Collaboration Charter

1. Purpose

This Charter defines how human musicians, vocalists, and choirs may join Blutmärchen as named collaborators on the project's releases. It exists because the mission of Blutmärchen — keeping the old tales alive and carrying their message forward to the children and youth of today — is a mission too large for one voice. Folklore was never one teller. This project will not pretend otherwise.

The Charter sets out who is welcome, on what terms, what stays locked under the project's editorial direction, what is open for collaborative contribution, how rights flow, how credit is given, and how to actually join. It is binding on the project; it is offered openly to anyone considering joining.

2. Who is invited

Blutmärchen invites contributions from:

Vocalists

Harsh male vocalists for the curse / forest / fate / devouring register. Ethereal female vocalists for the innocence / memory / sorrow register. Both registers are central to the project's dual-voice drama and both are open to named collaborators on specific tracks.

Instrumentalists

Guitarists, bassists, drummers, keyboardists, classical instrumentalists (strings, brass, woodwinds, harp), folk instrumentalists (hurdy-gurdy, nyckelharpa, glockenspiel, period instruments), and electronic musicians whose textures fit the project's symphonic / gothic / cinematic register.

Choirs and ensembles

Choral groups or vocal ensembles able to record real choir passages — the "voice of the tale itself" in the project's sonic pillars.

The invitation is open to musicians at any level of professional recognition. The criterion is not visibility; it is fit.

3. What stays locked

The following are not subject to collaborative input and are not negotiable on a per-track basis:

• Mission — preservation, the children-and-youth-of-today framing, the editorial principle.
• Tale selection — which fairy tales the project adapts and in what cycle order.
• Adaptation choices — the adult-shape reading of each tale (Dornröschen's dead suitors, Aschenputtel's self-mutilation, Rotkäppchen's deliverance-from-within reading, etc.).
• Vol. I lyrics — the seven Vol. I tracks plus Walpurgisnacht are lyrically sealed.
• German quote anchors — selection, placement, source-edition.
• Leitmotif system — Wolf, Spindle, Mirror, Salbe, Dawn, Light, Bread, Cage, Hair, Tree, Name, and the Bird-split between Ravens and Doves.
• Vocal casting rules — harsh-male / ethereal-female register assignments per the dual-voice drama principle.
• Visual identity — palette, motif system, three-image package, painterly-cinematic register.
• Sealed canon — the ND license: no unauthorized derivatives.

Collaborators come into this established creative direction, not around it. The frame is not a cage; it is the shape of the work that makes the work worth carrying.

4. What is open

Within the locked frame, the following are open for collaboration:

Vocal performances

Specific lead and harmony vocal performances on individual tracks, in the register the track's editorial direction defines. The project may invite a vocalist for a particular role (e.g. the witch initiate in Walpurgisnacht, the Queen in Schneewittchen) or accept submissions for open roles.

Instrumental performances

Real guitar, bass, drum, keyboard, string, brass, woodwind, choral, or folk-instrument performances replacing or layering with AI-rendered parts. Solos, leads, atmospheric passages, and full instrumental arrangements are all possible.

Production roles

Mixing, mastering, vocal coaching, German pronunciation coaching, choir conducting on collaborative recording sessions, audio engineering on hybrid tracks.

5. Rights, credit, and compensation

5.1 — Rights structure

Collaborators retain ownership of their own isolated performances.

This means:

• A vocalist owns their isolated vocal stem.
• An instrumentalist owns their isolated instrument stem.
• A choir owns its isolated choir stem.

These individual works may be freely used by the collaborator in their own showreels, portfolios, demos, and applications. They may be commercially used by the collaborator for their own career purposes outside the context of the Blutmärchen track.

What the collaborator licenses to Blutmärchen is the combined work — the finished track or finished release containing their contribution alongside the project's other elements. The combined work is released under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Blutmärchen.

5.2 — Credit

Every named collaborator is credited:

• In the track's metadata (ID3 tags, streaming-platform credits).
• In the release description on every distribution surface.
• On the cover-with-text variant of the artwork.
• In the per-track AI Disclosure footer.
• On the project's website, on the track's page.

Credit format:

Featuring [Name] — [role] on [Track Title]

  e.g.  Featuring Marlene Habicht — lead female vocals on
        "Walpurgisnacht (Auf den Brocken)"

No collaborator is ever credited as merely "vocalist" or "guest"; every contribution carries a name.

5.3 — Compensation

For the current free-distribution phase of the project:

• No collaborator is paid in money for their contribution.
• No collaborator is expected to pay anything to participate.
• No "exposure" framing is used — exposure is not payment.

