Consumer Rights Wiki

SoundCloud: Difference between revisions

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|Founded=2008-10-28
|Founded=2008-10-28
|Industry=Entertainment
|Industry=Entertainment
|Logo=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Soundcloud_logo.svg/1280px-Soundcloud_logo.svg.png
|Logo=Soundcloud.svg
|Type=Private
|Type=Private
|Website=https://soundcloud.com/
|Website=https://soundcloud.com/
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SoundCloud is a music streaming platform founded in 2007. The SoundCloud website was made public in October 2008.
SoundCloud is a music streaming platform founded in 2007. The SoundCloud website was made public in October 2008.


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


===Subscription Tiers===
===Freedom===


*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 |date=2025 |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=2025-8-16}}</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>
*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" />


===User Downloads===
===Business model===


*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=January 14th, 2021 |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=August 16th, 2025 |work=Business Insider}}</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" />


==Incidents==
==Incidents==
===Generative AI===
===Generative AI===
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. <ref>{{Cite news |last=Paine |first=Andre |title=SoundCloud integrates with assistive AI tools to enable direct uploads for artists |url=https://www.musicweek.com/digital/read/soundcloud-integrates-with-assistive-ai-tools-to-enable-direct-uploads-for-artists/089164 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250816171344/https://www.musicweek.com/digital/read/soundcloud-integrates-with-assistive-ai-tools-to-enable-direct-uploads-for-artists/089164 |archive-date=August 16th, 2025 |work=MusicWeek}}</ref>  
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. <ref>{{Cite news |last=Paine |first=Andre |title=SoundCloud integrates with assistive AI tools to enable direct uploads for artists |url=https://www.musicweek.com/digital/read/soundcloud-integrates-with-assistive-ai-tools-to-enable-direct-uploads-for-artists/089164 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250816171344/https://www.musicweek.com/digital/read/soundcloud-integrates-with-assistive-ai-tools-to-enable-direct-uploads-for-artists/089164 |archive-date=2025-08-16 |work=MusicWeek}}</ref>  


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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=May 9th, 2025 |title=SoundCloud Quietly Updated Their Terms to Let AI Feast on Artists' Music |url=https://futurism.com/soundcloud-ai-terms-of-service |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250816171715/https://futurism.com/soundcloud-ai-terms-of-service |archive-date=August 16th, 2025 |work=Futurism}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Corcoran |first=Nina |date=May 14th, 2025 |title=SoundCloud Updates AI Policy in Terms of Use After Backlash |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/soundcloud-updates-ai-policy-in-terms-of-use-after-backlash/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250816172013/https://pitchfork.com/news/soundcloud-updates-ai-policy-in-terms-of-use-after-backlash/ |archive-date=August 16th, 2025 |work=Pitchfork}}</ref>   
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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-05-09 |title=SoundCloud Quietly Updated Their Terms to Let AI Feast on Artists' Music |url=https://futurism.com/soundcloud-ai-terms-of-service |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250816171715/https://futurism.com/soundcloud-ai-terms-of-service |archive-date=2025-08-16 |work=Futurism}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Corcoran |first=Nina |date=2025-05-14 |title=SoundCloud Updates AI Policy in Terms of Use After Backlash |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/soundcloud-updates-ai-policy-in-terms-of-use-after-backlash/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250816172013/https://pitchfork.com/news/soundcloud-updates-ai-policy-in-terms-of-use-after-backlash/ |archive-date=2025-08-16 |work=Pitchfork}}</ref>   


==See also==
==See also==
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