SoundCloud
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
SoundCloud is a platform for publishing audio, where the author uploads the file themselves and controls who listens to it and how. Legally it is a German company: the user agreement opens by saying that this is a service of SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG, registered under German law with a head office at Karl-Marx-Strasse 101, 12043 Berlin.
What separates it from streaming shop windows like Spotify is that publishing needs no distributor: a track becomes publicly available right after upload. What separates it from file storage is the social layer built on top of the upload (follows, reposts, comments inside the waveform), paid plans for artists, distribution to outside services and an open programming interface.
The main reason to look closely here is the terms covering rights to what you upload. SoundCloud spells them out in more detail than most platforms and, unlike many, explicitly limits itself when it comes to training artificial intelligence models.
Who's here
The platform's own measurement on the home page: «Discover and play over 320 million music tracks». This is a statement about the number of works uploaded, not about the audience. On the same page SoundCloud calls itself "the largest online community of artists, bands, DJs and audio creators"; no measurement backing that claim is given on the page.
The open pages give no public breakdown of the audience by country and language. An indirect signal about geography: at the time of our check the user agreement page was served in German, meaning the version of the document is substituted according to where the request comes from.
Getting started
Registration is ordinary, by email or through third-party accounts. Then comes the choice of plan. The platform publishes three tiers: Basic Free at no charge, Artist at $3.25 a month with annual payment of $39, and Artist Pro at $8.25 a month with annual payment of $99. The Artist plan was announced in a post in the platform's newsroom, "Introducing SoundCloud Artist Plan… at Just $3.25/Month" of 22 July 2026.
The platform describes the differences between plans on the same page: track promotion and placement in playlists — 2 times a month on Artist and unlimited on Artist Pro; extended audience statistics, a comments hub, splitting royalties between collaborators, release scheduling and priority support are available on Artist Pro only.
A separate detail for anyone planning automation: an account with an Artist Pro subscription is required to obtain an API key. So programmatic access here is in effect paid, even though no direct price is set for it.
What you can publish
The platform sets out its file requirements in the developer documentation and notes that the rules are the same for uploading through the API and through the interface. The numbers come from there too: up to 4 GB per file and up to 24 hours of audio per track. The source formats are listed in the same place: AIFF, WAVE, FLAC, OGG, MP2, MP3, AAC, AMR, WMA. What you upload is transcoded by the platform into streaming formats such as AAC, so it is better to supply a lossless source.
What is forbidden is listed in the community guidelines and applies to all types of content, including cover art, playlists, comments, messages, profile descriptions, usernames and track titles. The list covers copyright infringement, bullying and harassment, hate speech, publishing other people's personal data and recordings of private conversations, pornographic content, child exploitation material, promotion of suicide and eating disorders, and terrorist content. A separate clause on impersonation mentions artificial intelligence directly: you may not depict another person or misrepresent your own identity, "including by means of artificial intelligence".
Rights to what you upload — reading the agreement
This is the most important part of the document, and it is put together more carefully than on most platforms.
First, ownership stays with the author: SoundCloud "claims no ownership rights in your content", and you retain sole responsibility for it.
Second, the scope of the licence granted to the platform is limited by its purpose. The section on granting the licence says that by uploading you start an automatic transcoding process and instruct the platform to store the files on its servers, and that the licences are granted “to the extent necessary for SoundCloud to provide the hosting services listed above… on a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free and fully paid-up basis”. The key word here is "limited": the licence is tied to running the service and distributing advertising on the platform, rather than handed to the platform "for anything at all".
Third, a second licence is granted not to the platform but to other users and to the operators of sites where a track is embedded with the player. Its scope is wider: copying, offline listening, reposting, transmission and other distribution, public display and performance, adaptation, creation of derivative works, compilation — but only "within the parameters you set through the service". The practical conclusion: you switch other people's right to rework your track on and off yourself — in the "Permissions" tab in the track editing section — and it should be done before the track spreads.
Fourth, there is a clause about artificial intelligence, a rare thing for a platform of this size: “We will not use your content to train generative AI models that aim to replicate or synthesise your voice, your music or your likeness unless you give us explicit consent through an opt-in mechanism”. Note the limits of the wording: it is about models aimed at replicating your voice, music or likeness specifically — this is not a blanket ban on all machine learning.
Finally, the licence to your likeness: your username, avatar and data about your activity (likes, reposts, plays, follows) may be shown by the platform next to your account and other users' accounts as part of the social features. The licences are granted separately for each uploaded item — which matters, because deleting one track does not withdraw the rights to the rest.