What is offered instead, and what the project considers fair under its current frame, is:

• Full named credit on every surface the track touches.
• Full ownership retention over the collaborator's isolated performance (per 5.1).
• Free use of the finished track on the collaborator's own showreel and portfolio under the same CC BY-NC-ND terms.
• A high-resolution copy of the finished cover artwork and release files for the collaborator's archive.
• A named position in the credits of any future commercial release that ever incorporates the contribution.

5.4 — If the project ever goes commercial

The Distribution Policy reserves the right to review the free-distribution stance before Vol. II, or upon approach by a label or distribution partner. If at any future point a track containing a collaborator's performance is licensed commercially — sync to film or games, paid distribution, physical sale — the collaborator is entitled to a fair share of the revenue from that commercial use, proportional to their contribution to the track, negotiated in good faith at the time of the commercial offer.

This is a forward-looking commitment, in writing, made by the project to every named collaborator. It cannot be waived in the collaboration agreement.

5.5 — Withdrawal

A collaborator may withdraw their contribution from any future release of a track at any time before the track's first release.

After first release, withdrawal of a specific performance from a released track is not possible — the released track exists in the world, has been downloaded and shared per the free-distribution policy, and cannot be retroactively un-released. The collaborator may, however, request that future releases of the same track use a different performance or be re-recorded; the project will weigh that request against the integrity of the canon and respond in writing.

A collaborator may, at any time, request that their name be removed from active project materials (website, social media, press materials). Historical release credits cannot be removed without rewriting history, which the project will not do, but forward-looking surfaces will be updated to honor the request promptly.

6. Editorial direction and acceptance

Blutmärchen operates under a single editorial direction. The project holds final authority over:

• Which contributions are accepted into a track.
• How the contribution is placed within the track's structure.
• How the contribution is mixed, processed, and balanced with other elements.
• Whether and when the track is released.

This is not a limit on collaborators; it is the condition that makes the project a coherent body of work rather than a collection of parallel attempts. Every collaborator agrees, by joining, that the project holds editorial final cut.

If a submitted performance is not accepted into a track, the collaborator is told so directly and given the reason. Their isolated recording remains entirely theirs; nothing of it is used. There is no obligation in either direction; there is no harm in trying.

7. How to join

There are two paths into the project:

7.1 — Invited contributions

The project reaches out directly to musicians, choirs, or visual artists whose work fits a specific role on a specific track. If you receive an invitation:

• It will name the track, the role, and the editorial direction for the part.
• It will reference this Charter and the standard collaboration agreement.
• It will be signed by the project's editorial author.

7.2 — Open submissions

For specific roles on specific tracks, the project posts open calls. These are announced:

• On the project website (theCall for Collaborators page).
• On the project's social channels.
• In the public Call for Collaborators document, which lists the currently open roles.

To submit, send:

• A short note about who you are and why the project resonates with you.
• A representative sample of your work — a recording, a link, a portfolio, a YouTube channel, a Bandcamp page, whatever shows what you do.
• The role and track you are submitting for.
• Your contact, your preferred credit name, and your country.

Submissions are reviewed by the project's editorial author. Response time is honest: weeks, sometimes months, depending on the production phase. Every submission is read. Every submitter receives a reply.

8. The Collaboration Agreement

When a contribution is accepted, the collaborator signs a short, plain-language Collaboration Agreement that captures:

• The track and role.
• The credit format and credit name.
• Confirmation of rights structure per §5.1.
• Confirmation of compensation terms per §5.3 and 5.4.
• Confirmation of withdrawal rights per §5.5.
• Confirmation of editorial-final-cut terms per §6.
• The collaborator's confirmation that the submitted performance is their original work and clears no third-party rights.

The agreement is a single page. It is in plain language, not legalese. A blank template is available on request.

9. What Blutmärchen owes collaborators

In return for trusting the project with their work, every named collaborator is owed:

• Honesty about how their contribution will be used.
• Visible, durable, never-omitted credit on every surface.
• Full ownership of their own performance, in writing.
• A fair share of any future commercial revenue derived from the work containing their contribution.
• A high-quality copy of the finished release for their archive.
• Honest, timely response when they have questions, concerns, or requests.
• The right to walk away from future participation, at any time, without explanation.

If at any point the project fails any of the above, the collaborator is encouraged to raise it directly, and the project commits to addressing it.

10. Cross-references

• Mission Statement v04 (§1) — the community-of-carriers framing that makes this Charter necessary.
• Distribution Policy v04 (§10) — the license under which finished collaborative tracks are released; the rights structure for collaborator stems; the commercial-review clause.
• AI Disclosure v02 (§11) — the per-track disclosure that names every collaborator on every hybrid track.
• Call for Collaborators — the loud, externally-facing version of this Charter, addressed directly to musicians considering joining.