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==Consumer impact summary==
==Consumer impact summary==
{{Ph-C-CIS}}
===User freedom===


===Freedom===
*SoundCloud allows artists to enable direct downloads on their tracks. Listeners of any membership tier can use direct downloads on the website.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McCall |first=Vivian |date=2021-01-14 |title=How to download SoundCloud songs from the website onto your computer, or from the mobile app with SoundCloud Go |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/how-to-download-soundcloud-songs |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250816170647/https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/how-to-download-soundcloud-songs |archive-date=2025-08-16 |work=Business Insider}}</ref>


*SoundCloud allows artists to enable direct downloads on their tracks. Listeners of any membership tier can use direct downloads on the website.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McCall |first=Vivian |date=2021-01-14 |title=How to download SoundCloud songs from the website onto your computer, or from the mobile app with SoundCloud Go |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/how-to-download-soundcloud-songs |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250816170647/https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/how-to-download-soundcloud-songs |archive-date=2025-08-16 |work=Business Insider}}</ref>
=== User privacy ===


===Business model===
===Business model===
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*SoundCloud has three membership tiers for listeners. Free, which is ad-supported, Go, which is ad-free, and Go+, which is ad-free and gives access to locked songs not available with other subscriptions.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=SoundCloud|title=What type of subscription is for me? |url=https://help.soundcloud.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051072534-What-type-of-subscription-is-for-me |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250727092854/https://help.soundcloud.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051072534-What-type-of-subscription-is-for-me |archive-date=2025-07-27}}</ref>
*SoundCloud has three membership tiers for listeners. Free, which is ad-supported, Go, which is ad-free, and Go+, which is ad-free and gives access to locked songs not available with other subscriptions.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=SoundCloud|title=What type of subscription is for me? |url=https://help.soundcloud.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051072534-What-type-of-subscription-is-for-me |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250727092854/https://help.soundcloud.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051072534-What-type-of-subscription-is-for-me |archive-date=2025-07-27}}</ref>
*SoundCloud has three membership tiers for artists. Without a paid subscription, SoundCloud limits the hours of music which can be uploaded to an account. The upload limit for the Basic package is is 2 hours, 3 for Artist, and Artist Pro users have no limit.<ref name=":0" />
*SoundCloud has three membership tiers for artists. Without a paid subscription, SoundCloud limits the hours of music which can be uploaded to an account. The upload limit for the Basic package is is 2 hours, 3 for Artist, and Artist Pro users have no limit.<ref name=":0" />
=== Market control ===


==Incidents==
==Incidents==

Latest revision as of 17:07, 17 August 2025

SoundCloud
Basic information
Founded 2008-10-28
Legal Structure Private
Industry Entertainment
Official website https://soundcloud.com/

SoundCloud is a music streaming platform founded in 2007. The SoundCloud website was made public in October 2008.

Consumer impact summary[edit | edit source]

User freedom[edit | edit source]

  • SoundCloud allows artists to enable direct downloads on their tracks. Listeners of any membership tier can use direct downloads on the website.[1]

User privacy[edit | edit source]

Business model[edit | edit source]

  • SoundCloud has three membership tiers for listeners. Free, which is ad-supported, Go, which is ad-free, and Go+, which is ad-free and gives access to locked songs not available with other subscriptions.[2]
  • SoundCloud has three membership tiers for artists. Without a paid subscription, SoundCloud limits the hours of music which can be uploaded to an account. The upload limit for the Basic package is is 2 hours, 3 for Artist, and Artist Pro users have no limit.[2]

Market control[edit | edit source]

Incidents[edit | edit source]

Generative AI[edit | edit source]

In January 2024, SoundCloud announced integration with AI music tools Fadr, Soundful and Voice-Swap, allowing users to directly post AI generated content to the platform. [3]

In May 2025, an article published by Futurism accused SoundCloud of updating their Terms of Service to allow all content on the platform to be used to train generative AI.[4] SoundCloud later clarified that it's use of AI was strictly to provide “personalized recommendations, content organization, fraud detection, and improvements to content identification”, not to train generative AI models.[5]

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. McCall, Vivian (2021-01-14). "How to download SoundCloud songs from the website onto your computer, or from the mobile app with SoundCloud Go". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2025-08-16.
  2. 2.0 2.1 SoundCloud. "What type of subscription is for me?". Archived from the original on 2025-07-27.
  3. Paine, Andre. "SoundCloud integrates with assistive AI tools to enable direct uploads for artists". MusicWeek. Archived from the original on 2025-08-16.
  4. "SoundCloud Quietly Updated Their Terms to Let AI Feast on Artists' Music". Futurism. 2025-05-09. Archived from the original on 2025-08-16.
  5. Corcoran, Nina (2025-05-14). "SoundCloud Updates AI Policy in Terms of Use After Backlash". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 2025-08-16.