How to grow
The platform ties its built-in promotion tools to paid plans: track promotion and playlist placement — 2 times a month on Artist, unlimited on Artist Pro. Extended audience statistics are also paid and available only on Artist Pro.
The platform does not publish a description of its ranking algorithm on the open pages. The community guidelines, on the contrary, explicitly forbid attempts to influence results through metadata: listing other artists' names in a profile description "in an attempt to game our search" is not allowed, and neither is putting someone else's name in a track title.
Path to monetization
Here SoundCloud has a figure that is rare in this industry, and the platform states it outright.
The platform's cut. The distribution page says: «You receive 100 % of your earnings whether the activity is on SoundCloud or another platform» — the author gets 100 % of what is earned both from plays on the platform itself and from royalties on outside services. No intermediary commission, then, is declared; the platform's income comes from subscriptions.
What is withheld. Only the payment fee remains: “Our payout processor applies a small fee to each payout, starting at $0.50 USD”. No upper bound is named on that page.
Threshold and timing. The platform reports that a payout is sent automatically once $25 USD is reached, and settlement runs on a net 60 schedule — with a delay of about two months, because that is how long the money takes to come from the receiving platforms. The methods of receipt are bank transfer or PayPal.
What has to be switched on before the first payout. The same source lists: two-factor authentication on the account, a completed tax form, a chosen payout method and a chosen method for delivering tax documents.
Distribution. Through the platform a release goes out to Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok and more than 50 services; on the Artist plan 2 releases a month are available, on Artist Pro — unlimited.
Tools and automation
The official API is open and documented. The base address is https://api.soundcloud.com, authorisation is OAuth 2.1 with mandatory PKCE, a token lifetime of about an hour, and single-use refresh tokens. Two flows are supported: authorization code (actions on behalf of a user, including uploading and access to private material) and client credentials (public resources only — search, playback, resolving links).
The platform publishes its rate limits and counts them per client_id. Two are named: 15,000 requests to the playback stream per 24 hours on /tracks/:id/stream and 50 client credentials tokens per 12 hours per application, 30 an hour per IP address. A general limit on the total number of calls is not currently applied. Going over returns a 429.
The separate terms for developers are strict where other people's content is concerned: everything the API gives access to belongs to third parties, SoundCloud passes you no rights to user content, and you may not present yourself as its source or license it. Access may be revoked without warning by cancelling the client ID, and attempting to get around a revocation and obtain a new key is expressly forbidden. The platform's players and widgets may not be used to create a new music or audio streaming service.
Limits and rules
- File. Up to 4 GB and up to 24 hours per track; sources in AIFF, WAVE, FLAC, OGG, MP2, MP3, AAC, AMR, WMA.
- Upload allowance by plan. Basic Free — 2 hours, Artist — 3 hours, Artist Pro — unlimited.
- API. A key is issued with an Artist Pro subscription; 15,000 calls to the stream per day.
- Rights. The licence to the platform is limited, worldwide, non-exclusive and royalty-free; the licence to other users includes reworking and derivative works, but within the bounds you set yourself.
- AI. Training generative models on your voice and music happens only with your explicit consent.
- Legal framework. A German legal entity; the version of the agreement is substituted according to the region of the request, and the document was served to us in German.
Who it's for
It suits independent musicians and podcast authors who need a shop window without an intermediary and an economy they can understand: pay the subscription and keep 100 % of your earnings. It suits those who publish a lot and at length: 24 hours of audio per track leaves no reason to compress your material.
It suits developers, but with a caveat: programmatic access runs into the Artist Pro subscription.
It does not suit you if you expect to earn for free: monetization, promotion and statistics are all locked behind paid plans. Nor does it suit you if it matters that any reworking of your music by listeners be excluded by default — the permissions have to be set manually for every track.
Tools for this platform
The list is built from the tools' own facts: every line is a tool's statement that it supports the platform, with the source named. A tool missing from the list only means we have no such statement.
Other tasks:
- Auphonic — states support; source, checked 2026-08-07
- Udio — states support; source, checked 2026-08-07
- Linktree — states support; source, checked 2026-07-28
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself like this: «Discover and play over 320 million music tracks. Join the world’s largest online community of artists, bands, DJs, and audio creators.»
