1. Who this is between
These terms are an agreement between you and HalfStep, operated by Dylan Barstow. By creating an account or using the app, you accept them. If you don't accept them, don't use HalfStep.
You need to be 13 or older to use HalfStep. If you're under the age of majority where you live, you need a parent or guardian's permission.
2. Your account
You're responsible for what happens under your account, including keeping your password to yourself. Tell us at hello@joinhalfstep.com if you think someone else is using it.
One person, one account. Don't impersonate anyone: not another musician, not a teacher, not us.
3. What you post
Your recordings, session notes, photos and profile are yours. We don't claim ownership of them. You give us permission to store them and show them to the people you've chosen to share them with, which is what makes the app work at all. That permission ends when you delete the content or your account.
You need the right to post what you post. Recording yourself playing someone else's composition is normal and expected; posting a commercial recording you didn't make is not.
4. Paying for HalfStep
HalfStep is free to use, and the free version is not a trial that runs out. Unlimited audio takes, the metronome, the tuner, your repertoire and the feed are all part of it, and so are your first three video takes.
HalfStep Pro adds unlimited video takes, up to five minutes each, recorded at 1080p, and Then & Now. It costs $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year in US dollars. Prices elsewhere are set by the App Store and shown in your own currency before you confirm anything.
HalfStep is licensed to you, not sold, under Apple's Standard End User License Agreement. That agreement is the licence for the app itself. These terms sit alongside it and cover how HalfStep works, what you post and how we handle it — and where the two disagree about the licence, Apple's agreement governs.
How the subscription works
- Payment is charged to your Apple ID when you confirm the purchase. We never see your card.
- It renews automatically. Your Apple ID is charged for the next period within 24 hours before the current one ends, unless you turn auto-renewal off at least 24 hours before that.
- Manage or cancel it from Settings → Plan → Manage subscription inside the app, or in App Store → your name → Subscriptions. Both open the same Apple screen, and Apple is the only one who can act on it: we can't cancel it for you, and deleting the app does not cancel it.
- Canceling stops the next charge. You keep Pro until the end of the period you have already paid for.
What happens if it lapses
Nothing you recorded goes away. Video takes you made while subscribed stay in your account and stay playable. You just can't record new ones until you subscribe again. Taking back recordings someone already made would be indefensible, so we don't.
Refunds
Purchases go through Apple, so refunds do too. Ask at reportaproblem.apple.com. We cannot issue a refund for an App Store purchase ourselves, however much we might want to in a given case.
Price changes
If the price rises, Apple notifies you and, depending on the change, asks you to agree before it takes effect. A change never applies to a period you have already paid for. If you don't agree, the subscription simply ends when the current period does.
What Pro does not promise
Pro is the features described above, as they exist today. It is not a promise of specific future features, of unlimited storage, or that the app will stop changing. Section 9 applies to Pro exactly as it applies to everything else.
5. What is not allowed
This is the part that matters, and it's the part we enforce. Do not post, send, or upload:
- Harassment or abuse: targeting, threatening, intimidating, or repeatedly contacting someone who doesn't want it.
- Hate speech: attacking people over race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age.
- Sexual content, and absolutely nothing sexualising minors. This one ends an account permanently and gets reported to the authorities.
- Violence: threats, glorification, or incitement.
- Illegal content, or content promoting serious harm including self-harm.
- Someone else's private information: addresses, phone numbers, anything they didn't choose to share.
- Spam, scams, or bulk promotion.
- Content you have no right to post, including material that infringes someone's copyright.
This list isn't exhaustive. If something is clearly meant to hurt, degrade or deceive someone, assume it's covered.
6. Reporting and blocking
Every session, comment and profile in HalfStep can be reported from inside the app. Reports go to a person, not a void.
You can also block anyone. A block is symmetric and quiet: neither of you appears to the other anywhere in the app: not in the feed, not in comments, not in search, not in notifications, and the person you block is not told. You can unblock later from Settings.
We aim to review reports of objectionable content within 24 hours. Where a report is upheld we remove the content and, where the behavior warrants it, remove the account that posted it.
7. What we can do about it
If you break these terms we can remove content, restrict what your account can do, or delete the account entirely, and we can do it without notice where the content is serious or the behavior is deliberate. We'll usually tell you what happened and why. We're not obliged to give you a second chance, and for the worst categories we won't.
We also reserve the right to remove content that's lawful but wrong for HalfStep. This is a practice log, not a general-purpose social network.
8. Leaving
You can delete your account at any time from Settings → Account → Delete account. It removes your sessions, recordings, pieces and profile. It cannot be undone, so export anything you want to keep first.
Deleting your account does not cancel a Pro subscription, because Apple runs the billing and we can't reach it. Cancel it yourself in App Store → your name → Subscriptions, before or after, or it keeps renewing.
9. The app itself
HalfStep is provided as-is. It's built by one person and it will sometimes have bugs. We don't promise it will be available without interruption, that recordings will never be lost, or that it will keep working exactly as it does today. Features change.
Keep your own copies of anything you can't stand to lose. A practice recording that matters to you should exist somewhere other than inside one app made by one person.
To the extent the law allows, we're not liable for indirect or consequential losses arising from your use of HalfStep. Nothing here limits liability that can't legally be limited.
10. Changes
We may update these terms. If a change materially affects you we'll say so in the app before it takes effect. Continuing to use HalfStep after that means you accept the new version.
11. Getting in touch
Reports, questions, complaints and takedown requests all go to hello@joinhalfstep.com. Please include enough detail to find what you're talking about.
See also our Privacy Policy, which covers what we collect and what we do with it.