Bard Terms of Service

Last Updated: 2026-09-10

These Terms form an agreement between you and Nicholas Fest, sole proprietor, based in Germany ("Bard," "we," "us") governing your use of the Bard iOS app and related services (the "App"). By downloading, installing, or using the App, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the App.

1. What Bard Is

Bard is an iOS songwriting app. You bring ideas in any order — sing a line, pick a chord, set a loop — and it holds them without requiring you to work in a prescribed sequence. It includes chord and melody suggestions, a built-in band for playback, recording, and an AI feature that writes lyrics to fit a melody you already have.

Bard proposes and does not commit on your behalf. Every suggestion it makes is one you accept or ignore.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the App. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may only use the App with the involvement of a parent or legal guardian, and any subscription purchase must be made or authorized by that parent or guardian. By using the App, you represent that you meet these requirements and are legally able to enter into this agreement.

3. No Account, and What That Means for Your Work

3.1 There is no sign-in

The App does not create an account in any ordinary sense and never asks for an email, name, or password. On first launch it generates a random identifier and keeps it in your device Keychain. That identifier is what a subscription attaches to.

3.2 Your songs live on your device

Songs, recordings, and settings are stored on your device and are not uploaded to us. We hold no copy and cannot recover your work. If you delete the App, reset your device, or lose it, your songs go with it. Use the export features (§ 6) and your own device backups to keep anything you care about.

3.3 The identifier is shared with NoSheet

Bard and NoSheet — our other app — share that identifier through a Keychain group, so that a subscription bought in one is recognised by the other. See § 4.3.

3.4 Deletion

Deleting the App removes your songs, recordings, settings, and the identifier from your device. To have the analytics and subscription records we hold against that identifier deleted, email nick@nosheet.app. Our Privacy Policy § 9 explains what we can and cannot locate without the identifier.

4. Subscriptions and Purchases

4.1 What is free

Bard is usable without paying. The free tier currently allows 10 generated draws per week, up to 10 saved songs, and songs of up to 2 sections and 10 lines. Recording, playback, chord and melody tools, and export are not metered by the week.

These limits are product decisions and may change. We will not reduce them for an in-progress paid period, and any change is announced in the App's release notes.

4.2 Subscription plans

Bard offers two annual plans:

  • Bard Pro — $19.99 per year. Annual only, and it carries no free trial or introductory offer.
  • Bard + NoSheet — $49.99 per year. Bard Pro together with a full NoSheet subscription.

Prices are shown in the App before you confirm a purchase and may vary by region and with local taxes.

4.3 An existing NoSheet subscription already unlocks Bard

If you subscribe to NoSheet, your existing subscription unlocks Bard Pro at no additional cost, and no purchase, code, or sign-in is needed — the shared identifier in § 3.3 is what carries it across.

This runs one way only. A NoSheet subscription grants Bard Pro; a Bard Pro subscription does not grant NoSheet. The "Bard + NoSheet" plan in § 4.2 is the one that grants both.

4.4 Billing

Subscriptions are billed through your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase and at the start of each renewal period. Apple processes all payments; we never receive your payment details.

4.5 Auto-renewal

Subscriptions renew yearly until cancelled. Your Apple Account is charged for renewal within 24 hours of the end of the current period unless you cancel at least 24 hours before it ends.

4.6 Cancellation

You can manage or cancel a subscription at any time in iOS Settings, under your name, then Subscriptions. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period; we do not provide prorated refunds.

4.7 Refunds

Refund requests are handled by Apple under Apple's policies. Contact Apple Support.

4.8 Changes to pricing

We may change subscription prices or plan terms. We will give advance notice in the App. Price changes take effect no sooner than 14 days after notice, never apply retroactively to an in-progress paid period, and you may cancel before they take effect.

4.9 EU consumer right of withdrawal

If you are a consumer in the European Union, you generally have a 14-day right of withdrawal for digital subscriptions under EU Directive 2011/83/EU. Because subscription benefits begin immediately upon purchase, by completing your purchase you expressly consent to immediate performance of the contract and acknowledge that, once we have begun providing the digital service, you lose your right of withdrawal under Art. 16(m) of the Directive. You can still cancel at any time as described in § 4.6; cancellation ends auto-renewal but does not refund the current paid period.

5. The AI Lyric Feature

5.1 What it is

When you ask Bard for words, it sends the subject you typed, the shape the words must fit, and — on a revision — the words already in that song, to Google's Gemini through Firebase AI Logic, and writes the result into your local document. Privacy Policy § 3.5 lists exactly what is sent.

5.2 Generated words may be wrong, and are not edited by anyone

Lyrics are produced algorithmically. They may be clumsy, nonsensical, repetitive, off-brief, or unusable, and nobody reviews them before you see them. Treat every draw as a proposal.

5.3 Your inputs

Do not submit into a prompt: personal information about yourself or other people; credentials, financial, or health information; copyrighted lyrics or text you do not have the right to share; or anything confidential. You are responsible for what you type.

5.4 Rights in your inputs and outputs

You keep whatever rights you have in what you type and in the songs you write. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to transmit and process your inputs and the resulting outputs to the extent needed to operate the feature. We store neither, and we do not use your inputs to train AI models — see Privacy Policy § 7.

As between you and us, you may use the lyrics generated for you for any lawful purpose, including commercially. We claim no rights in the songs you write with the App.

