Terms of service

Last updated 24 August 2026. Short on purpose — read all of it.

1. What this is

payola.fm is a public chart ordered by what people paid. Higher bid, higher position. There is no editorial judgement, no curation and no algorithm — the ranking is the money, and every amount is shown.

2. What you are buying

A position, not a duration. You hold it until someone pays more. Bids are non-refundable, including when you are outbid minutes later. The one exception is a payment we could not apply, which we refund in full.

Raising your own bid costs the difference. Taking #1 costs at least $1 more than the current #1.

3. Your music stays yours

We never host or copy your audio. The chart embeds the player from the platform you linked — Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube or Bandcamp — so playback, plays and royalties are handled by them under their terms, exactly as if someone found your track there. We store the link, title, artist name and cover art in order to display your entry.

By submitting a link you confirm you have the right to promote that track and to have its title, artist name and artwork displayed here.

4. What we remove

We remove, without refund, any entry that is not music, infringes someone's rights, is illegal, is hateful, or that we simply do not want on the chart. Our call. Entries go live on payment and are reviewed afterwards.

5. Plays and traffic

Outbound links pass through a counter and then go to your track. Counts are informational. We do not promise plays, listeners, followers or placement anywhere else, and we have no relationship with any streaming platform.

6. No warranty, limited liability

Provided as-is. To the fullest extent allowed by law our total liability is limited to what you paid us in the 30 days before a claim.

7. Payments

Processed by Stripe and made to payola.fm. We never see your card. Prices are in US dollars.

Contact

Email hello@payola.fm.