What We'll Write, and What We Won't

Outlaw Music writes ballads. That means we go to the places country music has always gone: heartbreak, whiskey, jail, gun smoke, hard work, grief, faith and bad decisions. Almost nothing about your story is too rough for us. We've written eulogies, war stories, prison stories, and songs about people who did not deserve a nice one.

But this is a shop with a door on it, and a few things don't come through it.

Four services, four sets of rules

Everything below applies to all four of the things we sell, but which parts matter most depends on which one you're buying.

Write me a song (from $79). Our words, our production, built from the story and details you send us. The rules about real people matter most here.
Set my words to music (from $127). Your lyrics, our production. The rules about whose words they are matter most here.
Ride with the legends ($297). The Posse: your name, your horse, your rig, written into a story alongside a real figure from the record. The rules about real people matter most here, and one more, below.
March with them ($297). The Muster: your impression, your unit, your kit and your battle, written into an original Civil War ballad. Union or Confederate, both are legitimate impressions here. The song is the soldier's experience, not a case for the cause.

What we're glad to write

Tributes and memorials - a parent, a spouse, a friend, a soldier, a dog, a horse
Family and ancestor songs, homesteads, heritage, the name on the land
Weddings, anniversaries, retirements, birthdays, reunions
History: outlaws, lawmen, the West, a town, a mine, a flood, a war
Working life - ranching, trucking, oilfield, rodeo, the night shift, the layoff
Outlaw material: violence, crime, revenge and ruin, told as a story the way ballads have always told it
Faith and doubt, gospel and judgment
Business songs, benefit songs, and good-natured roasts
Mild profanity, if you want it and it fits the song - just ask

What we won't write, at any price

Hate. Anything that demeans or calls for harm against people because of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age or veteran status. Slurs of any kind, including in a song set a hundred years ago.
Songs aimed at a real person. We don't write lyrics that threaten, accuse, humiliate or harass someone - an ex, a neighbor, a boss, anybody. A heartbreak song is welcome. A weapon with a melody is not.
Anything sexual involving a minor. No exceptions, no framing, ever.
Explicit sexual content. Desire and heartbreak, yes. Pornography, no.
How-to crime. Real instructions for making drugs or weapons, or for breaking the law, set to music.
Extremism. Anything promoting or recruiting for a violent movement, terrorist group or hate group.
Encouragement of suicide, self-harm or an eating disorder. A memorial song for someone you lost that way is a different thing, and we'll write it with you.
Impersonation and fakery. Songs presented as written, sung or endorsed by a real artist or public figure who didn't authorize it.
Someone's private information - addresses, phone numbers, workplaces, account numbers, medical details.
Words that aren't yours. See below.

Songs about real people

Most custom songs are about somebody real, and that's the whole point. Here's how we handle it:

Historical figures. Write away. That's our home ground.
Riding with them (The Posse). We write you into history; we don't rewrite it. We won't depict you harming a real, named person, or glorify a specific real crime against a real victim. Name someone who isn't on our roster and we'll check whether it's a story we can write before we start. If it isn't, we cancel and refund you in full.
Marching with them (The Muster). Same rule, in the Civil War. I write you into a real unit at a real battle; I do not rewrite what happened there. I won't depict you harming a real, named person, and I won't write the cause as righteous on either side, not the Confederacy's, not the Union's. Slurs stay out, even in a song set a hundred and sixty years ago. If your battle facts don't survive checking, I'll write to you about it before a line is written.
Someone who has passed. We'll treat them with dignity, and we won't invent things about them.
A living person - spouse, parent, friend, coworker. We'll ask you to confirm they know about the song and don't object. Surprise gifts are fine; surprise attacks are not.
Public figures. We'll stick to what they've actually done in public. We won't accuse anyone of a crime, invent quotes, or imply that anyone endorses your song.

Your words have to be your words

This section matters most if you're buying "Set my words to music." If you're sending us lyrics to set to music, you have to have written them. We can't use lines borrowed from an existing song, a poem you found, or a hymn that's still under copyright - and we can't set new words to an existing melody, which needs the publisher's permission. We also don't imitate specific recording artists. We won't build a song "in the style of" a named singer, and we don't clone anyone's voice. Tell us the feel you want - the era, the instruments, the grit in the vocal - and we'll get you there our own way.

How your song is made

Every Outlaw Music song is AI-assisted. The writing is human - yours or ours - and the music is produced with AI tools under a commercial license. We say so plainly because you deserve to know what you're buying, and because if you release your song publicly, the streaming services will ask you to disclose it too.

On commercial tiers we run every finished song through similarity screening before it reaches you, and we revise the melody until it clears. That's a real check, honestly done - it isn't a guarantee that no one will ever hear a resemblance.

We reserve the right to refuse any submission

Outlaw Music reviews every order before production begins. We reserve the sole and absolute right to refuse, cancel or discontinue any order, at any stage, for any reason we consider sufficient - including after payment and including after work has begun.

We will refuse an order when, in our sole judgment, the submitted lyrics, subject matter, instructions or supplied materials:

contain hate speech, slurs, or content that degrades or calls for harm against people based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status or any other protected characteristic;
threaten, harass, defame, or are intended to intimidate or humiliate any identifiable person;
sexualize a minor in any way, or depict a minor in a sexual or romantic context;
are pornographic or graphically sexual;
promote, instruct in, or facilitate any unlawful act;
promote or glorify terrorism, violent extremism, or a hate group;
encourage suicide, self-harm or disordered eating;
infringe or may infringe any copyright, trademark, right of publicity, or other right of a third party, including lyrics or melodies the customer did not create;
impersonate, or falsely suggest the endorsement of, any real person, artist, business or organization;
disclose private personal information about any individual;
present fabricated claims as fact in a manner intended to deceive; or
are, in our judgment, otherwise inconsistent with the character of our work or likely to bring harm or disrepute to Outlaw Music, our customers, or our production and distribution partners.

Refunds on refusal

If we refuse an order for any of these reasons, we will cancel it and refund your payment in full. You will not be charged for work performed before the refusal.

Our judgment is final

We are not required to explain a refusal beyond identifying the general category above, and we are not obligated to revise, negotiate or reconsider a refused submission. A refusal is not a statement about you - it is a decision about what we produce.

After delivery

If we learn after delivery that a submission violated this policy or the warranties you gave us at checkout, we may revoke any license granted to you, require that you cease use and distribution of the song, remove the work from any platform under our control, and report the matter to the appropriate authorities where the law requires it. Refunds in that situation are at our discretion.

What you confirm when you order

By placing an order, you represent and warrant that: (a) all lyrics, text, photographs and other materials you submit are original to you or licensed to you, and their use by Outlaw Music will not infringe any copyright, trademark, right of privacy, right of publicity or other right of any third party; (b) any living individual identified in your submission is aware of the work and does not object; (c) your submission does not violate the Outlaw Music Content Policy; and (d) you have the authority to grant the rights granted here. You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Outlaw Music and its members, contractors and partners from any claim, loss, damage, liability or expense, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of any breach of these representations.

Changes

We may update this policy at any time. The version posted at outlawmusic.ai/content-policy at the time you place your order is the version that governs it.

Questions about whether your idea fits? Write us at rick@wildwestballads.com before you order. We'd rather talk it through than turn you down.