Terms and privacy.

Last updated 31 July 2026.

Who runs this

Young Voices Out Loud is built and run by Zootaloot Studios, an independent studio based in North Yorkshire, United Kingdom. It is not a charity and it is not part of any other organisation.

Your work stays yours

You keep full ownership and copyright of everything you send us. We never take ownership of your work.

When you submit something, you give us a non-exclusive licence to publish it on this site and to list it on your portfolio page. Anything beyond that - such as posting a clip on our social accounts - only happens if you tick the separate optional box for it. Non-exclusive means you are completely free to publish the same work anywhere else, sell it, perform it, or enter it for anything you like. Nothing here stops you.

We will never sell your work. We will never license it on to anyone else. We will never use it to train artificial intelligence, and we will not allow anyone else to do so through us.

You can ask us to take anything down at any time, for any reason or none. You do not have to explain why. We normally acknowledge takedown requests within a few working days and remove or restrict access as soon as reasonably practicable.

What you are confirming when you submit

When you tick the boxes on the submission form, you are telling us that:

• the work is yours, or you have the right to send it to us, and that publishing it through Young Voices Out Loud does not knowingly infringe anyone else's intellectual property rights;
• everyone who took part — cast, co-writers, musicians — has agreed to it being published here;
• any music or material you did not make yourself is cleared for use;
• you are 18 years of age or over.

You must be 18 or over

This platform is for adults. By requesting access or submitting work, you confirm that you are at least 18 years old. We do not knowingly publish work by anyone under 18. If you tell us you are under 18, or we find out, we will not publish your work and we will delete what you sent.

What we do with your details

Zootaloot Studios is the data controller for information collected through this site, registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under reference ZC208846. Here is everything we hold and why.

• Your name and email address — so we can reply to you and send you your invite link. Your email address is never shown on the site and never given to anyone else.
• Your country and institution, if you give them — shown publicly on your portfolio, because people search by them. Leave them blank if you would rather not.
• The public name you choose — shown on your work and in performer search. It does not have to be your legal name.
• What you write in the forms — kept so we can review your request or submission.
• A one-way cryptographic hash of your IP address — used only to stop the forms being flooded with spam. It cannot be turned back into your actual address.

We do not use advertising trackers. We do not sell or share your details with anyone for marketing. We do not profile you.

We keep your information for as long as your work is published here, and for up to two years afterwards in case of a query about rights. If you ask us to delete everything, we will.

You have the right to ask what we hold about you, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, and to object to how we use it. Use the contact form and we will deal with your request promptly. If you are unhappy with how we handle it, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Music and other people's material

This is the thing that catches people out, so please read it.

You cannot use commercially released music in your work. Not a few seconds under dialogue, not quietly in the background, not as a theme. It does not matter how short it is, whether you credit the artist, or that you are not making money from it. Doing so is copyright infringement and we cannot publish it.

What you can use:

• Music you or your collaborators wrote and recorded. If you are at a conservatoire or drama school there are almost certainly composers and musicians around you who would jump at scoring a piece.
• Production or library music you hold a licence for — keep the licence, we may ask.
• Music genuinely out of copyright — be careful here: an old composition is out of copyright, but a modern recording of it is not.
• Anything you have written permission to use.

The same goes for writing, sound effects and recordings made by other people. When you submit, we ask you to tell us what is in the piece that you did not make yourself. Answer that honestly — it is not a trap, and we would far rather help you sort a clearance than take something down later.

If we publish something and later find it was not cleared, we will remove it.

Signing in

There are no passwords here. You sign in with your email address and we send you a six digit code that works once and lasts fifteen minutes.

You are signed out automatically after fifteen minutes of inactivity, and after twelve hours whatever happens. On a shared or library computer, press sign out when you finish — that clears everything immediately.

Only someone who can read your email can sign in as you, so keep that account secure.

Sending us a lot at once

There is no limit on how much work you can put on Young Voices Out Loud overall. Send us everything you make.

We do ask you to keep it to around twenty pieces a day. That is a guideline rather than a rule, and one busy day will never count against you.

The reason is simple: one person listens to everything before it goes up. If fifty pieces arrive at once, everybody waits longer, including you.

If you have a backlog you want to get up — a whole series, or a term of work — tell us and we will make a plan. We would much rather hear from you than have you hit a wall.

How we decide what to publish

A person listens to or reads everything before it goes up. Nothing publishes automatically.

We are looking for work that is yours, that is finished enough to share, and that is not going to cause harm. We will not publish anything that attacks or demeans people, that sexualises children, that encourages self-harm or violence, or that we believe breaks the law.

Beyond that we are not fussy about polish. Rough and honest beats slick and hollow. If we say no, it is usually about fit, not quality, and you are welcome to send us something else.

Social media

We have our own social accounts. If you tick the optional box when you submit, we may post a short clip of your work there, always with your credit.

That box is optional and is never ticked for you. If you leave it blank we will not post your work anywhere except this site. You can change your mind at any time and we will take it down and stop using it.

We will not edit a clip in a way that changes what your work means, and we will never present it as anything other than yours.

The Talking Newspaper

The Hambleton Talking Newspaper is a charity that produces audio for blind and partially sighted listeners. If you tick the optional box when you submit, we pass your recording to them free of charge so their listeners can hear it. That box is optional and is never ticked for you.

They receive the audio and your credits, nothing else. No money changes hands in either direction. If you later change your mind, tell us and we will stop sharing it.

Money

There are no adverts on this site and nothing in the feed is ever paid for. No one can pay to be published, featured, or promoted here.

Running this costs money, so we may in future accept sponsorship to cover hosting and time. If we ever do, it will be a single clearly labelled credit, it will never appear inside the work itself, it will never influence what gets published, and it will never be passed on to the Talking Newspaper.

Things we cannot promise

We are one small studio. We will do our best to keep the site up and your work safe, but we cannot guarantee the site is always available, and you should keep your own copy of anything you send us.

Once audio is on the internet, anyone can record it. We cannot stop that, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can do is credit you clearly, never claim your work as ours, and remove it whenever you ask.

Where we stand legally

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability where it would be unlawful to do so. Subject to that, and to the fullest extent permitted by law, our liability to you is limited to losses directly caused by our breach of these terms.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.

If we change these terms

We will update the date at the top. Where a change materially affects contributors or work already published, we will take reasonable steps to notify the people affected.

Accessibility

If you need these terms, or anything else on this site, in a different format because of an accessibility requirement, tell us and we will do our best to provide one.

Getting in touch

Use the contact form for anything — questions, corrections, takedown requests, or asking what we hold about you.