Join the closed beta

Privacy

Last updated 17 October 2026.

This page lists what rpm sends from your devices, what we keep, why, for how long, and who else receives it. It covers the rpm app for macOS and Windows, the rpm app for iPhone, the rpm account and cloud service, and this website.

Who is responsible

rpm is published by ChivanFOBO, a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak) registered in the Netherlands. ChivanFOBO is the controller of the personal data described on this page.

ChivanFOBO
's-Gravelandseweg 691
3119 XT Schiedam
The Netherlands
Chamber of Commerce (KvK): 96601094
VAT: NL199702731B02
support@rpmrpmrpm.com

In short

  • rpm has no advertising. The apps have no analytics and no tracking. This website counts visits with Google Analytics only if you accept it. We do not sell your data or share it for marketing.
  • The desktop app works without an account. Without one it still asks our server and some public services about the music in your library, without anything that identifies you.
  • When you sign in, your play counts, favourites and radio listening sync to your account, your computer registers by name, and, unless you switch it off, the app fingerprints your collection for a catalogue shared by all users.
  • Your audio is uploaded only if you turn on cloud storage.
  • Crash reports are sent only if you agree.

Without an account

The desktop app keeps your library, settings and files on your computer. These requests still leave it:

  • Album information from our server. For album pages, popularity, artist information and pictures, the app sends artist names, album titles, the number of tracks and catalogue IDs such as MusicBrainz IDs. A background pass does this for every album in your library, one album every few seconds.
  • Pictures from the image hosts our server points to: TheAudioDB, fanart.tv, the Cover Art Archive, Discogs and Wikimedia.
  • Wikipedia and Wikidata, for articles about artists, albums and radio stations, in the language of the app and in English.
  • LRCLIB (lrclib.net), for the lyrics of the playing track when you show the lyrics or the visualizer: its title, artist, album and length.
  • Internet radio. Radio Browser (radio-browser.info) receives your station searches and a count each time you tune in to a station. Stations stream to you directly, and the home screen briefly connects to your most played stations to show what they are playing. The app reads the websites of the stations you listen to for their logos and descriptions, and sends our server the addresses of logos it finds there.
  • Updates. An installed copy checks updates.rpmrpmrpm.com shortly after it starts, and downloads a new version when there is one. The check sends the app version, the operating system and the processor type.
  • Connection checks to api.rpmrpmrpm.com and wikipedia.org, to tell whether you are online.
  • Crash reports, if you agree. See below.

Each of these services sees your IP address and what was asked, as any website does. The app computes acoustic fingerprints of your tracks on your computer, but sends none without an account.

When you sign in

The iPhone app always needs an account. The lookups above then carry your account as well.

Your account

Your email address, display name, the date you joined, when you last signed in, and whether you are a supporter. Your password is held by Amazon Cognito and never reaches us. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive the email address and name they release. Verification codes are sent by email through Amazon Simple Email Service.

Your computers

Each computer you sign in on registers with your account: a random device ID, a public key, and a name. The name is the one you typed under "This computer is called", or else the computer's name in its operating system. The registration is removed when you sign out on that computer. The iPhone app does not register the phone or send its name.

Listening, favourites and lists

So that your devices agree, these sync to your account whenever you are signed in, with or without cloud storage:

  • for each track you play, how many times and when you last played it, with a random ID for the device;
  • the radio stations you listen to, how long and when;
  • your favourite albums, and favourite tracks in your cloud library;
  • the lists rpm makes for you and their pictures, including one built from what you played recently;
  • playlists you keep in the cloud, with their pictures.

The shared catalogue

With "Fingerprint the collection in the background" on, which it is by default, the desktop app sends the acoustic fingerprint of each track with its title, artist, album, year and length. These go into a catalogue shared by all rpm users, which is used to identify music. The catalogue does not record who sent an entry. You can switch this off in Settings.

Shared analysis

The desktop app measures each track's loudness and, for features such as DJ mode, its beat grid, key, energy and structure. The results are shared with all users, so a recording is measured once. They are sent with keys that identify the recording: a random ID that rpm writes into the file's tags, and hashes of the file and its audio. Your account ID is stored with each result you contribute, so that results from different accounts can be compared. A computer that cannot run the beat model sends a short spectrogram of the audio, not the audio, for our server to analyse. This happens whenever you are signed in.

Albums, reviews and play counts

  • Opening an album page sends the album's artist, title, year, catalogue number, barcode and MusicBrainz and Discogs IDs, so that each album has one shared page with its reviews.
  • With "Share what I play" on, which it is by default, the desktop app adds your plays to a counter for each song of the albums whose page you opened. The counter holds a number only: no account and no time.
  • Reviews, ratings, comments and posts on an artist's page are shown to other rpm users with your display name and picture. Your profile shows your display name, your picture, and whether you are a supporter.
  • Votes on reviews are kept with your account ID, so that each account votes once. Reports you make about a post are kept with your account ID, so that they can be dealt with.

