Artists Guidelines

Artists - whether musicians, dancers, actors, painters, sculptors, authors, or other creatives - predominantly receive appreciation for the finished work. Yet, an immense, often underestimated value is hidden within the authentic digital assets: those exclusive Photos, videos, and insights that arise during tours, concerts, filming, exhibitions, other events, and "Behind-the-Scenes" moments.

This valuable content is mostly shared today for free and for fleeting recognition on common social media platforms - in exchange for the painstaking hunt for followers.

This "exchange" is in reality a prohibitively paid service: It demands the permanent surrender of their personal data and the free transfer of their content to the platforms from artists. It requires a massive time investment in content production, generates the constant pressure for adaptation with algorithms, and binds artists into the role of free content suppliers - away from their actual focus.

ToEon offers you the technology, the infrastructure, the licensing legal basis, and the community so that you no longer get stuck in the role of the product on social media platforms, but rather use these as a distribution channel for your own product.

The decisive step is the licensing and the protection of your content. With ToEon, you transform your images, videos, and exclusive insights into legally secured digital assets.

• • Legally Secured Anchoring Your content is furnished with immutable metadata that tamper-proof documents your authorship and the licensing terms.
• • Full License Control: You determine who may use your content for which purpose (editorial or commercial) and at which price.
• • Protection Against Misuse: Your assets receive a digital signature that makes misuse more difficult and facilitates the tracking of unauthorized use.

In this way, you utilize the reach of the platforms and let the algorithms work for you, while you yourself retain full control over the licensing rights.

 

Best Practices

Build Your Digital Asset Portfolio

Build your personal Asset Portfolio by uploading meaningful content - including photos, videos, and insights captured during tours, concerts, filming, exhibitions, other events, and "Behind-the-Scenes" moments - to ToEon. Your digital capital grows directly with the breadth and depth of the subjects you capture.

Every Photo, Video, or piece of content you capture possesses a potential value. Even if no immediate demand is generated today, its value is not zero; instead, it represents your digital capital and your investment in the future.

The true value of every individual occurrence or Digital Asset lies in the uniqueness and unrepeatability of the lived moment. Every moment is an original datum of reality - a singular convergence of time, space, consciousness, and action. This value is alive and contains many prices: one for today, another for tomorrow, and newly discovered ones for those who seek and find it.

 

Monetizing the Moment

If you are present at a unique event - whether it involves a significant societal occurrence or an exclusive moment of artistic creation - it carries a potentially high commercial value. Seize the opportunity to document this lived moment with your phone or camera.

Upload and license this content through ToEon and offer it for sale. Such original footage is of the highest interest to media outlets, researchers, expert audiences, and a multitude of other local and global players, commanding corresponding sale prices.

 

Sales Promotion through Social Sharing

Strategically leverage your social media reach to maximize demand for your content.

Actively promote the content you have uploaded and licensed on ToEon on your social media channels. These shared previews are automatically marked with an unmistakable ToEon watermark, which not only signals the protection of your copyright but also serves as a clear Call-to-Action.

Interested parties and potential buyers will be directed straight to your ToEon profile via the content link. There, they can purchase the content and discover your entire asset portfolio.

 

Metadata of Your Content

For maximum reach and targeted searches by interested parties, the correct indexing of your content is crucial.

Keywords are the key:

• • Use comprehensiveKeywords and a precise description in the Title, Content Description, and Tags.
• • Make sure to capture relevant details such as theevent, date, time, and location in detail.
• • Use theToEon Tags function to enter your keywords without the hashtag symbol (#).

This procedure ensures optimal indexing and enables buyers to find your content quickly and efficiently.

 

Formats of Your Content

For your content, ensure a wide range of formats (e.g., Landscape, Portrait, Square, or Panorama). This offers potential buyers a broad spectrum of options, thereby guaranteeing maximum usability.

 

Technical Care

The careful preparation of your content is an investment in its professional perception. In addition to the uniqueness of the content, buyers also value its technical quality. Although modern phones and cameras already deliver a good basic quality, you should ensure that your shots are not blurry or flawed.

The ToEon upload system offers you a decisive advantage, which is particularly relevant for professional photographers: You can offer your content in different resolutions and sell it accordingly at different prices. This ensures that you can participate in the market with every technical standard, and every quality level finds its own buyer group.

