Privacy Policy
The legally binding version of this privacy policy is theGerman Datenschutzerklärung. This is a summary in English.
Controller
katsu.media – Archiv und Medien, owner Daniel Vishnya, Bahnhofstrasse 17, 12555 Berlin, Germany, email: dan@katsumedia.com
Basics
This is a static website. It sets no cookies of its own and uses no analytics and no tracking services. Nothing is written to your browser storage or to cookies while you are simply reading.
That is why there is no consent banner here. Such a banner is required under § 25 TDDDG when a site writes to or reads from your device without being asked — this one does neither. Data reaches a third party only when you trigger it yourself: by starting a player (see “Embedded videos and players”) or by submitting a form.
Enquiry forms and price calculator
The project enquiry and the workshop enquiry do not send your entries to us. They assemble a finished email from what you type and open your own email program. Whether and when you send that message is your decision. Until then your entries never leave your browser.
The studio price calculator works differently: when you click “send enquiry” there, your entries are transmitted to our server, stored there as a file and additionally sent to our mailbox as an email. We process your name, your email address, a phone number if you choose to give one, the services you selected and your message. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (steps prior to entering into a contract). The data is deleted as soon as it is no longer needed for handling your enquiry and no statutory retention periods apply.
You may attach an audio file (a demo) to the studio enquiry. If you do, that file is transmitted along with the enquiry and stored on our server outside the publicly readable area, so it cannot be retrieved by anyone from the web. It is not attached to the notification email. We delete it together with the enquiry once it has been dealt with. Sending a demo is entirely optional; the enquiry works without one.
To keep automated requests out, the forms contain one input field that stays invisible to you and measure the time taken before sending. Both happen entirely inside your browser. No third-party service is involved — in particular no external image puzzle („captcha") — and nothing is stored or transmitted in the process.
Checking your own material
On the studio page you can drop an audio file into a field to have it checked against our delivery requirements. This check runsentirely inside your browser. The file is not uploaded, not transmitted and not stored — neither by us nor by anyone else. The report you can save is generated on your own device.
Newsletter and invitation to the opening party
You can sign up on this site for our newsletter and for the invitation to the opening party on 31 August 2026. These are two separate purposes with a checkbox each; you decide on them individually. We process your email address, a name if you choose to give one, the language you selected, the time of sign-up, the page you signed up from, and the wording of the consent shown to you at that moment.
Sign-up uses the double opt-in procedure: after submitting you receive an email with a confirmation link. Only once you click it do we add you to the list. If you do not confirm, we delete your details automatically after seven days at the latest.
The legal basis is your consent under Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR together with § 7(2) no. 3 of the German Act Against Unfair Competition (UWG). You can withdraw it at any time with effect for the future — via the unsubscribe link at the foot of every email, with one click and without logging in, or informally by writing to us. After withdrawal your address remains stored solely as a block entry, so that a later import of data does not write to you again (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
To protect against abusive sign-ups we additionally store a non-reversible check value (hash) of your IP address. The IP address itself is not stored.
We do not measure whether or when you opened an email or clicked a link inside it. Our emails contain no tracking pixels and no remotely loaded content. No external newsletter provider is involved: the list is held on our own server, and sending runs through the domain's mail provider (IONOS SE, Karlsruhe, Germany), with whom a data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR is in place. The list is kept jointly for katsu.media and cherryontop, recording which of the two your sign-up related to.
Server log files
When you visit this site, the hosting provider automatically processes technically necessary data (such as IP address, time of access, requested page, user agent) in server log files, based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, to operate the website securely. The site runs with a hosting provider whose servers are located in Germany, under a data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR.
Embedded videos and players
Videos and music players load only after you actively press play. Until that click there is no connection to the providers and no data is sent to them; previews are served locally. The legal basis after your click is consent, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR together with § 25(1) TDDDG. Pressing the same button again removes the player and ends the connection.
Embedded this way are:
- YouTube (Google Ireland Limited, Ireland) in privacy-enhanced mode via youtube-nocookie.com
- SoundCloud (SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG, Berlin) for excerpts of earlier releases
- Bandcamp (Bandcamp, Inc., USA) for individual tracks. This transfers data to the USA, a country outside the EU.
When a player loads, the provider receives your IP address and may set cookies. Details are in each provider’s own privacy policy.
Contact by email
When you write to us, we process what you tell us in order to handle your enquiry (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR): your name, your email address, a phone number if you choose to give one, your notes on the project and any links to musical references you choose to share.
To work on it, we transfer enquiries into an internal system. That system is not reachable over the internet; access is limited to our own devices through an encrypted private network. Nothing is passed to third parties. Where freelancers work on a project, they receive only what their part of the work requires.
We delete the data once it is no longer needed and no statutory retention period applies. Enquiries that do not lead to a project are deleted after twelve months at the latest.
Your rights
You have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection (Art. 15–21 GDPR), and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR). The competent authority is the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Alt-Moabit 59–61, 10555 Berlin, Germany.