SoundCloud is facing backlash after creators took to social media to complain upon discovering that the music-sharing platform uses uploaded music to train its AI systems.
According to SoundCloud’s terms of use, unless a separate agreement states otherwise, users “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.”
These terms appear to have been added to SoundCloud’s website in February 2024. Futurism was the first to report on artists’ concerns.
Musical duo The Flight brought attention to the terms this week, alerting fellow creators. “Ok then . . . deleted all our songs that we uploaded to SoundCloud and now closing account,” the duo posted on Bluesky. Another user replied: “Thanks for the heads-up. I just deleted my account.”
A SoundCloud spokesperson says the company believes AI can help expand artist’s creative output, but must be used with consent, attribution, and fair compensation.
“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,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “In fact, we implemented technical safeguards, including a ‘no AI’ tag on our site to explicitly prohibit unauthorized use. The February 2024 update to our Terms of Service was intended to clarify how content may interact with AI technologies within SoundCloud’s own platform. Use cases include personalized recommendations, content organization, fraud detection, and improvements to content identification with the help of AI Technologies.”
Tech companies have increasingly relied on public and private content to train AI systems, which require vast amounts of data to function effectively.
To reflect this, companies have been revising their terms and conditions to include clauses about artificial intelligence and generative AI. In November, X updated its terms of service to allow training of its machine learning and AI models on user content.
The Federal Trade Commission warned in February 2024 that companies risk violating the law if they quietly alter their privacy policies to use customer data for AI training without proper notice.
“It may be unfair or deceptive for a company to adopt more permissive data practices—for example, to start sharing consumers’ data with third parties or using that data for AI training—and to only inform consumers of this change through a surreptitious, retroactive amendment to its terms of service or privacy policy,” the agency said in a post.
Critics of such AI policy changes are urging companies to implement more transparent opt-out options or, ideally, require users to opt in.
Like many other tech firms, SoundCloud has been embracing AI. In November, it launched six new AI tools designed to “meet a wide range of creative needs.” At that time, SoundCloud also announced it had joined AI For Music’s “Principles for Music Creation With AI” pledge, committing to “uphold ethical and transparent AI practices that respect creators’ rights.”
“SoundCloud is paving the way for a future where AI unlocks creative potential and makes music creation accessible to millions, while upholding responsible and ethical practices,” CEO Eliah Seton said in a November blog post. “We’re proud to be the platform that supports creators at every level, fuels experimentation, and empowers fandom.”
Update: This article has been updated to include comment from SoundCloud.
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