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform's newsroom dates the launch of the Artist plan at $3.25 a month to 22 July 2026
A headline in the newsroom feed
source, checked 2026-07-28
Who's here
the platform reports more than 320 million tracks on the platform and calls itself the largest online community of artists, bands, DJs and audio creators; no measurement is given behind the second claim
This is the number of works uploaded, not the audience
source, checked 2026-07-28
Account and access
Until the email is confirmed, uploading is closed completely: «Please note that until the email address has been confirmed you will not be able to upload any content or images to the account» (verbatim) — neither tracks nor images. Separately, a free account has an upload ceiling: «A free account gives you unlimited listening and allows you to upload up to 120 minutes of your own audio» (verbatim), and beyond it «You won’t be able to upload new tracks until you reduce your total upload time» (verbatim)
The help.soundcloud.com pages return a JS check in browser form, and we did not circumvent it; the texts of the articles were taken from the same host through the open help centre JSON (/api/v2/help_center/...), which robots.txt does not forbid. The 120-minute ceiling is tied to the plan rather than to account age
source, checked 2026-08-07
Confirming the email address by the letter that arrives at registration: «Confirmation emails are generally sent out instantly when you sign up» (verbatim); if the letter does not arrive, SoundCloud suggests checking spam, adding hello@soundcloud.com to the address book and pressing «resend email» in the email settings. The 120-minute ceiling is lifted by deleting old tracks or moving to Artist Pro
The condition is named by the platform outright; the link in the letter may go stale — SoundCloud then offers to send the letter again
source, checked 2026-08-07
What you can publish
uploading: up to 4 GB per file and up to 24 hours of audio per track; the rules are the same for the API and the interface
The Key Facts section of the API documentation
source, checked 2026-07-28
source formats for upload: AIFF, WAVE, FLAC, OGG, MP2, MP3, AAC, AMR, WMA; the platform transcodes them into streaming formats such as AAC
The Key Facts section of the API documentation
source, checked 2026-07-28
"Accepted source formats include: AIFF, WAVE, FLAC, OGG, MP2, MP3, AAC, AMR, WMA". The uploaded file is not given to listeners as it is: "After a successful upload the track is queued for encoding; listeners stream transcoded output (for example AAC), not the raw bytes of your uploaded file", "SoundCloud transcodes your audio into high-quality streaming formats (like AAC), but starting with a lossless file gives listeners the most detailed sound". The documentation names neither a bit rate, nor a sampling rate, nor a bit depth
the list of formats is named as an approximate one ("include"), and the platform keeps the canonical list on the Upload Requirements page, which is closed by protection from robots; there are no numerical requirements for quality on the pages available; the site soundcloud.com itself sets up a separate group in robots.txt for our robots ("User-Agent: anthropic-ai / User-Agent: ClaudeBot / User-Agent: Claude-Web ...") and opens to it only a few pages (/discover, /pro, /terms-of-use, /community-guidelines and the like), while closing everything else ("# Block everything else (catches all UGC at root paths) / Disallow: /"); the help centre help.soundcloud.com is closed by protection from robots — it returns a "Just a moment..." page with code 403, which must not be circumvented; the documentation developers.soundcloud.com permits crawling, and it is from there that it is taken
source, checked 2026-08-04
The file size and the duration of a single upload: "each upload may be up to 4 GB and 24 hours of audio in length", and the same numbers are repeated in the short list: "Upload limits: up to 4 GB per file and 24 hours of audio per track". Calls to the API are counted by client_id: "Play stream requests: 15,000 per 24-hour window", "Applies to: /tracks/:id/stream", "Global aggregate limit: not currently enforced", "Client Credentials tokens: 50 per 12 hours per app, 30 per hour per IP"; exceeding them gives "HTTP 429 Too Many Requests". The pages available name neither a daily nor a weekly number of uploads, nor a dependence of the limit on the tariff
4 GB and 24 hours are the limit for a single upload, the same for the API and for uploading from the site ("same rules for API and in-app uploads"); it was not possible to check the dependence of the total volume of uploads on the tariff: the Upload Requirements page is closed by protection from robots; the rate limits — https://developers.soundcloud.com/docs/api/rate-limits; the site soundcloud.com itself sets up a separate group in robots.txt for our robots ("User-Agent: anthropic-ai / User-Agent: ClaudeBot / User-Agent: Claude-Web ...") and opens to it only a few pages (/discover, /pro, /terms-of-use, /community-guidelines and the like), while closing everything else ("# Block everything else (catches all UGC at root paths) / Disallow: /"); the help centre help.soundcloud.com is closed by protection from robots — it returns a "Just a moment..." page with code 403, which must not be circumvented; the documentation developers.soundcloud.com permits crawling, and it is from there that it is taken
source, checked 2026-08-04
Promotion
built-in track promotion and playlist placement: 2 times a month on the Artist plan, unlimited on Artist Pro; extended audience statistics — Artist Pro only
Promotion tools are tied to the paid plans