Recognition

  • When you ask rpm to recognize tracks, it sends their acoustic fingerprint and length to our server, which checks its own catalogue and then AcoustID.
  • For tracks that are still not recognized, advanced recognition sends a 15-second MP3 clip at 128 kbps, cut from about a third of the way into the track. The app sends it when your account is a supporter or when it could not check; our server passes it to AudD for supporters only.
  • AcoustID and AudD receive nothing that identifies you.

Your local network

With "Share my collection on this network" on, which it is by default while you are signed in, your computer announces itself on the local network. Any device on that network can read the announcement and a short description your computer serves: the computer's name, your display name if you did not type a name for the computer, a device ID, a public key, a code derived from your account ID, and the number of tracks. Your library itself is served only to your own computers signed in to the same account, and to computers you approve with a code. Approved computers receive the track list with titles, artists, albums and file paths, your playlists, and the audio and covers. Your own computers also receive your favourites, ratings and reviews.

While you cast to a Chromecast, the app serves the playing audio and its cover on your local network, without a password. The speaker receives the title, artist, album, cover and length, and loads rpm's receiver page from rpmrpmrpm.com and Google's Cast software from Google.

Discogs and fanart.tv

  • If you connect Discogs, we keep your Discogs access token and user name and use them for the Discogs searches rpm makes for you, until you disconnect it.
  • If you enter your own fanart.tv key, we keep it with your account and send it to fanart.tv with requests for pictures.

Error reports

When a cloud task fails, you can choose to send a report. It holds the error message, the task, the track and album involved, the app version, your operating system, and your account.

Crash reports

When the desktop app closes unexpectedly, it asks once whether to send crash reports, and you can change the answer in Settings, under Profile. A report holds the error; the crash report your operating system wrote, with your user name and your computer's identifiers removed; the app version; your operating system, processor type and computer model; a random ID for this installation; your account if you are signed in; and the last 300 lines rpm logged before it closed. Those lines can include track titles, artist names, file paths and the buttons you clicked. They do not include the letters or numbers you typed. The iPhone app sends no crash reports.

When you turn on cloud storage

With "Sync selected music" or "Sync all music" on, the desktop app uploads:

  • your audio files, and copies at lower bitrates for streaming;
  • their tags, including comments, lyrics and embedded cover art, and their path inside your music folder;
  • album covers.

Cover art you change in the tag editor for several tracks is uploaded whenever you are signed in, even with cloud storage off.

Identical audio is stored once, however many accounts upload it; each account keeps its own copy of the tags. Audio is encrypted at rest and played through links that expire. It is streamed only to you and to the accounts you share with. We do not listen to your music, sell it, or use it for anything else.

When you share with another person's computer while signed in, we keep a record of the share between your account and theirs, with the name of their computer. Their account can then play the music in your cloud library, also away from your network, until you stop sharing.

The iPhone app

  • It plays and downloads music from your cloud library. Downloads stay on the phone and are removed when you sign out.
  • It syncs play counts, radio listening, favourites and playlists as described above, with a random ID for the phone.
  • Opening an album page loads its reviews and creates its shared page.
  • It fetches lyrics from LRCLIB, articles from Wikipedia and Wikidata in the phone's language, and artist pictures from fanart.tv and TheAudioDB directly.
  • Internet radio works as on the desktop.
  • It looks for Chromecast speakers on your network when you open the list of speakers.
  • It does not use your location, contacts, photos, camera or microphone. It has no analytics and no crash reporting.

This website

This website asks whether it may count your visit with Google Analytics. Until you press Accept, nothing is sent to Google and no cookie is set. Your answer is kept in your browser's local storage, so the question is not asked again on every page.

If you accept, the website's pages load Google Analytics. It sets two cookies, _ga and _ga_7JKLGTZHB1, which expire 13 months after your last visit. Google receives the address of each page you open, the page that sent you there, what you do on it (such as scrolling, playing a video or following a link to another website), your browser, operating system, screen size and language. It uses your IP address to work out your country and city, and does not store it. Google signals and ad personalisation are off. We see counts of visits and pages, not who you are.

The pages for privacy, terms, support, credits, password reset, signing in and deleting your account never load Google Analytics. You can change your answer at any time under Cookie settings at the bottom of every page. Declining after you accepted removes the cookies.

