Terms of use

Last updated 17 October 2026

These terms apply to your use of simplenotation.com and the SimpleNotation editor (“the service”), run by C. Kerger in San Francisco, California (“we”, “us”). By using the service you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use it. How we handle personal data is explained in our privacy policy.

1. The service
2. Accounts and guest sessions
3. Your scores
4. Music you do not own
5. Acceptable use
6. Copyright complaints
7. Removing content and accounts
8. No warranty
9. Limitation of liability
10. Changes
11. Governing law
12. Contact

1. The service

SimpleNotation is a free, browser-based editor for standard notation and guitar tablature. We may add, change or remove features at any time. If we ever decide to shut the service down, we will announce it on the site at least 30 days in advance so you have time to export your scores.

2. Accounts and guest sessions

You need to be at least 13 years old to create an account. Use an email address that is yours, keep your password to yourself, and tell us if you think someone else has used your account. You are responsible for what is done with it.

If you save without an account, your scores belong to a guest session that exists only through a cookie in your browser. If that cookie is deleted, we cannot restore your access. Create an account to keep your scores safe.

3. Your scores

You keep all rights to what you write. To run the service, you give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, copy, process and display your scores. It covers only what the service needs: saving versions, rendering, playback, exports, previews, and showing each score to the people its privacy setting allows.

When you make a score public, you also allow us to list it on Explore, in our sitemap and in search results. You also allow other users to view, play, export and copy it within SimpleNotation. An unlisted score can be viewed, played, exported and copied by anyone with its link. The licence ends when you delete a score. Copies that other users already made of your public or unlisted scores stay in their accounts.

4. Music you do not own

Many songs, arrangements and published transcriptions are protected by copyright. Make a score public or unlisted only when you have the right to share it: your own music, music in the public domain, or a work whose rights-holder has given you permission. You are responsible for the scores you save and share.

5. Acceptable use

Do not use SimpleNotation to:

• store or share anything illegal, or anything that infringes someone else’s rights;
• harass anyone, or publish other people’s personal information in score titles or text;
• try to reach scores or accounts that are not yours, or get around rate limits or other security measures;
• overload the service with automated requests, or scrape it at a rate that affects other users;
• upload malware or files designed to break the importers;
• send spam through the contact form.

6. Copyright complaints

If you believe a score on SimpleNotation infringes your copyright, email info@simplenotation.com with:

• the work you believe is infringed;
• the link to the score;
• your name and contact details;
• a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorised;
• a statement that your notice is accurate and that you are the rights-holder or authorised to act for them.

We will remove the score or make it private, and we may tell the person who saved it. We close the accounts of people who infringe repeatedly.

7. Removing content and accounts

We may remove a score, make it private, or suspend or close an account that breaks these terms or puts the service or other people at risk. Where we reasonably can, we will tell you why. You can stop using the service at any time, and you can ask us to delete your account as described in the privacy policy.

8. No warranty

The service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, to the extent the law allows. Notation, playback, transposition, imports and exports can contain mistakes, and the service can be unavailable or lose data. Keep your own copies of scores that matter to you; the editor exports them in several formats, including Guitar Pro, MusicXML and PDF.

9. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or for lost data, profits or opportunities, arising from your use of the service. Our total liability for any claim about the service is limited to US$50. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

10. Changes

We may update these terms. The date at the top shows when they last changed. For significant changes we will post a notice on the site before they take effect. If you keep using the service after that, the new terms apply.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, USA. Disputes are handled by the courts in San Francisco County, California. If you are a consumer, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live, and you can bring a claim in its courts.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms: info@simplenotation.com or the contact form.