Chord — Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 6, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Chord LLC (“Chord,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, shares, and protects information when you use join-chord.com and related services (the “Services”). Chord is a local music opportunity network that helps musicians in the Chicago area find real-world opportunities to play, collaborate, rehearse, perform, and form bands.

By using the Services, you agree to this Privacy Policy. The Services are intended only for individuals who are at least 18 years old and located in the United States. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use the Services. You can reach us anytime at privacy@join-chord.com.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Information you provide to us

Account and authentication. When you create an account, we collect your email address and a password (stored only in hashed form by our authentication provider; we never store your password in plaintext). We also record whether your account is a musician or an organizer account.

Musician profile. If you create a musician profile, you may provide: your display name and profile photo; your primary and secondary instruments; years of experience and skill level; what you’re looking for (such as jams, bandmates, or recording projects); genres, subgenres, influences, and a description of your musical style; whether you play originals or covers; your Chicago neighborhood; your availability, hours per week, and rehearsal-frequency preference; whether you have a home studio and its description; a short bio; your preferred contact method; an Instagram handle and a SoundCloud or Bandcamp link; and your profile visibility preference.

Organizer profile. If you create an organizer profile, you may additionally provide your venue or organization name, venue type and capacity, the genres you book, a contact email and phone number, and a website URL.

Profile media. You may upload photos and video clips, and add embedded media links (such as SoundCloud or YouTube). We store the media or links and the associated provider.

Opportunities, shows, and lineups. When you post or join an opportunity or show, we collect the content you provide — titles, descriptions, types, dates and times, recurrence, venue name and address, neighborhood, genres, skill requirements, compensation details, flyer or poster images, ticket links and price descriptions, age restrictions, visibility and approval settings, and status. For shows, we also collect lineup details such as which musician profiles are performing, set order, headliner status, and set times.

Participation and RSVPs. We record which profile joined which opportunity and in what role, the join status (for example pending, joined, confirmed, attended, no-show, or cancelled), RSVP status for shows, whether a decision was made by you or by an organizer, and the related timestamps.

Messages. We store the contents of messages you exchange with other users, message timestamps and read receipts, and thread metadata (such as the linked opportunity and participants).

Reports, blocks, and feedback. If you report a message or user, we collect the reporter and reported user, the reason and any detail you provide, and the report’s status and review timestamp. If you block a user, we record who blocked whom, any optional reason, and the timestamp. If you submit feedback, we collect the category, your message, your user ID (if you are signed in), and the timestamp.

Waitlist. Before you have an account, you may join our waitlist by providing your email address, which we store with the signup timestamp.

1.2 Information we collect automatically

Usage analytics. We use Vercel Analytics to understand how the Services are used. This provides aggregated, privacy-friendly information such as pages viewed, referring sources, UTM parameters, country, device type, browser, and operating system. These analytics are cookieless, and no IP address is stored.

Essential cookies and local storage. We use only essential cookies and browser local storage to keep you signed in and to make core features work. We do not use advertising cookies, third-party tracking cookies, or cross-site tracking technologies.

Reliability metrics. Based on your participation history, we calculate reliability metrics — including attendance, late-cancellation counts, no-show counts, and a derived reliability score. See Section 2 for how these are used.

1.3 Location information

Location on Chord is neighborhood-level only. You choose a Chicago neighborhood, and we derive approximate coordinates from the center point of that neighborhood so we can estimate distances between you and nearby opportunities. We never request, collect, or store your device’s precise location, GPS coordinates, or continuous location.

1.4 What we do not collect

For clarity, we do not collect: precise or device geolocation; protected-classification or demographic data such as race, ethnicity, gender, or date of birth (we ask only that you confirm you are 18 or older); biometric data or facial-recognition data; payment or financial-account information (the Services are currently free and we do not process payments); or information about you from social networks or other third parties (sign-in uses only your email and password).

2. How We Use Information

We use the information described above to:

Provide and operate the Services, create and secure your account, and authenticate you.
Match you with opportunities. We use your profile information (such as instruments, genres, skill level, availability, and neighborhood) to rank and recommend opportunities and to help organizers find suitable participants. These calculations are performed by Chord using fixed, pre-set criteria. We do not use third-party artificial-intelligence services to profile you.
Calculate reliability metrics. We use your attendance history, late cancellations, and no-shows to compute reliability metrics that may affect how opportunities are recommended to you and how your requests to join appear to organizers.
Enable communication and coordination, including messaging, rosters, participation, and RSVPs.
Send transactional and service emails through our email provider — for example, account confirmation, password reset, new-message notifications, opportunity and show reminders, and cancellation or update notices.
Keep the Services safe and enforce our terms. If a user reports a message or other content, we may review the reported content and related account activity to investigate and act on the report, and we may retain those records as described in Section 7.
Understand and improve the Services using aggregated analytics.
Send launch and waitlist communications. If you join our waitlist, we may email you about Chord’s launch and availability; every such email includes a way to unsubscribe.
Comply with law, respond to legal requests, and protect the rights, safety, and property of Chord and others.

3. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use only essential cookies and browser local storage, which keep you signed in and make the Services function. We do not use advertising cookies, third-party tracking cookies, or cross-site tracking technologies, and our analytics are cookieless and aggregated. Because we use only essential technologies, we do not display a cookie-consent banner. You can control cookies through your browser settings, though disabling essential cookies may prevent you from signing in.

Do Not Track. Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” signal. Because there is no common industry standard for responding to these signals and we do not track you across other websites, we do not respond to them differently at this time.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We share information only as described below.

4.1 Service providers

We rely on a small number of vendors that process information on our behalf under contracts that limit their use of it:

Supabase — database, authentication, and file storage. Receives account, profile, and Services data, and stores your hashed password.

Vercel — hosting and cookieless analytics. Receives aggregated usage data (pages, referrers, UTM parameters, country, device, browser, and operating system); no IP address is stored.

Resend — transactional email delivery. Receives recipient email addresses and message content necessary to send Chord’s emails.

Nominatim / OpenStreetMap — neighborhood geocoding. Receives only a neighborhood name to return approximate coordinates; no personal data is attached.

4.2 Other users

Chord is a collaboration network, so some information is shared with other users by design. See Section 5 for details on what other users can see.

4.3 Legal, safety, and business transfers

We may disclose information if required by law or legal process, or where we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect the safety, rights, or property of any person or to investigate fraud or violations of our terms. If Chord is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this Privacy Policy.

5. What Other Users Can See

Your musician profile is visible to other signed-in users by default, so they can find suitable collaborators. You can hide your profile from the match feed at any time using the profile-visibility setting. Even when hidden, information you actively share — such as opportunities or shows you post, your presence on a roster, messages you send, and RSVPs — remains visible to the relevant users.

Opportunities and shows you post are visible to other users (and public show listings may be viewable more broadly, as indicated by their visibility setting). Messages are visible to the participants in the thread. Please use discretion about the personal details you include in profiles, listings, and messages.

6. Your Choices and Rights

You can review and update most of your information at any time from your profile and account settings, adjust your profile visibility, and delete your account. Deleting your account removes your profile and related personal data as described in Section 7.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under state privacy laws to know what personal information we hold about you, to access or receive a copy of it, to correct it, to delete it, and to not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. Because we do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, there is no such activity to opt out of. To exercise any of these rights, email us at managemydata@join-chord.com. We will verify your request (typically by confirming control of your account email) and respond within the timeframe required by applicable law. If we deny a request, you may ask us to reconsider by replying to our response.

Categories of personal information we collect are described in Section 1: identifiers (such as name and email); account and profile details; approximate (neighborhood-level) location; audio, photographic, and video information you upload; internet and usage activity in aggregated form; and inferences such as reliability metrics. The sources, purposes, and recipients are described in Sections 1, 2, and 4. We do not collect Social Security numbers, government IDs, financial-account information, precise geolocation, biometric data, or protected-classification data.

7. Data Retention and Account Deletion

We retain your account and profile information for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account:

Your profile information, profile photo, and profile media (such as photos and video clips on your profile) are permanently removed from the live Services.
Images and details attached to opportunities or shows you posted (such as flyers or posters) remain with those listings. When you delete your account, the listings you organized are cancelled rather than deleted, and their content stays with the cancelled listing so records remain accurate for others who took part.
Your message threads remain available to the other participants in those threads, but your messages are attributed to “a deleted user” rather than to you, so that the people you communicated with retain their own record of the conversation.
Your participation history (such as records that a role in an opportunity was filled) is retained in de-identified form that no longer identifies you, so that opportunity records remain accurate.
Where you were involved in a report, block, or safety investigation, we may retain the related records and the reported content for a limited period after deletion as needed for safety, to enforce our terms, and to comply with legal obligations. This prevents a user from erasing evidence of misconduct simply by deleting an account.

Waitlist email addresses are retained until our launch outreach concludes or you ask us to remove you, whichever comes first. Residual copies may persist in routine backups for a limited period before being overwritten, and we may retain limited information where necessary to comply with legal obligations or resolve disputes.

8. Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your information, including encryption of data in transit, hashed password storage, and access controls through our infrastructure providers. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Children

The Services are intended only for adults aged 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have collected information from a person under 18, we will delete it. If you believe a minor has provided us information, contact us at privacy@join-chord.com.

10. Where Your Information Is Processed

The Services are operated in the United States and intended for users in the United States. If you access the Services from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those in your location.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, provide additional notice through the Services or by email. Your continued use of the Services after an update takes effect means you accept the revised policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your information, contact us at:

Chord LLC

2501 Chatham Rd, Suite N

Springfield, IL 62704, United States

Email: privacy@join-chord.com · Data requests: managemydata@join-chord.com