When you apply for the beta

The form on the beta page sends us your name, your email address, what you wrote and the boxes you ticked. We store them on Amazon Web Services in Ireland and send a copy to our support mailbox. We use them only to choose the testers and to email you about the beta.

To stop automated applications, we count how many applications come from each IP address in an hour. The count is stored under a code made from the address, not the address itself, and expires after two hours.

Server logs

Our server logs requests so that faults can be found: your account ID, the names of artists, albums and tracks being looked up, and error messages. It does not log IP addresses or email addresses. Logs are deleted after 90 days.

What stays on your device

  • The library database, in your music folder, with your play history, ratings and tags.
  • Your settings, your sign-in and the key your computer uses on the local network, in the app's data folder. On the iPhone, the sign-in is kept in the Keychain.
  • A diagnostic log of the three most recent runs. Part of it leaves your computer only inside a crash report you agreed to send.

Why we process it

  • To provide what you asked for (a contract, GDPR article 6(1)(b)): your account, your computers, the cloud library, syncing your listening, favourites and lists, sharing, recognition, Discogs and fanart.tv, reviews and posts, and your beta application.
  • Our legitimate interests (article 6(1)(f)): the shared catalogue, shared analysis, album information and the per-song counters, which make rpm work better for all users; and server logs, to keep the service running and secure. You can object by writing to us, and switch off fingerprinting and "Share what I play" in Settings.
  • Your consent (article 6(1)(a)): error reports and crash reports, and Google Analytics on this website. You can withdraw it at any time: for the reports in Settings, for the website under Cookie settings.

Who else receives data

Services that run rpm for us

  • Amazon Web Services hosts the accounts, the server and the storage, in Ireland (eu-west-1), and processes data on our behalf under its data processing terms. Requests reach it through Amazon CloudFront, whose servers around the world pass them on; profile pictures are cached there.
  • Apple and Google, if you sign in with them. They hold your account with them under their own privacy policies.
  • Google Ireland runs Google Analytics for this website if you accept it, and processes that data on our behalf under its data processing terms.

Services our server asks about music

AcoustID, AudD, MusicBrainz, the Cover Art Archive, ListenBrainz, TheAudioDB, fanart.tv, Discogs, Spotify, Deezer, iTunes, Google Custom Search, Wikidata and Sonovault. Our server sends them fingerprints, the clips for AudD, and the names and catalogue IDs of artists, albums and tracks. It sends nothing that identifies you, except your own Discogs token and fanart.tv key if you added them.

Services your device contacts directly

Wikipedia and Wikidata, LRCLIB, Radio Browser, radio stations and their websites, the image hosts listed above, and Google when you cast to a Chromecast. They receive your IP address and what was asked, and their own privacy policies apply.

Transfers outside the EU

Your data is stored in the EU. Amazon Web Services is a US company; its data processing terms include the EU standard contractual clauses, and it is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. CloudFront servers outside the EU handle requests on their way to Ireland. Apple, Google, the Wikimedia Foundation and the Internet Archive, which hosts the Cover Art Archive, are based in the US; you deal with them directly when you sign in with them or when your device contacts them. Google Analytics data can be processed in the US by Google LLC, which is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

How long we keep it

  • Your account, profile, cloud library, playlists, play counts, radio listening, favourites and shares: until you delete them or your account.
  • A computer's registration: until you sign out on it or delete your account.
  • Reviews, comments and posts: until you delete them. If you delete your account, they stay, shown as "Deleted user", without your name or picture.
  • Votes on reviews: until you delete your account. The counts on the reviews stay.
  • Reports you made about a post: kept, with your account ID.
  • Shared catalogue entries and the per-song counters: kept. They hold nothing about you.
  • Shared analysis results: kept, with the account ID of each contributor.
  • Error reports and crash reports: one year.
  • Beta applications: until the closed beta ends.
  • Server logs: 90 days.
  • Google Analytics measurements: at most 14 months.
  • A Discogs connection: until you disconnect it or delete your account.

After your account is deleted, the account ID left in reports, shared analysis results, error and crash reports, and logs no longer leads to your email address, name or sign-in.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app: on a computer under Settings, then Profile; on an iPhone on the Profile tab. The account is deleted at once, and your cloud library and the data listed above within two hours. The files on your own computers are not touched. See deleting your account for exactly what goes and what stays.

Your rights

You have the right to see the personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to receive it in a format you can take elsewhere. Write to support@rpmrpmrpm.com. We answer within one month.

You can also complain to the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, or to the authority in the EU country where you live.

Children

rpm is not meant for children under 16, and we do not knowingly hold their data. If you believe a child has an account, write to us and we will delete it.

Changes

When this page changes, the date at the top changes with it. We tell account holders about important changes by email before they take effect.