Overview
The Unknown Studios LLC ("The Unknown Studios," "we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting the privacy of our artists and users. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your rights regarding your personal information.
The Unknown Studios operates a network of 14 locations: ATL Unknown (Atlanta, GA — company-owned), and 13 franchise territories including Houston Unknown, Dallas Unknown, Austin Unknown, Nashville Unknown, Miami Unknown, LA Unknown, Las Vegas Unknown, Muscle Shoals Unknown, NYC Unknown (Manhattan), Brooklyn Unknown, Bronx Unknown, Queens Unknown, and Newark Unknown (Newark, NJ). This Privacy Policy applies to all locations and all users of the theunknownstudios.com platform.
This policy applies to all users of our mobile and web application, our website, and anyone who visits or books sessions at any Unknown Studios physical location.
Plain language summary: We collect only what we need to run the studio and serve you as an artist. We do not sell your personal information. We do not serve ads. We store your royalty agreements permanently because we are legally required to.
By using our services, you consent to the data practices described in this policy. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use our services.
Information We Collect
Information You Provide Directly
| Category | Examples | When Collected |
|---|---|---|
| Account Information | Name or artist alias, email address, password, and a phone number when you choose to verify eligibility for a limited promotional offer | At account creation or promotional verification |
| Legal Agreements | Full legal name (digital signature), agreement timestamps, Agreement IDs | At signup and per-track download |
| Payment Information | Card type, last 4 digits, billing ZIP — processed by Stripe | At booking payment |
| Session & Booking Data | Session dates, times, booth selection, session type, PINs | At booking confirmation |
| Creative Content | Beat files you upload, session notes, lyrics, genre selections, track names | During app use |
| Originality Certifications | Your checklist confirmations regarding beat and lyric originality | At track download |
| Audio Recordings | The audio you record at or upload to our studios, stored in your Vault | During and after your session |
| Copyright Clearance Records | If a recording is flagged: your match classification and, should you choose private/non-commercial use, your signed acknowledgment (full legal name, date, and IP address) | Only if a recording is flagged for copyright review |
| Communications | Messages you send through Studio Chat, bulletin board posts | During app use |
Information We Collect Automatically
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Usage Data | Screens visited, features used, session durations, tap interactions |
| Device Information | Device type, operating system version, browser type |
| Location Data | General location inferred from IP address (not precise GPS) |
| Log Data | Access times, error logs, crash reports |
| Content Identification | Results of automated content-ID checks of your recordings and beats against commercial music catalogs (e.g., matched title, artist, ISRC, confidence score) |
| Audio Analysis | Musical features of your recordings (e.g., tempo/BPM, key, mood) used to power your Progress Journal coach |
How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
Service Delivery
- Creating and managing your artist account
- Processing bookings, payments, and issuing session access PINs
- Delivering mixed audio recordings to you
- Managing your loyalty points, referral codes, promotional eligibility, and session history
- Sending a one-time SMS code if you request phone verification for a promotion where that optional checkpoint is enabled
- Providing customer support and responding to your inquiries
Legal & Compliance
- Executing and permanently storing Royalty Participation Agreements
- Maintaining records of originality certifications you make at download
- Complying with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes
- Enforcing our Terms of Service and protecting our legal rights
Platform Improvement
- Analyzing usage patterns to improve our application and services
- Diagnosing technical issues and improving app performance
- Developing new features based on artist needs
Communications
- Sending booking confirmations, receipts, and session reminders
- Notifying you of flash sales, new features, or platform updates
- Responding to messages you send us through Studio Chat or email
We do not use your information for targeted advertising. We do not allow third-party advertisers to collect information about you through our platform.
Information We Share
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. We share your information only in the following limited circumstances:
Service Providers
We work with trusted service providers who process information on our behalf to help us deliver our services. These providers are contractually required to protect your information and may not use it for any purpose other than providing services to us. They include:
- Stripe — payment processing (subject to Stripe's Privacy Policy)
- Supabase — database hosting and user authentication
- SendGrid — transactional email delivery
- OneSignal — push notification delivery
- Vercel — application hosting
- ACRCloud — automated content identification (matching recordings and beats against commercial music catalogs)
- Music.AI — AI-assisted audio analysis and instrumental/stem separation
- Anthropic, Groq, and Google — AI language models that generate your Progress Journal coaching from your activity data. We limit what we send (aggregated stats and, for some providers, brief notes), never send your payment details, and do not send your private journal reflections to providers that train on free-tier data.
