Terms of Service

KaraoQ (“we”, “us”) is a free, real-time karaoke queue app. A host creates a room, guests join from their phones and search for songs to add to a shared queue, and the room plays back on a shared display. These terms are the agreement between you and us for using it.

By opening a room, joining one, or searching for a song, you agree to these terms. If you don’t agree with them, please don’t use KaraoQ.

YouTube API Services

KaraoQ uses the YouTube API Services to search for and play karaoke videos. By using KaraoQ you are also agreeing to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service. Google’s use of information received from KaraoQ’s use of the YouTube API Services is governed by the Google Privacy Policy.

Every song plays in YouTube’s own embedded player, with its controls, title, and channel attribution intact. We do not host, store, download, or re-encode any video. We don’t own the songs and we don’t license them to you — the rights belong to the people who uploaded them and to YouTube, and your use of that content is subject to YouTube’s terms, not ours.

No accounts, and rooms are public

There are no user accounts. You don’t sign up, and using KaraoQ never requires a password, an email address, or a persistent identity. A room is identified only by its room code.

That means a room is visible to anyone who has its code. Anyone who can see the code — on a screen, in a photo, over someone’s shoulder — can join the room, see its queue, and add songs. Treat a room as public, and don’t put anything in a room name, singer name, or song request that you wouldn’t want a stranger to read.

Acceptable use

When using KaraoQ, don’t:

• Enter names, room names, or messages that are unlawful, harassing, hateful, or that impersonate someone else.
• Queue content that is unlawful, or that you know infringes someone’s rights.
• Join, disrupt, or spam rooms you weren’t invited to, or interfere with anyone else’s session.
• Scrape, automate, or bulk-query KaraoQ or the YouTube data it returns, or attempt to work around our rate limits, caching, or daily search limits.
• Attempt to download, capture, or redistribute video or audio played through KaraoQ, or separate it from YouTube’s player.
• Probe, damage, or attempt unauthorised access to KaraoQ or the infrastructure behind it.

We may remove a room or block access if we believe it’s being used this way. Because there are no accounts, this generally means deleting the room rather than suspending a person.

Using KaraoQ at a venue

KaraoQ is free to host and free to join, whether that’s a living room or a bar. If you run KaraoQ at a commercial venue, it is your responsibility to hold whatever public-performance or music-licensing permissions your venue and country require. We provide the queue; we do not provide, and cannot provide, a performance licence for the music.

Your content

You keep whatever rights you have in what you type into a room — a room name, a singer name, a song request. By entering it, you allow us to display it to other people in that room and to store it for as long as the room lives. Rooms and their contents auto-delete 30 days after their last activity; the full picture is in our Privacy Policy.

The service is provided as-is

KaraoQ is free, and it’s provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We don’t promise it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or available at any particular moment.

In particular, song search depends on the YouTube Data API and on a daily quota we don’t control. When that quota is spent, or YouTube is unreachable, search may return older cached results or stop working until it resets. Videos can also be removed or made unplayable by their owners at any time. None of that is something we can guarantee around.

We may change, suspend, or discontinue KaraoQ — in whole or in part — at any time, and we may update these terms. If we do, we’ll change the “last updated” date at the top of this page.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, or for any lost data, lost profits, or spoiled event, arising from your use of KaraoQ. Since KaraoQ is provided free of charge, our total liability to you is limited to the amount you have paid us for it, which is nothing.

Some jurisdictions don’t allow certain warranty disclaimers or liability limits, so parts of the two sections above may not apply to you.

Children

KaraoQ is not directed at children under 13. If you are under 13, please don’t use it. Nothing we collect asks for a real identity — see our Privacy Policy.

Contact

Questions about these terms, or want a room deleted? Email variationsonastring@gmail.com.