CrateCore — Terms of Service

1. About the service

CrateCore is a mobile app and website for vinyl collectors and music lovers. The service provides daily editorial music content, a personal collection catalog, a wishlist, collection import, push notifications, and helper tools for a vinyl setup.

Editorial content is available without registration. Working with a collection (scanning and searching for releases, the collection, the wishlist, import), saving stories, the helper tools, the audio chain profile, and push notifications require a free account — see section 3.

By using CrateCore you agree to these Terms and to the Privacy Policy: https://cratecore.app/privacy/en/. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

2. Who may use CrateCore

The service is not intended for children under 16 in the EU/EEA and under 13 in the US. If the law of your country sets a different age of digital consent, you may use the service only in compliance with that requirement.

3. Account and anonymous session

CrateCore opens without registration. Without registering you can use the feed and the stories — reading, sharing, hiding a story from the feed and marking it as read — as well as the app's basic settings (language, theme) and the deletion of this session's data. The feed is the general one in that mode: personalization by interests works only for a registered account.

As of August 6, 2026 the data of an unregistered (anonymous) session never leaves the device: app settings and the marks for read and hidden stories are kept on it alone and are never sent to our servers.

One technical caveat: to serve you the feed, the app may open a technical anonymous session with us. If it does, the only things that appear on our servers are the session's own identifier — a random number with no name and no e-mail — and a service record that it was opened; none of your data is attached to it. Details and periods are in the Privacy Policy (2.1 and 2.9) and the Retention Policy: https://cratecore.app/privacy/en/, https://cratecore.app/retention/en/.

Some features require a free account (as of August 3, 2026; the "liked" mark, feed interests, and data export — as of August 6, 2026). These are all collection features — scanning and searching for releases, the collection and the wishlist, CSV import, your own record photos and the matrix number, synchronization of collection data — as well as liking and saving stories as bookmarks, feed interests, the helper tools (sound visualization, the stylus tracker, the speed check, speaker placement), the audio chain profile, data export, and push notifications. The reasons: a collection and gear settings should belong to you rather than to an app installation, and some of these features query external data sources whose access we must protect from abuse. Without an account such features are unavailable in the app, and the server-side ones are unavailable on the server as well.

An anonymous session is tied to the app installation and the device, and its data exists only there. If you delete the app, change devices, or clear its data before registering, what accumulated in the anonymous session (settings, marks for read and hidden stories) is lost for good: there is no server copy of it. A collection is not kept in an anonymous session — that feature requires an account; records left on our servers by anonymous sessions under the previous rules were deleted on August 6, 2026.

A permanent account is created with a code sent to your e-mail, or by signing in with a Google account. Sign in with Apple will arrive together with the iOS version. Registration erases nothing: what accumulated on the device before it stays yours. A permanent account is used for synchronization, recovery, and transferring data between devices and between the app and the website. You are responsible for keeping access to your account safe and for actions performed through it.

If you sign in to another, previously created account, that account's server data becomes authoritative and the local copy of the previous session on the device is replaced; the app warns you before that sign-in.

You can sign out on the Account tab. On sign-out, your account data stays on the server and returns next time you sign in; local data is removed from the device, including your own record photos (stored only on the device) and edits that had not synced yet.

4. Your data and user content

Your collection, wishlist, notes, import CSV, settings, audio chain profile, profile name, and your own photos of records belong to you. Collection data exists only for a registered account (section 3). Your own photos are stored only on your device and are not uploaded to servers. You grant CrateCore a limited right to process this data only to operate the service: storage, synchronization, import, export, backup, security, and support.

You agree not to upload or enter unlawful materials, other people's personal data without a legal basis, third-party texts/images without rights, malicious files, spam, or materials that violate third-party rights. Additional rules: https://cratecore.app/user-content/en/.

5. Editorial content

CrateCore editorial stories are created from verifiable facts taken from permitted sources. We strive for accuracy but do not guarantee the absence of errors. Reports of errors, disputed facts, and rights violations can be sent to legal@cratecore.app.

Images in stories are used only under a permissible license or legal basis and with attribution. Release covers may be displayed via the Cover Art Archive or another permitted source. If no image exists for a specific edition, the cover of another edition of the same album may be shown: covers are illustrative and may differ from your copy. Rights-holder complaints are handled under the Copyright Policy: https://cratecore.app/copyright/en/.

6. Release metadata and Discogs

CrateCore may use MusicBrainz, Wikidata, Wikimedia, the Cover Art Archive, and Discogs within the rules of those sources. More about sources and attribution: https://cratecore.app/attribution/en/.