Two honest limits on that, neither of which is ours to fix: generative models can produce text that is similar or identical to text produced for someone else, and we make no representation that any output is unique to you or free of third-party rights. Whether AI-generated text attracts copyright at all varies by country. If a lyric matters commercially, check it.

5.5 Availability

The AI feature depends on a paid third-party service. It may be rate-limited, metered (§ 4.1), modified, suspended, or discontinued, including for cost or third-party reasons. The rest of the App does not depend on it, and a failed draw is never charged against your weekly allowance.

6. Recording, Microphone, and Export

The App uses your microphone to hear what you sing or play. Audio is processed on your device and recordings are stored on your device; we never receive them. You can revoke microphone permission in iOS Settings at any time, which disables recording and pitch detection.

Export produces a document or audio from your own song, on your device, for you to do with as you like.

7. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

  1. Access the App or the services behind it by any means other than the interface we provide.
  2. Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the App, except to the minimum extent permitted by applicable law.
  3. Use the App to violate any law or regulation.
  4. Interfere with or disrupt the App or the services it depends on.
  5. Upload or transmit viruses, malware, or other harmful code.
  6. Submit automated, abusive, or excessive AI requests, or otherwise attempt to exhaust our AI budget or rate limits.
  7. Circumvent App Check, App Attest, the free-tier meters, or other integrity mechanisms.
  8. Resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the App itself, or any of its bundled content such as its instrument sounds, patterns, or teaching material, as distinct from the songs you write with it.
  9. Use the App to harass, defame, or harm others.

8. Intellectual Property

8.1 Your songs are yours

We claim no ownership of and no license to your songs, lyrics, or recordings. We could not exercise one if we wanted to: they never leave your device except as § 5.1 describes.

8.2 Our content

The App — its source code, interface, instrument sounds and soundfont, chord and rhythm catalogues, cue figures, teaching material, and AI prompts — is owned by us or our licensors and protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.

8.3 Your limited license

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to install and use the App on Apple devices you own or control, and only while you comply with these Terms.

8.4 Feedback

If you send us feedback, suggestions, or bug reports, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use it without obligation to you.

9. Third-Party Services

The App relies on Apple, Google Firebase (AI Logic, App Check, Crashlytics), PostHog, and RevenueCat. Your use of the App is subject to their handling of the limited data described in our Privacy Policy. The App contains no advertising SDK and no ad tracking.

10. Disclaimers

THE APP IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OPERATION. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE APP WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, THAT GENERATED LYRICS OR MUSICAL SUGGESTIONS WILL BE ANY GOOD, OR THAT YOU WILL FINISH A SONG.

WE DO NOT BACK UP YOUR WORK. § 3.2 is a disclaimer as much as a description.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so some of the above may not apply to you; in that case such warranties are limited to the minimum extent permitted by law. Nothing in these Terms limits your statutory consumer rights under German or EU law.

11. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, LOST RECORDINGS, LOST SONGS, OR LOST GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE APP OR THESE TERMS, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE APP OR THESE TERMS IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM OR (B) €50.

For users to whom German law applies: where we breach an essential contractual obligation (a "Kardinalpflicht" — an obligation whose fulfilment is essential to the proper performance of the contract and on which you may regularly rely), our liability for ordinary negligence is limited to foreseeable damages typical for this type of contract, but is not excluded.

These limitations do not apply to liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law — including liability for intent, gross negligence, injury to life, body, or health, fraudulent concealment of defects, breach of an express guarantee, or under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz).

12. Indemnification (non-consumers only)

If you use the App other than as a consumer — as a business or in a professional capacity — and to the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from claims, losses, and costs (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from (a) your violation of these Terms, (b) your violation of any law or third-party right, or (c) your misuse of the AI feature, including submitting content you had no right to submit.

This § 12 does not apply to consumers within the meaning of § 13 BGB or equivalent local law.

13. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the App if you violate these Terms, or if we discontinue the App. You may stop using it at any time by uninstalling it. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination — intellectual property, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnification, and governing law — will survive.

14. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms. Material changes will be announced in the App at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree, stop using the App before that date.

15. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding its conflict-of-laws rules and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Exclusive jurisdiction lies with the courts of Munich, Germany, except where mandatory consumer-protection law requires otherwise. Consumers retain the right to bring claims in the courts of their place of residence where EU law requires.

The European Commission's online dispute resolution platform is available at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/. We are not obliged, and generally do not participate, in dispute resolution before a consumer arbitration board.

16. Apple App Store Terms

You acknowledge:

  1. These Terms are between you and us, not between you and Apple. Apple is not responsible for the App or its content.
  2. Your license to use the App is limited to a non-transferable license to use it on Apple-branded products you own or control, per the Usage Rules in Apple's Media Services Terms.
  3. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the App.
  4. If the App fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price, if any. Apple has no other warranty obligation.
  5. We, and not Apple, are responsible for addressing any claims relating to the App, including product liability, consumer protection, or intellectual property claims.
  6. We, and not Apple, are responsible for investigating third-party intellectual-property claims against the App.
  7. You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not on any U.S. restricted-party list.
  8. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.

17. Entire Agreement; Severability

These Terms and our Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the App and supersede any prior agreements. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect.

18. Contact

Email: nick@nosheet.app

Postal address: Nicholas Fest, Ginhardtstraße 40, 80639 München, Germany