Straight talk about how we use lyrics, why it is lawful, and what we do not do.
Last updated: May 28, 2026
The Rising Compass reads the lyrics of songs and publishes a tier, a charge score, and original written commentary about what a song transmits. This page explains, in plain language, the legal basis for that work and the lines we hold.
We read a song's lyrics the way a critic reads a book in order to review it, then publish our own analysis. The tier, the score, and the commentary are original work about the song — criticism, commentary, and analysis, the same basis on which critics quote and review the works they discuss. We do not hold, and do not claim, a license to any song's lyrics; our use rests on fair use, the long-standing principle that allows commentary on and criticism of creative works.
The Rising Compass is not a lyrics site and does not operate a lyrics database. We do not sell song lyrics or offer them for download. Our purpose is to analyze and comment on songs, not to distribute their lyrics.
To produce a reading we read a song's lyrics once and then discard them. We retain our own analysis and a one-way fingerprint used only to detect when a song's lyrics have changed — never the lyric text itself.
We do not build the Compass on lyric services whose terms forbid this kind of use, and wherever we rely on a third-party source we follow its terms. When you paste lyrics into the Lyrical Charger yourself, you are the source — and by submitting them you confirm you have the right to do so.
The Compass rates songs, not artists. The same artist can score at every tier across a career. A reading is our independent, good-faith interpretation under a fixed, published rubric — analysis and opinion, not a statement of fact about any person.
The Rising Compass is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or connected to any artist, songwriter, record label, music publisher, or streaming platform. It is an independent instrument.
If you hold rights in a work and have a concern about how it appears here, you can reach us through our general inquiry form.
This page describes our practices in plain language; it is not legal advice. A calibration is a cultural diagnostic — analysis and commentary — not a professional judgment and not a factual claim about any person.