SoundCloud appears to have quietly changed its terms of use to allow the company to train AI on audio that users upload to its platform.

As spotted by tech ethicist Ed Newton-Rex, the latest version of SoundCloud’s terms include a provision giving the platform permission to use uploaded content to “inform, train, [or] develop” AI.

“You explicitly agree that your Content may be used to inform, train, develop or serve as input to artificial intelligence or machine intelligence technologies or services as part of and for providing the services...”

https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/09/soundcloud-changes-policies-to-allow-ai-training-on-user-content/

 

Hi @tzzsmk, thanks for your tip. I just checked it on my own SoundCloud account. It says there that if you don't explicitly object, they are allowed to train their AI with it, but what that means exactly is very vague and unclear. Below are two sentences from SoundCloud’s terms of use.

SoundCloud Terms of Use

Unless otherwise stated in a separate agreement, you expressly agree that your Content may be used to train, develop, or serve as input or information for artificial intelligence or machine intelligence technologies or services as part of and for the provision of the Services.

For the avoidance of doubt, neither SoundCloud nor any third party is permitted to (i) use, copy, or reproduce any Content delivered to the Platform under separate agreements or that is owned or controlled by third-party rights holders (including artwork, images, logos, audio and audiovisual recordings and portions thereof, underlying musical works and lyrics, and metadata) for the purpose of teaching, training, and developing artificial intelligence technologies (or as input to them) without the permission of the respective rights holders.

 

that's the beauty - AI training is excluded from "use, copy, reproduce"

 

its inevitable that soon all distributors and streaming platforms will do the same.

 

based

 

Nice catch! Soundcloud is always working angles to quietly monetize and screw over users

 

Thanks - I suspected as much as early as March 2019 (I visited the HQ of a company that integrates tightly with ai, and they were raving about its capabilities). After pondering it for a few months and holiday, I met up with an artist I was producing and we discussed the pros and cons of having our catalog and new material on soundcloud - we both agreed the cons outweighed the pros, and removed our individual and joint "content."

I find it's far simpler to use free cloud storage, upload what must be, and text or email links individually - until such time as the material is released (or "dropped" - which seems a weird term to associate with weightless digital audio, but I'm just showing my age, aren't I).

 

Amusingly, the result of this could be the AI training itself on an endless supply of terrible amateur music. Unless there's knowledgeable human curation or they set the algorithm to only pay attention to the high-flyers, the output will be 99% garbage.

In the UK, this is actually not going to be implemented as the law won't allow it, forcing the tech companies to provide an "opt-in" option as default rather than an "opt-out".

 

SoundCloud said in early May 2025:

In a statement, SoundCloud stated that it will not train AI models with artist content, will not develop its own AI tools, and will prohibit third parties from scraping. AI will only be used for internal functions such as recommendations, fraud detection, and content organization.

Artists will retain control over their works, and all AI functions will be operated within the framework of existing licensing agreements, according to SoundCloud. However, the statement does not explicitly rule out general AI training.

Update: Marni Greenberg, Head of Communications at SoundCloud, told The Verge that clear opt-out options will be created and transparency will be maintained in the event of future use of content for generative AI – thus confirming that such training is possible in the future.

 

never beleive everything a corporation or an AI tells you.. rule #1

 

This is not from AI, source --> see links. Rule #3: Believe little, question everything, and remain critical!

Updated 2:22 p.m. Pacific: A SoundCloud spokesperson provided a statement via email, which we’ve published in part below:

“SoundCloud has never used artist content to train AI models, nor do we develop AI tools or allow third parties to scrape or use SoundCloud content from our platform for AI training purposes. In fact, we implemented technical safeguards, including a ‘no AI’ tag on our site to explicitly prohibit unauthorized use.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/09/soundcloud-changes-policies-to-allow-ai-training-on-user-content/
www.theverge.com/news/664683/soundcloud-denies-training-ai-with-user-music

 

I guess it's time to delete everything from my account. Thankfully, I haven't uploaded anything new in years over there. Now the issue is whether or not we should believe they haven't handed everything over already and they're just telling you now about it. AI companies work like that, you only get to know after they suck the life out of everything you made.

 

Before deleting something, you should make sure the rumors are true. After all, SoundCloud is also subject to the laws of the respective country. If my song from SoundCloud ever shows up somewhere and I can prove that SoundCloud has used it illegally, I wouldn't hesitate to report SoundCloud.

 

as if cloud services weren't into AI already either

 

a large (15tb) locally hosted hard drive is not very expensive, especially if privacy and controlled access to your data/music is important.

you can create your own "cloud" and you can limit who has access to it. before the cloud FTP servers were very popular. Frequently "private" FTP servers would have limited duration "Open Access" where they would give out a password/acct, that would last for a limited duration like 48 hours, and during that time you could download all you could eat. - it can be both private and public as you can see.

The cloud is nothing but a chute to move the herd into a corral. Try not to be herded, its usually doesn't lead to anywhere pleasant you'd like to be.

 

AI will have zero impact on the quality my work and could never replicate it accurately, ever, period, end of.

Don't believe da hype.

 

Daniel Ek is such a d.ek and he can suck mine, mf!!!!!

 

And what about soundclick and reverbnation? Others, Big Fish Audio, for example, this service directly prohibits the use of their content for AI training (written in a license agreement)

 

scraper bots don't care about whatever rules (for robots) a site has, no individual can effectively defend against it by web design