Terms

What we promise, and what we ask of you.

Last updated [LAST UPDATED]

Nobody orders a memorial song in a frame of mind for reading terms. So these are short, and they say what they mean. If anything here is unclear, email us before you order and we will explain it in a sentence.

The short version

€125. One price, paid when you order, nothing added at the end.
You see the lyrics and approve every word before a note is made.
Two revision rounds are included. If it still doesn't sound like them, you get every cent back.
The song is yours to play, share and keep forever. We will never sell it or release it.
A person writes it, and a person checks it before it ever reaches you.

1. Who you are dealing with

[TRADING NAME], a registered business name of [OWNER NAME], [BUSINESS ADDRESS], Ireland. Registered Business Number [RBN NUMBER]. You can reach us at hello@aftersongs.com.

These terms apply when you order a song from us. Ordering means you accept them.

2. What you are buying

An original song, written from what you tell us about the person who died. It is not a cover, and it is not an existing recording with your words laid over it. It did not exist before your order.

For €125 you get:

The lyrics, sent to you first, for you to change or approve.
Two versions of the finished song — the full length one, and a shorter one for the funeral.
An instrumental version, free.
A private page for them, with the song, the lyrics and room for photographs.
Two rounds of revisions.
Files you can download and keep.

The song is written in English. Spanish or Portuguese is available for €30.

3. How it goes, and how long it takes

You tell us about them. A short form — five minutes, or thirty-five if you want to tell us everything.
We send the lyrics within 12 hours. Read them, change anything, or ask us to start again.
You approve the words. Nothing is recorded until you do.
The song arrives within 48 hours of your approval, on their page, ready to play and share.

Every revision round starts a fresh 48 hours. If you need it sooner, priority delivery is €25 more and halves every stage — the song within 24 hours.

These times are what we work to and what we have always met. If something outside our control — illness, a failure at one of our suppliers — means we are going to miss one, we will tell you the same day rather than let a deadline pass in silence. If we miss a deadline for a funeral and the song is no use to you afterwards, you get a full refund, no argument.

4. Price and payment

€125 for the song. €25 more for priority delivery. Payment is taken when you order, through [PAYMENT PROVIDER]. [VAT LINE]

We ask for payment up front for one reason: the work starts within hours of your order, usually the same evening. The guarantee below is what protects you for doing that.

5. The guarantee

If the lyrics don't sound like them, we rewrite them. If they still don't, you get every cent back. You can ask for this up to [GUARANTEE WINDOW] after we deliver, and you do not have to explain yourself or justify it. You keep nothing and we keep nothing — we take the page down and delete the song.

We would rather refund you than have a song out there that a family does not love.

6. Revisions

Two rounds are included, and a round means all your changes together — the family reads it, agrees what to change, and sends it in one go. That is not us being strict; it is how a song stays coherent instead of being pulled in four directions. If you need more rounds after that, ask, and in almost every case we will just do them.

Revisions are for making the song truer to them. If you want a different song altogether — another relationship, another register, another occasion — that is a new song, and it is priced as one.

7. Your right to cancel

Because every song is made to order for one family, it is what consumer law calls personalised goods, and the usual 14-day cooling-off period for things bought online does not apply to it. By ordering you are asking us to begin straight away and you accept that.

In practice this matters less than it sounds, because the guarantee in section 5 is more generous than the right you are giving up: you can still get all of your money back after the song is finished and delivered, which a cooling-off period would not give you.

Before we send the lyrics you can cancel for any reason and be refunded in full. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

8. How the song is made

Your words go to a person, who writes the lyrics. Nothing is generated and sent to you unread — a person reads every line before you ever see it, and a person listens to every song before it reaches the family.

The music itself is produced using advanced music technology rather than by booking a studio band, and that is exactly why a family can have an original song, made for them alone, for €125 instead of several thousand. We would rather tell you that plainly than let you find out later.

What we will not do: we do not recreate the voice of the person who died, and we would ask you not to request it. We do not put anything of yours into a public catalogue, and we do not use your song to advertise unless you have ticked the box that says we may.

9. Who owns the song

We hold the copyright in the finished song, as its maker.

You are given a licence to it that is perpetual, worldwide, free and cannot be revoked. Under it you and your family may:

play it at the funeral, the month's mind, the anniversary and any gathering, private or public;
share it with anyone you like, as often as you like;
copy it, download it, keep it, and pass it on to the next generation of the family;
use it in a video or slideshow that your family makes.

In plain words: it is yours to keep, play and share, forever, and nobody can take that away or charge you again. We hold the copyright so that the song cannot be claimed, sold or reused by anyone else. We will never release it, sell it, license it or put it on a streaming service, and we will never use it as an example of our work — not even anonymised — unless you have told us in writing that we may.

What the licence does not cover is commercial use: selling the song, releasing it commercially, or using it to advertise a business. If you ever want to do any of that — a documentary, a charity release, a fundraiser in their name — write to us and in the ordinary run of things we will say yes and put it in writing for you.

Everything you told us stays yours. The memories are not ours and we make no claim on them.

10. What we ask of you

That the family agrees to the song being made. You do not need a signed permission from every relative, but you should not be commissioning it over someone's objection.
That what you tell us is true, as far as you know it.
That you do not ask us for lyrics that are defamatory, that settle a score with a living person, or that are unlawful.

We may decline an order, and refund it in full, if it asks for something we are not willing to make. That happens rarely and we will tell you honestly why.

11. Their page

Every song comes with a private page. It is not indexed and not listed anywhere — only someone with the link can open it. One person looks after it, and that does not have to be whoever paid: if the song is for your mother and it is your father who should hold it, name him and the page is his to manage. There are no passwords; a sign-in link comes by email when it is needed.

Everything is downloadable from day one and yours to keep, permanently.
The page stays online for at least five years.
If After Songs ever closes, you get 90 days' notice and a full archive.

Anyone in the immediate family can ask us to take the page down, and we will. You always have the downloaded files regardless, which is why we give them to you at the start.

If you named the funeral home, their name appears on the page as a thank-you unless you tell us not to.

12. If something goes wrong

Email hello@aftersongs.com and a person will answer you. If we have caused you a loss, our liability is limited to what you paid us. Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything that cannot be limited under Irish law — including your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2022.

13. The rest

These terms are governed by Irish law, and the Irish courts have jurisdiction. If any part of them turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still stands. We may update these terms, and if we do, the version that applies to your song is the one that was published on the day you ordered.

See also our privacy page, which says exactly what happens to everything you tell us.