 

Special Requirements for Design Assets (PSDs, Vectors)

The technical structure of your design assets is key to professional reusability and maximizing the purchase price.

• • Vectors (e.g., AI, SVG):The main value lies in unlimited scalability. Ensure this by using clean, closed paths and avoiding unnecessary raster elements.
• • PSDs and Raster Graphics:Ensure a logical and understandable layer structure (Ebenenstruktur). Name and group the layers sensibly to facilitate editing for agencies and designers.
• • Usability Guarantee:Embed used fonts or convert them into paths. Include all necessary external assets to guarantee the full functionality of the files for the end customer.

 

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• • General Prohibition:The uploading of AI-generated photos and videos is prohibited under all circumstances, even after human editing. This content must not be part of your asset.
• • Permitted Assistance:The use of AI features is exclusively permitted for optimization and efficiency improvements in the creation of Vectors and PSDs (e.g., automatic vectorization, retouching of auxiliary elements).
• • Transparency and Compliance:If permitted AI use occurs, it must be transparently indicated and it must be guaranteed that no copyrights or other third-party rights are violated. A violation of these principles constitutes a serious breach of the ToEon guidelines, which will lead to the immediate suspension of the account and potentially to legal consequences.

 

Schedule Publish

The "Schedule Publish" function in the ToEon Upload System allows you to schedule photos and videos for automatic publication at any desired date and time.

 

EonLink - Your Message to the Future.

What is EonLink?
EonLink is your permanent, unchangeable message to the future. It seals your most valuable photos or videos into a timed legacy that automatically unlocks at a date you set - whether in years or decades.

Purpose:
Capture a personal, artistic, professional, or historical moment meant to be revealed later - to yourself, your descendants, or the world - when it matters most.

Before You Seal - Important:

• • Content is final: Once sealed, your EonLink cannot be edited, corrected, or deleted - Unlike „Schedule Publish“.

 

License Models and Types of Use

As an Artist, you determine which of our three license models applies to your content when uploading:

License Model	Scope of Use for the Buyer	Commercial Use
ToEon "Free Content"	Editorial Use Only (As Social Media Content - Editorial Use)	NOT permitted.
ToEon "Premium Content"	Editorial and Commercial Use (Selectable)	Permitted.
ToEon "Exclusive Content"	Editorial and Commercial Use (Selectable)	Permitted.

Definitions:

• • Editorial Use: Content is used for informative, educational, or commentary purposes (e.g., newspaper articles, blogs).
• • Commercial Use: Content is used to achieve a direct or indirect commercial advantage (e.g., advertising, marketing, product promotion).

 

Pricing Strategy

Setting the price for your content is in your hands - and is your key to success. We recommend you strategically choose prices that are market-appropriate and ensure maximum accessibility.

Position your works so that they represent an attractive and fair investment for all relevant buyers - from media, companies, agencies, to other interested parties.

Important Note on License Selection.

• - ToEon Free Content: If you choose the ToEon "Free Content" license model when uploading your content, this asset will not be available for sale.
  ToEon "Free Content" is intended exclusively for Editorial Use (e.g., as a social media post). This means that the mentioned buyers - from media, companies, agencies, to other interested parties - can use this material free of charge for non-commercial, editorial purposes.

• - ToEon Premium Content: For content that you wish to monetize, select the ToEon "Premium Content" This model allows you to set the price yourselfand gives you the flexibility to grant the buyer either Editorial Use or Commercial Use.
  

  Multi-Platform Sales are Permitted: A key advantage of "Premium Content" is its non-exclusivity. This means you can continue to sell the same content to multiple buyers and offer it on other platforms. By offering Commercial Use, you can significantly increase the price of your asset, as its market value and potential uses for the buyer are maximized.

• - ToEon Exclusive Content: The license model ToEon "Exclusive Content"offers the highest revenue potential, as it combines the promise of exclusivity with the broadest range of possible use.
  

  Unlike 'Premium Content,' which can be offered on other platforms, this asset must be sold exclusively on ToEon. While you can still sell to multiple buyers, this platform exclusivity justifies a higher pricing, as buyers know that this content is unavailable elsewhere.