- EasySong — cover-song / mechanical licensing facilitation, when you choose to license a cover
Legal Requirements
We may disclose your information if required to do so by law, court order, or governmental authority, or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, or investigate fraud.
Royalty Collection
In connection with our Royalty Participation Agreement, we may share your name, the track Agreement ID, and royalty payment details with performing rights organizations, music distributors, or other royalty collection entities for the purpose of collecting our 1% royalty stake on commercially released recordings produced at our facilities.
Business Transfers
If The Unknown Studios LLC is acquired, merged, or sells substantially all of its assets, your information may be transferred to the acquiring entity, subject to the same privacy protections described in this policy.
Payment Data
All payment transactions are processed by Stripe, Inc. We do not store your full credit card number, CVV, or complete card details on our servers. Stripe stores your payment information in compliance with PCI-DSS standards.
We retain records of transaction amounts, dates, session types, and the last four digits of the card used for accounting, dispute resolution, and legal compliance purposes.
For information about how Stripe handles your payment data, please review Stripe's Privacy Policy at stripe.com/privacy.
Audio Recordings
Audio recordings you produce at or upload to Unknown Studios are stored on our servers so they are available in your Vault across your devices. We retain these recordings to provide the Vault, to support our royalty-monitoring and copyright-compliance obligations, and to power features you choose to use (such as your Progress Journal coach). As described in our Terms of Service and our DMCA & Copyright Policy, recordings are checked using automated content-identification technology and may be analyzed using AI-assisted audio analysis. You may request deletion of a recording (see your rights below); some records, such as royalty agreements and copyright-clearance records, may be retained as required for legal and compliance purposes.
Beat files you upload to our platform are stored in your private library. You may remove a beat from your visible library at any time using the delete option in the My Beats section of the app — this hides the beat from your account view. However, beat files are retained on our servers permanently as part of our royalty monitoring obligations. Under the Royalty Participation Agreement you signed at your session, The Unknown Studios holds a 1% royalty stake in recordings produced here. We retain uploaded beat files to support commercial-use detection and royalty verification, including AI-assisted fingerprinting, in the event a beat produced at our studios is released commercially. This retention is a condition of use of our platform.
Your creative work belongs to you, subject to the Royalty Participation Agreement. We do not claim ownership of your music beyond the 1% royalty stake you agreed to at download.
Royalty Agreement Records
Royalty Participation Agreements — including your digital signature, the Agreement ID, track name, timestamp, location, and originality certifications — are retained permanently and indefinitely by The Unknown Studios LLC. These records constitute legally binding contracts and cannot be deleted at your request.
This information is stored securely and is accessible only to authorized Unknown Studios personnel and, where legally required, to applicable regulatory or legal authorities.
You may request a copy of any Royalty Participation Agreement associated with your account by contacting us at royalties@theunknownstudios.com.
Cookies & Tracking
Our web application uses essential browser storage (local
Messages and Chat Data
When you use our in-app messaging feature, we collect and store:
- Message content: Text messages and images you send to the studio are stored in our Supabase database.
- Images: Photos and screenshots you send are stored in our cloud storage (Supabase Storage). Images are publicly accessible via URL once uploaded.
- Metadata: We store the timestamp, your email address (as conversation identifier), and your display name with each message.
- Read status: We track whether messages have been read by studio staff to support timely responses.
Message data is retained for the duration of your account. You may request deletion of your message history by contacting us at lucien@theunknownstudios.com.
We may use standard web analytics tools that use cookies or similar tracking technologies to understand aggregate usage patterns. These tools collect anonymized data about how artists navigate our application. We do not use cross-site tracking or behavioral advertising cookies.
You may clear your browser's local storage at any time through your browser settings. Note that doing so will log you out and remove locally stored session data.
