Earlier this week, an article published in the tech news outlet Futurism drew attention to a previously unidentified clause in SoundCloud’s terms of use, which allows content uploaded to the site to be used as training data for AI.

The clause, which was added in February 2024 as part of the company’s most recent terms update, reads, in part: “In the absence of a separate agreement that states otherwise, You [the user] 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.”

In a statement since shared with Pitchfork, representatives for SoundCloud wrote that “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.” They go on to describe other AI “use cases” including “personalized recommendations, content organization, fraud detection, and improvements to content identification,” as well as implementing “technical safeguards” against unauthorized data-scraping. Notably, the company does not directly address whether the music uploaded to its site will be used as AI training data in the future. Read their full statement below.

Over the past year and a half, SoundCloud has rolled out a suite of generative AI products designed to assist with music production and distribution. In 2022, the company announced that it would be laying off roughly 20% of its workforce due to recent economic changes. AI companies have been on the receiving end of several lawsuits this decade for infringing on copyrighted works in the training of their AI models.

Revisit Marc Hogan’s column “Musicians Are Already Using AI More Often Than We Think” on the Pitch.

SoundCloud has always been and will remain artist-first. Our focus is on empowering artists with control, clarity, and meaningful opportunities to grow. We believe AI, when developed responsibly, can expand creative potential—especially when guided by principles of 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. 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.

Any future application of AI at SoundCloud will be designed to support human artists, enhancing the tools, capabilities, reach and opportunities available to them on our platform. Examples include improving music recommendations, generating playlists, organizing content, and detecting fraudulent activity. These efforts are aligned with existing licensing agreements and ethical standards. Tools like Musiio are strictly used to power artist discovery and content organization, not to train generative AI models.

We understand the concerns raised and remain committed to open dialogue. Artists will continue to have control over their work, and we’ll keep our community informed every step of the way as we explore innovation and apply AI technologies responsibly, especially as legal and commercial frameworks continue to evolve.