  It is important to note that most artists primarily utilize Editorial Licensing for the monetization of their content.

 

Payment Policy and Commissions

Our current payment policy provides for a 90% share for Artists/Authors and a 10% platform commission.

The Hybrid Sales System: We do not use a subscription system. Instead, our sales model is based on a Hybrid System, where content is purchased directly.

This guarantees a clear allocation of your earnings: Payouts are made transparently and directly and do not come from a general pool based on the number of downloads. You can view the exact listing of your sales, earnings, and payouts at any time in your personal dashboard on ToEon.

 

Network Growth

Social Media & Business Networking: Build a loyal community on ToEon, Use our platform's social media features to interact with your followers and Fans, receive feedback, and continuously increase your reach.

Professional Business Networking: Effectively expand your professional network. ToEon actively supports you in finding professional partners and collaboration opportunities.

To ensure the trustworthiness and reliability of contacts, we offer special Profile Verifications, secured through a personal identity check. These highlight profiles and establish business networking on the platform at a professional level.

 

Challenges

We currently offer exciting Challenges in the fields of music and singing to give artists a platform.

Current Challenges:

• • #StoryTimeBands
• • #StoryTimeMusician
• • #StoryTimeOperaSinger

These Challenges are your opportunity to present yourself authentically. Tell your story and share your visions and plans with the world.

 

What's In It For You?

Your participation in one of the #StoryTime-Challenges is a targeted investment in your professional future, offering immediate and sustainable benefits:

Reach & Discovery

• • Fan Base Growth: Gain a significant number of new fans on our platform and strengthen your existing community through authentic content.
• • Discovery: Get discovered by relevant players in the music and media industry (such as Event Organizers, Labels, Artist Management, Media Outlets, etc.).

Monetization (Additional Income)

• • Sell Your Story: Offer your video and image material from the Challenge for sale and generate additional income through editorial use (newspapers, magazines, documentaries).
• • Investment in the Future: Once created, this video story can permanently and sustainably generate supplementary income for you.

 

Image Control & Legal Assets:

As an artist, control over your visual branding is a top priority. Here are the most important legal and business considerations for securing your photo and video rights:

External Content: The Power of the "Full Buy-Out"

When commissioning professional creatives (such as photographers or videographers), you should strive for complete control over the visual content to ensure your brand's exclusivity.

Aspect	Key to Full Control
Goal	Acquisition of all usage rights (Copyright Buy-Out), ensuring the contractor may not license or use the assets further.
Credit/Acknowledgement	Naming (Credit): The contractor has no claim to acknowledgement unless contractually agreed upon. An explicit waiver of credits is possible after consultation with the photographer or videographer.
Protection	A written, watertight contract is essential. It must regulate the complete and exclusive transfer of all economic and contractual rights.

 

Internal Content: Rights within the Artist Collective

When a collective member (such as a band member) creates photos or videos for the collective, unwritten rules often apply – but professionalism pays off:

• • Standard Practice: The work is usually seen as a contribution to the joint Collective project and as a "service to the collective." There is no additional compensation for the working time.
• • Ownership: The resulting visual content is generally considered joint collective property and may be used for all collective purposes.
• • Exceptions: If the member is a designated professional or if the production causes high additional costs, the collective should discuss an appropriate "friendship fee" or the assumption of costs.
• • Recommendation: Clarify internal rights and obligations contractually (e.g., in the collective partnership agreement) to avoid future conflicts over the use of the assets.

 

The "Service of Friendship"

When a friend or acquaintance creates or records visual assets (photos, videos) for you, the relationship is often informal. Nevertheless, the comprehensive transfer of usage rights should be clarified beforehand to be legally secure.

Aspect	Key Tip & Procedure	Why it is Important
Rights Clarification (BEFORE!)	Record the purpose of the photos/videos in writing (via email or chat): "The Artist/Band [Name] receives the exclusive, temporally and geographically unlimited usage right for all promotional, editorial, and commercial purposes. The friend/acquaintance [Name] waives all further rights to exploit or license these assets to third parties."	A verbal promise is insufficient in case of conflict. The friend automatically holds the copyright and primary usage rights.
Compensation	Clarify whether it is a genuine uncompensated service of friendship or if consideration is expected.	A friend can easily reclaim their rights later.