Data Retention
| Data Type | Retention Period | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Account Information | Duration of account, plus 30 days after you ask us to delete it | Gives you time to change your mind. Your email address stays attached to the recordings and agreements we keep, so royalties can be matched to you |
| Audio Recordings | Permanently, including after you delete your account | Royalty monitoring and copyright compliance (Terms of Service, section 5) |
| Booking & Payment Records | 7 years | Tax and accounting requirements |
| Royalty Agreements | Permanently | Binding legal contracts |
| Session History | Duration of account | Service delivery, loyalty program |
| Beat Uploads | Until you delete them or close your account | Service delivery |
| Communications | 3 years | Customer service, dispute resolution |
| Legal Agreement Signatures | Permanently | Binding legal contracts |
Your Rights & Choices
Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:
Access
You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you by contacting us at privacy@theunknownstudios.com. We will respond to verified requests within 30 days.
Correction
You may update your account information (name, email, artist alias) directly through the app. If you believe other information we hold about you is inaccurate, contact us and we will investigate and correct it where appropriate.
Deletion
You can delete your account yourself in the app: open Account Settings and tap Delete account. If you do not have the app, go to theunknownstudios.com/book?delete-account and sign in. Before anything happens you are shown exactly what will be removed and what will be kept.
When you delete your account you are signed out on every device and any membership stops renewing. Your account is permanently deleted 30 days later; until then you can change your mind by signing in and tapping Keep my account. We email you when the request is made and again when the deletion is complete.
What is deleted: your login, your name, phone number and profile photo, your points, unused credits and Remote Pass, your studio chat history, your Progress Journal, and your community bulletin posts, replies and likes.
What is kept: your audio recordings and their content-identification and clearance records, which we retain under the Royalty Participation Agreement and section 5 of our Terms of Service; your Royalty Participation Agreements, track agreements and cover-song licences; booking and payment records, which we are required to keep for 7 years; and any other information we are required to retain by law. These records stay filed under your email address. If you later create a new account with the same email address, the recordings will appear in your Vault again.
Opt-Out of Communications
You may opt out of marketing emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link in any marketing email or by updating your notification preferences in the app. You cannot opt out of transactional communications such as booking confirmations, receipts, and security notices.
Push Notifications
You may disable push notifications at any time through your device settings or through the app's notification preferences.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@theunknownstudios.com. We may require identity verification before processing your request.
Children's Privacy
Our services are not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take steps to delete that information promptly.
Users between 13 and 17 years of age may use our services only with documented parental or legal guardian consent. Parents or guardians who believe their minor child has provided us with personal information without consent should contact us at privacy@theunknownstudios.com.
Security
We implement reasonable technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include:
- HTTPS encryption for all data transmitted between your device and our servers
- Encrypted storage of sensitive information including account credentials
- Access controls limiting who within our organization can access personal data
- Regular security reviews of our application and infrastructure
- PCI-DSS compliant payment processing through Stripe
However, no method of internet transmission or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.
In the event of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify you and applicable regulatory authorities as required by applicable law.
California Privacy Rights
If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):
Right to Know
You have the right to know what personal information we collect about you, the purposes for which we use it, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it. This Privacy Policy provides that information. You may also submit a specific request for a detailed disclosure.
Right to Delete
You have the right to request deletion of personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions (including our right to retain Royalty Participation Agreements and legally required records).
Right to Opt-Out of Sale
We do not sell your personal information to third parties. You do not need to opt out.
Right to Non-Discrimination
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. We will not deny you services, charge different prices, or provide a different level of service because you exercised a privacy right.
Submitting a Request
California residents may submit privacy rights requests by emailing privacy@theunknownstudios.com with the subject line "California Privacy Request." We will respond within 45 days.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes, we will notify you through our application, by email to the address associated with your account, or by posting a prominent notice on our website.
We will indicate the "Last Updated" date at the top of this policy whenever it is revised. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Your continued use of our services after we post changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.
Contact
For privacy-related questions, requests, or concerns, please contact us:
- Privacy Requests: privacy@theunknownstudios.com
- Royalty Agreements: royalties@theunknownstudios.com