounts used for the purposes above.
Takedowns
We will initiate takedowns of any confirmed infringing content and may, at our discretion, issue preventive takedowns of content involved in F0, F1, or F2 investigations. DSPs may also flag and remove content independently at their sole discretion, in which case we will reflect their decision on our side.
Takedowns initiated for fraud do not qualify for refund of distribution-related fees or subscription amounts.
Recoupment of Costs
If fraud investigation and remediation result in costs to Sonorous Zen or our partners (including, without limitation, DSP claw-backs, legal fees, audit expenses, chargeback fees, or wire-recall fees), we may, in addition to any other remedy available to us, deduct those amounts from any future royalties, Wallet balance, or payouts owed to the Creator responsible.
Cooperation Requests
During an investigation, you agree to cooperate in good faith. This includes responding to our messages in a timely manner, providing truthful answers, producing the documentation we reasonably request, and not taking any action that would impede the investigation (such as deleting evidence, creating replacement accounts, or transferring disputed funds).
Failure to cooperate is itself a violation of this Anti-Fraud Policy and can result in a strike, account block, or termination.
Reporting Fraud
If you believe another user is engaging in fraud on Sonorous Zen — including impersonating an artist, uploading your copyrighted work without permission, running artificial streaming, or abusing smart links or fan tools — please report it. We'd rather hear about it and investigate than find out too late. Email: privacy@sonorouszen.com
Please include as much detail as you can, and attach screenshots, links, or other evidence where possible. We treat fraud reports confidentially.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Anti-Fraud Policy from time to time as new kinds of fraud emerge, as DSP policies change, or as our own tools improve. When we make material updates, we will update the "Effective Date" at the top of this page and, where required, notify you through an in-app notification or email. Minor clarifications may be published without individual notice. Your continued use of Sonorous Zen after an update takes effect means you accept the updated policy.
Contact Us
If you have questions about this Anti-Fraud Policy, need help resolving a strike, or want to appeal a blocked account, please contact us: privacy@sonorouszen.com
We take our time to investigate properly, and we apply this policy consistently. That's how we keep Sonorous Zen fair — for you and for every other Creator on the Platform.