Terms of Service

Last updated: July 1, 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Smear Audio website, products, software, plug-ins, downloads, license keys, user accounts, and related services. By purchasing, downloading, installing, activating, or using any Smear Audio product, you agree to these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not purchase, download, install, activate, or use our products.

1. Company Information

Smear Audio is operated by:

Matkala Studios
Business ID: 3628345-2
Finland
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://smearaudio.com

2. Products

Smear Audio sells digital audio software products, including audio plug-ins, installers, license keys, presets, documentation, updates, and related digital content.

Our products are delivered digitally. After your payment is confirmed, your products, license keys, and serials become available immediately in your account, where you can download them. No physical product will be shipped, and there are no delivery or shipping costs, unless expressly stated otherwise.

You are responsible for checking that your computer, operating system, digital audio workstation, plug-in format, hardware, and other software are compatible with the product before purchasing.

3. Orders and Payment

Product prices are shown on the website at the time of purchase, and the price shown is the total price you pay.

Payments are processed by Paytrail and/or other payment providers shown at checkout. Available payment methods, such as online bank payments, card payments, and mobile payment methods, are shown at checkout through Paytrail. We do not store your full payment card details.

After a successful purchase, you will receive access to the purchased product, license key, serial number, account entitlement, download link, or other delivery method, depending on the product.

Payment Service Provider

Paytrail Plc acts as a collecting payment service provider and is an authorized payment institution. Paytrail Plc will be shown as the recipient on your bank or credit card statement. Paytrail Plc will forward the payment to the merchant. For complaints, please contact the website where the payment was made.

Paytrail Plc
Innova 2
Lutakonaukio 7
40100 Jyväskylä
Phone: +358 207 181 830
Business ID 2122839-7
paytrail.com/en/consumer/information-about-paying

We may refuse, cancel, or refund an order if we suspect fraud, abuse, technical error, pricing error, unauthorized use of payment details, or violation of these Terms.

4. License

When you purchase a Smear Audio product, you receive a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to install and use the product according to these Terms. You do not purchase ownership of the software itself.

Unless otherwise stated on the product page or in a separate license agreement, your license is personal to you and may be used on systems that you personally own or control.

Each product license includes a limited number of activations. Activating the product on a system uses one activation. If you reach your activation limit — for example after reinstalling, replacing or resetting a computer, or setting up an additional system you own — contact us at [email protected] and we can grant further activations where reasonable.

You may use the product to create, record, produce, perform, mix, master, publish, sell, license, and distribute musical works and other audio works, including commercial works.

You may not:

sell, resell, rent, lease, lend, sublicense, share, transfer, or distribute the product or your license key;
make the product available to third parties;
upload the product, license key, installer, or related files to file-sharing services or public repositories;
remove, alter, or obscure copyright notices, license notices, or proprietary markings;
bypass, disable, tamper with, or attempt to circumvent copy protection, activation, license checks, or technical protection measures;
reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to derive the source code of the product, except to the extent such restriction is prohibited by applicable law;
use the product in a way that violates applicable law or the rights of others.

5. License Validity

Smear Audio products require a valid license key or serial number to activate. You activate a product the first time you enter your license key or serial number into it. Until a product is activated, it runs in a limited demo mode that emits a periodic reminder beep; activation silences this beep and unlocks its full functionality. Activation is performed online and requires an internet connection: when you activate, the product contacts our servers to validate your license and record the activation, which counts towards the limited number of activations included with your license (see Section 4). Once a product has been activated on a system, it does not need to reconnect to our servers to keep working on that system.

Continued use of the product requires a valid, non-revoked license. If a license is refunded, withdrawn, revoked, cancelled, charged back, transferred without permission, used fraudulently, shared, or otherwise used in breach of these Terms, we may disable the license, remove download access, or take other reasonable technical measures to prevent further use.

You are responsible for keeping your license key, serial number, account login details, and downloaded files secure. You must not share them with anyone else.

6. Updates

We may provide updates, bug fixes, compatibility updates, feature updates, or new versions of our products at our discretion.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, a purchase does not guarantee free lifetime updates, new major versions, new products, or continued support for all operating systems, plug-in formats, host applications, or hardware platforms.

We may change, discontinue, or stop supporting a product, version, feature, platform, or format where reasonably necessary, including for technical, security, compatibility, business, or legal reasons.

7. Support

We may provide customer support by email or through other support channels listed on our website.

We aim to provide helpful support, but we do not guarantee any specific response time, resolution time, compatibility outcome, or availability of support unless expressly agreed otherwise.

You may be asked to provide reasonable technical information, such as your operating system, DAW, plug-in format, product version, error messages, and steps to reproduce an issue.

8. Right of Withdrawal, Returns, and Refunds

If you are a consumer located in the European Union, European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with a mandatory statutory withdrawal right, you have the right to withdraw from your purchase within 14 days, without giving a reason, as long as you have not yet activated the product. Activation is the point of no return for refunds: it happens the first time you enter the license key or serial number from your order into the product (see Section 5). Downloading the installer, or your license key and serial number becoming available in your account, does not by itself end your right of withdrawal — only activation does. The withdrawal period begins on the day of purchase, unless applicable law provides otherwise. If you withdraw in this situation, you will receive a full refund.

Downloads and the digital content exception

Our products are digital content delivered electronically. When you accept these Terms at checkout, you give your express prior consent to begin delivery immediately, and you acknowledge that you lose your right of withdrawal once you activate a product. For our products, activation is the point of no return: it means entering the license key or serial number from your order into the product for the first time, as described in Section 5. Your license key and serial number becoming available in your account and downloading the installer are forms of delivery, but on their own they do not end your right of withdrawal — only activation does.

