Music Day Terms & Conditions

The binding agreement governing possession of a Music Day.

Version 1.1 · Effective immediately · Applies to every assignment past, present and future.

0. The Short Version

  • You get a maximum of 1 hour of combined Dead Air in a single Music Day, excluding your lunch break.
  • No single continuous stretch of Dead Air may exceed 30 minutes.
  • Breach either limit and you immediately forfeit the remainder of your Music Day. Control then becomes an open free-for-all.
  • Only an assignment issued by the Operator counts. The Operator's word is final.
  • By accepting a Music Day you accept all of the below in full, without exception.

1. Acceptance of the Agreement

  1. Formation. You ("the Assignee") are bound by these Terms & Conditions ("the Terms") the moment any one of the following occurs, whichever is earliest: (a) you receive notice of your assignment via the official assignment email; (b) you play, queue, or cause to be played any audio on your assigned day; or (c) your assigned day begins and you have not formally declined in accordance with clause 1.3.
  2. Acceptance is affirmative and passive. Silence, inaction, absence, or ignorance of the Terms all constitute full and unconditional acceptance. Not reading the Terms is not a defence.
  3. Declining. A Music Day may only be declined in writing (reply-all to the assignment email) before 09:00 on the assigned day. A decline forfeits the day under clause 5 but avoids liability for breach. Verbal declines, sighs, and eye-rolls are not recognised.
  4. No unilateral variation. The Assignee may not amend, annotate, strike through, or "interpret" the Terms. Only the Operator may amend them, per clause 13.

2. Definitions

  1. "Music Day" means the single working day for which the Assignee has been selected to control communal audio.
  2. "The Operator" means Adam Sheppard, the sole administrator and controller of The Weekly Assignment Tool. The Operator's authority under these Terms is personal and non-transferable, and may be exercised only by the Operator or a person the Operator expressly nominates in writing.
  3. "Dead Air" means any period of five (5) seconds or longer during which no audio, or no audible audio, is being played through the communal sound system during the Coverage Period, regardless of cause. This includes, without limitation: silence between tracks, an empty or exhausted queue, a paused player, a buffering or loading stream, a muted or disconnected device, audio played at a volume not reasonably audible from the far side of the room, and any technical, network, or equipment failure.
  4. "Combined Dead Air" means the aggregate sum of all periods of Dead Air across the Coverage Period, added together, excluding only the Lunch Exclusion under clause 4.
  5. "Single Stretch" means one continuous, uninterrupted period of Dead Air, measured from the moment audio ceases to the moment reasonably audible audio resumes.
  6. "Coverage Period" means 09:00 to 17:00 on the Music Day, less the Lunch Exclusion.
  7. "Lunch Exclusion" means the fixed sixty (60) minute period from 13:00 to 14:00. Dead Air occurring wholly within the Lunch Exclusion does not count toward any limit. Only one Lunch Exclusion is permitted per day; it cannot be moved, split, banked, or carried over.
  8. "Forfeiture" has the meaning given in clause 5.
  9. "The Algorithm" means the selection logic of The Weekly Assignment Tool, whose determinations are final.

3. The Dead Air Limits

  1. Combined limit. Total Combined Dead Air across the Coverage Period must not exceed sixty (60) minutes.
  2. Single-stretch limit. No Single Stretch of Dead Air may exceed thirty (30) minutes. This limit applies independently of the combined limit; a single 31-minute stretch is a breach even if it is the only Dead Air of the day.
  3. Both limits apply at once. Compliance with one limit does not excuse breach of the other. The stricter outcome always applies.
  4. Measurement. Dead Air is measured in whole seconds and rounded up to the nearest second. Time begins at the fifth second of silence (per clause 2.3) but, once triggered, the full elapsed period — including the first five seconds — counts toward both limits.
  5. Continuity. A Single Stretch is only broken by at least thirty (30) continuous seconds of reasonably audible audio. Brief bursts of sound do not reset the clock.

4. Lunch Exclusion

  1. The Lunch Exclusion is the Assignee's sole permitted "free" silence and is fixed at 13:00 to 14:00 per clause 2.7. It cannot be moved to a more convenient time.
  2. Dead Air that begins before 13:00 and continues into the Lunch Exclusion, or begins during it and continues after 14:00, counts toward the limits for the portion falling outside 13:00–14:00.
  3. Silence outside 13:00–14:00 is never excused as "lunch", regardless of when the Assignee actually takes their break.

5. Forfeiture

  1. Trigger. Forfeiture occurs automatically and immediately upon breach of either limit in clause 3. No warning, notice, or grace period is required.
  2. Consequence. Upon Forfeiture the Assignee's control of the communal audio ends for the remainder of that day, and control becomes an open free-for-all: any person present may play whatever they wish, and the Assignee has no further say, veto, or priority.
  3. Irrevocability. Forfeiture cannot be reversed, appealed, negotiated, or bought back on the day it occurs. Fixing the audio after breach does not restore control.
  4. No compensation. The Assignee is not entitled to a replacement day, a make-up day, or any form of remedy.
  5. Record. A Forfeiture may be recorded and referenced in future assignments and statistics, and may be mentioned freely by colleagues.