Mandatory Discogs notice:
"This application uses Discogs' API but is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by Discogs. 'Discogs' is a trademark of Zink Media, LLC."

Where data is shown as coming from Discogs, CrateCore displays "Data provided by Discogs" and a link to the corresponding Discogs page when required by the Discogs API terms.

You may not extract, copy, scrape, resell, transfer to third parties, or use the service's metadata as a dataset, including for model training.

7. Acceptable use

It is prohibited to:
- circumvent rate limits, app attestation mechanisms, data access rules, payment or technical restrictions;
- scrape the app, API, web pages, stories, or metadata;
- use the service for unlawful activity, spam, malicious code, or attacks;
- attempt to access other people's data;
- interfere with the service's infrastructure and its integrations;
- remove or hide source and license attribution;
- use the service in a way that violates third-party rights or applicable law.

In case of violation we may restrict, suspend, or terminate access to the service, remove unlawful content, limit features, and retain technical records necessary to investigate the abuse.

8. The tools are not certified instruments

CrateCore provides reference and helper tools (available to a registered account, see section 3):
- The gyroscope speed check (RPM) is an approximate estimate of rotation speed, not a certified measuring instrument.
- The stroboscope (printable disc and on-screen mode) is a visual aid; the on-screen mode is preceded by a flashing-light warning and is not recommended for people with photosensitive epilepsy.
- The VU meter / sound visualization is an artistic visualization of the local microphone signal, not a professional spectrum analyzer or frequency response meter.
- The speaker placement calculator is a starting geometric hint, not an acoustic measurement of the room.
- The stylus wear tracker is a usage counter based on the data you enter, not a sensor of actual wear.

Decisions to buy, repair, adjust, or service equipment are yours alone.

9. Precautions for the speed check

The RPM feature involves placing your phone on the rotating platter of a turntable. Before measuring, follow the in-app instructions: move the tonearm/stylus out of the way, make sure the phone will not hit the equipment, avoid using a valuable record for the test where possible, keep the device stable, and stop measuring if there is any risk of damage.

You use this feature at your own risk. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the operator is not liable for damage to the phone, record, turntable, or other equipment caused by improper use of the feature.

10. Paid features

CrateCore is free at launch. If a subscription appears in the future, it may only concern adding new records to the collection above a set limit. Records already added will remain available for reading, editing, export, and deletion.

Purchases, if enabled, will be processed by the App Store / Google Play and a payment provider. Refunds and cancellations are governed by the rules of the respective store. These Terms and the Privacy Policy will be updated before paid features are enabled.

11. Export and account deletion

You can export your data and delete your account in the app: Account → Privacy & Data. Deleting the account removes the account's server data, including the collection, settings, push tokens, and import files. Without registration the same screen offers "Delete this session's data": it wipes the app's data on this device — an anonymous session has no data on our servers. The export returns server data and therefore works after free registration. Some technical logs and backups are deleted on the schedules described in the Data Retention & Deletion Policy: https://cratecore.app/retention/en/.

12. CrateCore intellectual property

The app, interface, design, code, the CrateCore brand, editorial texts, and CrateCore's own images are protected by applicable law unless expressly stated otherwise. You receive a limited, personal, revocable, non-transferable license to use the app as intended.

13. Third-party services and links

The service uses third-party services and may contain links to third-party sites: Discogs, MusicBrainz, Wikimedia, the Cover Art Archive, the App Store, Google Play, and others. We do not control their terms and policies. Use of third-party services is governed by their own rules. The list of data processors: https://cratecore.app/subprocessors/en/.

14. Changes to the service and the terms

We may change the app, features, limits, documents, and terms. We will announce material changes in the app or by other reasonable means before they take effect, where required by law.

15. Disclaimer of warranties

The service is provided "as is" and "as available". We do not guarantee uninterrupted operation, absence of errors, accuracy of all editorial materials, completeness of release metadata, or compatibility with every device.

16. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the operator is not liable for indirect damages, lost profits, data loss caused by the user's actions, failures of third-party services, the user's violation of instructions, unlawful user content, or use of the service other than as intended.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

17. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are subject to the mandatory consumer protection rules of the country of your habitual residence to the extent they apply. Disputes are resolved first through negotiation via legal@cratecore.app; failing agreement, in a competent court under the applicable rules of jurisdiction.

18. Contact

For questions about the terms, privacy, content errors, and rights-holder complaints: legal@cratecore.app.