Once you have activated a product, you are therefore no longer entitled to withdraw or to a "no reason" refund, except where mandatory law provides otherwise. This does not affect your mandatory rights for faulty or non-conforming products.

Faulty or non-conforming products

Your statutory rights for faulty, defective, or non-conforming products are not limited by these Terms and apply regardless of whether you have already downloaded or activated the product. If a product is faulty or not as described, contact us and, depending on the circumstances and applicable law, we will repair or update the product, provide a replacement, reduce the price, or refund your purchase. See Section 10 (Faults, Defects, and Mandatory Consumer Rights).

System requirements

It is your responsibility to check that a product is compatible with your system before purchasing, as described in Section 2. A product not working solely because your system does not meet its stated system requirements is not a fault and is not, by itself, a ground for a refund. If a product does not work as described on a system that meets the stated requirements, your rights for non-conforming products above apply.

How to request withdrawal or a refund

To exercise your right of withdrawal, or to report a faulty or non-conforming product, contact us at [email protected], use the withdrawal function provided on our website, or send us another clear written statement. A withdrawal must be requested within the 14-day withdrawal period and before you activate the product — that is, before you first enter your license key or serial number into it.

If your request is valid, we will refund the payment we received from you using the same payment method that you used for the original transaction, unless another method is agreed. We will process the refund within the time required by applicable law.

9. Effect of Withdrawal or Refund

If a refund or withdrawal is granted, your license to use the refunded product ends immediately.

After the refund or withdrawal, you must:

stop using the product;
uninstall and delete the product from your computers;
delete installers, license keys, serial numbers, activation files, and related product files from your devices, backups, cloud storage, and other storage locations under your control;
stop accessing or downloading the product;
not reinstall, activate, copy, share, transfer, distribute, sell, or otherwise use the product.

After a refund or withdrawal, we may disable the license key, remove download access, disable related account entitlements, and use reasonable technical measures to prevent further use of the refunded product.

Withdrawal or refund does not give you any right to keep using the product.

10. Faults, Defects, and Mandatory Consumer Rights

If a product is defective or does not conform to mandatory consumer protection requirements, you may have legal rights under applicable law. These rights may include repair, replacement, price reduction, refund, or other remedies, depending on the circumstances and applicable law.

Nothing in these Terms limits any mandatory rights that you may have under applicable consumer protection laws.

If you experience a technical issue, please contact us at [email protected] and include enough information for us to investigate the issue.

11. Accounts and Access

Some products or services may require a user account.

You are responsible for keeping your account credentials secure and for all activity under your account. You must notify us immediately if you suspect unauthorized access to your account, license key, or product downloads.

We may suspend or restrict account access if we reasonably believe that the account has been used fraudulently, unlawfully, or in violation of these Terms.

12. Intellectual Property

All Smear Audio products, software, plug-ins, installers, presets, graphics, names, logos, documentation, website content, and related materials are owned by Smear Audio or its licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.

Except for the limited license expressly granted to you under these Terms, no rights are transferred to you.

13. User Feedback

If you send us feedback, suggestions, bug reports, ideas, feature requests, or other comments, you allow us to use them without restriction or compensation to you. This does not transfer ownership of your own music, audio works, or creative projects to us.

14. Privacy

Our processing of personal data is described in our Privacy Policy.

By using our website, purchasing products, creating an account, activating software, requesting support, or using license checks, you acknowledge that we may process personal data as described in the Privacy Policy.

15. Third-Party Services

Our website, checkout, payment processing, email delivery, hosting, and support systems may use third-party service providers.

We are not responsible for third-party services, websites, platforms, or software that we do not control, except where required by applicable law.

16. Availability

We aim to keep our website, downloads, and account systems available, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free availability.

Access may be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, updates, outages, security issues, third-party service issues, or events beyond our reasonable control.

We recommend that you keep backup copies of installers and project files, provided that any such copies remain subject to these Terms and must be deleted if your license is refunded, withdrawn, revoked, or terminated.

17. Disclaimer

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, our products are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory.

We do not guarantee that the products will be compatible with every system, host application, or workflow, or that they will be uninterrupted, error-free, or suitable for every particular purpose.

18. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Smear Audio will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, or exemplary damages, including loss of profits, loss of revenue, loss of data, loss of business, loss of goodwill, loss of projects, or loss of opportunity.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Smear Audio's total liability arising out of or relating to a product, order, account, or these Terms will not exceed the amount you paid for the product giving rise to the claim.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law, including mandatory consumer protection rights.

19. Termination

Your license and right to use a Smear Audio product will automatically end if:

you breach these Terms;
your purchase is refunded, withdrawn, cancelled, reversed, or charged back;
your license is revoked due to fraud, abuse, unauthorized sharing, or other misuse;
you transfer or attempt to transfer the product or license without permission.

After termination, you must stop using the product and delete all copies, as described in Section 9 (Effect of Withdrawal or Refund).

We may revoke or disable terminated licenses.

20. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time.

The version in effect at the time of your purchase applies to that purchase unless a change is required by law or is clearly beneficial to you.

If we make material changes that affect existing users, we will take reasonable steps to notify users where required or appropriate.

21. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of Finland, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer protection rights that may apply in your country of residence.

If you are a consumer, you may have the right to bring a claim in the courts or consumer dispute bodies available under applicable consumer protection law.

If you are a business customer, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms will be handled by the competent courts of Finland, unless mandatory law provides otherwise.

22. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, your order, your license, support, withdrawal, or refunds, please contact us at [email protected]. Full company details are in Section 1 (Company Information).