6. Adjudication, Evidence & Burden of Proof

  1. Adjudicator. Any breach is determined by the Operator or a person nominated by the Operator ("the Adjudicator"), whose decision is final, absolute, and binding on all parties.
  2. Absolute authority. The Operator's word is final on every matter arising under these Terms — including interpretation, application, measurement, whether a breach occurred, and every consequence that follows. No decision of the Operator or Adjudicator may be reviewed, challenged, appealed, overturned, or re-opened on any ground whatsoever, including error, unfairness, new evidence, or change of heart.
  3. Sole interpreter. The Operator is the sole and exclusive interpreter of these Terms. Where any provision is unclear, ambiguous, silent, or contradictory, the Operator's interpretation governs absolutely and applies retrospectively.
  4. Evidence. Evidence of Dead Air may take any reasonable form, including witness accounts, timestamps, screen recordings, streaming-service history, or the collective recollection of the room. Formal proof to a legal standard is not required, and the Adjudicator alone determines what evidence is credible and how much weight it carries.
  5. Burden. Once a credible allegation of Dead Air is raised, the burden falls on the Assignee to demonstrate compliance. Absence of evidence is not evidence of compliance.
  6. Doubt. Where the duration of Dead Air is disputed or unmeasured, the Adjudicator may estimate it, and that estimate is conclusive and final. Any genuine doubt is resolved in favour of a finding of breach.

7. Conduct & Content Standards

  1. Audio must be played through the designated communal system, at a volume reasonably audible across the shared space but not disruptive to work.
  2. The Assignee remains responsible for the queue at all times, including during meetings, calls, and brief absences; delegating playback does not transfer liability for Dead Air.
  3. Content should be broadly workplace-appropriate. Deliberately hostile, offensive, or repetitive-to-the-point-of-provocation selections may, at the Adjudicator's discretion, be treated as a separate breach.
  4. Deliberately engineering Dead Air, gaming the five-second threshold, or manipulating volume to feign compliance is a breach and may be treated as bad faith under clause 9.

8. Technical Failure & Force Majeure

  1. No general excuse. Equipment failure, network outages, dead batteries, expired subscriptions, forgotten passwords, and device incompatibility do not excuse Dead Air and count toward the limits in the normal way. The Assignee is expected to have a fallback.
  2. Genuine building-wide events. A total, building-wide power or network failure affecting everyone equally pauses the clock for its duration only, at the Adjudicator's discretion. The Assignee must resume audio promptly once service is restored.

9. Disputes, Appeals & Bad Faith

  1. No appeal. There is no right of appeal against a Forfeiture, a finding of breach, or any other decision of the Operator or Adjudicator. Every such decision is final and not subject to review on any ground.
  2. Waiver of challenge. By accepting a Music Day the Assignee irrevocably waives any right to contest, dispute, or seek reversal of any decision made under these Terms, and agrees the Operator's word is the end of the matter.
  3. No precedent, no estoppel. A past leniency, oversight, or unenforced breach creates no right, expectation, or precedent, and never limits the Operator's authority in future.
  4. Complaints. Complaining about an assignment, the Algorithm, or these Terms may, per longstanding custom, result in revoked music privileges.
  5. Bad faith. Attempts to circumvent, litigate, lawyer, or "well, actually" these Terms will be construed against the Assignee.

10. Authority of the Operator & the Algorithm

  1. The Algorithm is fair and just. Assignments are made by weighted random selection and are not personal.
  2. The output of the Algorithm, including who is assigned and when, is final and not subject to challenge.
  3. All power to operate the Tool, run the Algorithm, adjudicate breaches, and amend these Terms is vested solely in the Operator. In any conflict between a claimed schedule and the Operator's official assignment, the Operator's official assignment prevails absolutely.

11. Integrity, Official Assignments & Anti-Tampering

  1. Official assignments only. An assignment is valid and binding only if it is generated by the Operator using The Weekly Assignment Tool and distributed by the Operator via the official assignment email. No other schedule, screenshot, forwarded message, verbal claim, or "unofficial" generation has any effect.
  2. Sole control of the Tool. Only the Operator may access, open, host, run, or operate The Weekly Assignment Tool or any of its functions. Access is restricted to the Operator; no other person is authorised to use it for any purpose.
  3. Anti-tampering. Any attempt by any person other than the Operator to access, copy, re-host, modify, inspect, or operate the Tool, its code, or its stored data — or to influence, bias, pre-set, or otherwise interfere with an assignment — is strictly prohibited and constitutes gross bad faith under clause 9.
  4. Void results. Any assignment, alteration, or other outcome produced through unauthorised access or tampering is void from the outset and of no effect. The Operator's most recent official assignment stands until the Operator issues a new one.
  5. Impersonation. Impersonating the Operator, or issuing or purporting to issue an assignment without the Operator's authority, is a gross breach and may result in Forfeiture of all current and future Music Days at the Operator's sole discretion.
  6. No reliance. No person may rely on, act on, or enforce any assignment that was not issued by the Operator through the official channel. If in doubt, the Operator confirms what is official.

12. Liability

  1. Nothing in these Terms creates any legal liability, employment obligation, or enforceable right in any court. These Terms are an internal, social, and morale-based instrument.
  2. To the fullest extent permitted by good humour, the Operator accepts no liability for hurt feelings, musical taste, or the consequences of Forfeiture.

13. Amendment

  1. The Operator may amend these Terms at any time. The version published by the Operator at this page governs. Continued participation after any change constitutes acceptance of the amended Terms.

14. Severability

  1. If any clause of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, unreasonable, or simply too much, that clause shall be severed and the remaining clauses shall continue in full force and effect. The dead-air limits in clause 3, the Forfeiture in clause 5, the Operator's authority in clauses 6 and 10, and the integrity provisions in clause 11 are the essential core of this agreement and survive the severance of anything else.

15. Acknowledgement

By accepting your assigned Music Day, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms & Conditions in full, including the 1-hour combined Dead Air limit (excluding lunch), the 30-minute single-stretch limit, automatic Forfeiture to an open free-for-all on breach, and the sole and final authority of the Operator.

Play wisely. The room is listening.