These terms govern your use of FirstChair when you inquire with a musician, sign an agreement with them, or pay them through a link they send you. The agreement for the performance itself is a separate document between you and the musician; these terms explain how the two fit together.
“FirstChair” means MILAN SYSTEMS, LLC, a Texas limited liability company doing business as FirstChair. “The musician”, or “the Artist”, means the independent musician with whom you inquire or whom you book.
1. What FirstChair is, and is not
FirstChair is software that independent musicians use to run their business: their page, their inquiries, their agreements and their payment links. Every musician who uses it conducts their own business.
On booking, your contract is with the musician. The musician performs, is paid, and is responsible for the performance. FirstChair is not a party to that contract, does not perform, does not hold your money, and charges you nothing.
2. Inquiring
An inquiry costs nothing and commits you to nothing. It goes to the musician whose page or form you used, and that musician replies to you directly. A musician’s response time is their own, and an inquiry is not a booking.
3. The performance agreement
When you and the musician have agreed a fee, the musician sends you a link to a written agreement hosted by FirstChair. That page states the musician’s fee and the payment schedule before you sign, and you accept these terms on that page; signature is not possible without doing so.
The agreement is the contract and should be read as such. Unless the musician has changed them, it uses the standard Performance Contract Terms, completed with the fee, the date, the times and the travel arrangement for your booking. You sign it by typing your full name and entering a code sent to your email address, and the musician countersigns. The date is held once the deposit is paid.
By signing on the site you agree that an electronic signature and an electronic copy of the agreement have the same effect as paper ones, and that everything concerning the booking may be sent to you by email. A paper copy may be requested from the musician at any time.
4. Payment
Every payment under the agreement (the deposit, the balance and any overtime) is made by card or bank transfer through Stripe, from the link in your agreement, directly into the musician’s own Stripe account. FirstChair adds no fee, takes no part of the payment, and at no time holds your money.
Stripe sends you a receipt for each payment. Your card particulars pass to Stripe and are never seen by FirstChair or by the musician.
5. Cancellation, postponement and refunds
The consequences of your canceling, of your needing to move the date, or of the musician being unable to perform are set out in the agreement and, for the standard terms, summarized in the Cancellation and Refund Policy.
Refunds are made by the musician, from the musician’s Stripe account, to the card or account from which you paid, within fourteen days of the cancellation taking effect. Where a refund owed to you has not arrived within that period, write to hello@firstchairmusicians.com and FirstChair will raise it with the musician.
6. Failure by the musician
The musician is responsible for the performance. Where the musician does not attend, or the performance falls seriously short of what was agreed, your claim lies against the musician under the agreement. You may also tell FirstChair, which may review whether that musician continues to use the service.
7. Your obligations
You confirm that the person signing the agreement has authority to sign it for every person the booking is for, that the information you provide is accurate, and that you will meet the conditions in the agreement concerning the venue, shelter, power and access. You will not use FirstChair to transmit anything unlawful, abusive or deceptive.
8. Liability of FirstChair
FirstChair provides the pages, the signature process and the payment link. It is not the performer and is not a party to your agreement.
FirstChair’s liability to you in respect of any one booking is limited to one hundred United States dollars. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for any matter which the law does not permit to be limited.
9. Your rights as a consumer
Nothing in these terms removes any right you hold as a consumer under the law of the country in which you reside. Where you reside in the European Union or the United Kingdom, those protections apply to your dealings with FirstChair whatever the governing law clause below provides.
10. Governing law and disputes
These terms are governed by the law of Texas, and FirstChair accepts the courts of Texas for any dispute arising under them. Where you are a consumer in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you may instead bring a claim in the courts of your own country, and the consumer law of your own country continues to apply to you.
Before either party commences proceedings, both agree to write to the other setting out the matter in dispute and to attempt for thirty days to resolve it. Disputes concerning the performance lie between you and the musician under the agreement, which contains its own governing law clause.
11. Variation
FirstChair may vary these terms. The version applying to a booking is the version you accepted on signature of the agreement, and it is recorded with your signature. Variations affecting future bookings take effect on publication here bearing a new date.