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
Creator's share. the platform reports: the author receives 100 % of what is earned, both from activity on SoundCloud and on other platforms
No platform commission for distribution is declared; the platform's income is the subscription
source, checked 2026-07-28
Payout minimum. a payout is sent automatically once $25 USD has accumulated; settlement runs on a net 60 schedule (a delay of about two months); the methods are bank transfer or PayPal
The distribution page
source, checked 2026-07-28
before the first payout you need: two-factor authentication, a completed tax form, a chosen payout method and a method for delivering tax documents
The distribution page
source, checked 2026-07-28
distribution of releases to Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok and more than 50 services; on Artist — 2 releases a month, on Artist Pro — unlimited
The number of releases per plan comes from the pricing shop window
source, checked 2026-07-28
There are no rules specifically about affiliate links in the documents read. There is an adjacent permission in the user agreement, point (x): "Sie dürfen den Zugang zur Plattform oder Inhalte auf der Plattform nicht vermieten, verkaufen oder leasen, wobei Sie dies nicht daran hindert, Links von Ihren Inhalten zu legitimen Online-Download-Shops einzufügen, in denen Ihre Inhalte zum Verkauf angeboten werden" — "you may not rent out, sell or lease access to the platform or the content on it, but this does not prevent you from inserting links from your content to legitimate online download shops where your content is offered for sale". Links to pornography are forbidden: "Link to any pornographic content in your profile bio" · the source is dated 2026-01-19
our translation; the original is in German: the user agreement page is served in the German language (the version of 19 January 2026), an English-language version could not be obtained; the community guidelines https://soundcloud.com/community-guidelines were read in English, the words "affiliate link" are not in them
source, checked 2026-08-04
The user agreement, point (viii), forbids placing "jegliche unerwünschte oder nicht autorisierte Werbung, Werbebotschaften, Spam oder jede andere Form der Werbung" — "any unwanted or unauthorised advertising, advertising messages, spam or any other form of advertising". The community guidelines, in the section "Spammy behavior and self-promotion", allow the promotion of one's own work ("We understand that promoting your work is important"), but forbid: "Copy and paste the same links and words in comments and/or direct messages", "Pay for external promotion services not affiliated with SoundCloud", and the buying and selling of followers, plays, likes and reposts. Advertising of restricted goods and services (drugs, weapons, sexual services) is forbidden separately. One's own contests and giveaways are allowed subject to SoundCloud's separate terms on contests
our translation of the point of the agreement; the original is in German; the boundary between "self-promotion" and "unauthorised advertising" is not drawn in the documents — there are no rules about the advertising of third parties in a creator's content
source, checked 2026-08-04
the payout processor withholds a fee on each payout, starting at $0.50 USD; no upper bound is named on the open page
Only the lower bound is named
source, checked 2026-07-28
Paid subscriptions
on Artist Pro only: extended audience statistics, a comments hub, splitting royalties between collaborators, release scheduling, priority support, a 50 % discount on Go+
Plan comparison
source, checked 2026-07-28
Pricing
the plans: Basic Free — free of charge; Artist — $3.25 a month with annual payment of $39; Artist Pro — $8.25 a month with annual payment of $99
The platform's pricing shop window
source, checked 2026-07-28
Limits and restrictions
upload allowance by plan: Basic Free — 2 hours, Artist — 3 hours, Artist Pro — unlimited
The pricing shop window
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
the platform's players and widgets may not be used to create a new music or audio streaming service
The section on players and widgets
source, checked 2026-07-28
the community guidelines apply to all types of content, including cover art, playlists, comments, messages, profile descriptions, usernames and track titles; copyright infringement, bullying, hate speech, publishing other people's personal data and recordings of private conversations, pornography, child exploitation material, promotion of suicide and terrorist content are forbidden
The date of last revision is not stated on the page
source, checked 2026-07-28
it is forbidden to impersonate another person, including by means of artificial intelligence; it is forbidden to list other artists' names in a profile description in order to influence search and to put someone else's name in a track title
The Impersonation & Misleading Metadata section
source, checked 2026-07-28
Legal
the platform's operator is SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG, a company under German law, address Karl-Marx-Strasse 101, 12043 Berlin
The first paragraph of the user agreement; the page was served in German
source, checked 2026-07-28
the agreement: SoundCloud claims no ownership rights in the user's content, and the author retains sole responsibility for it
The "Ihre Inhalte" section
source, checked 2026-07-28
the author grants the platform a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free and fully paid-up licence to the extent necessary for hosting, for running the platform's features and for distributing advertising on it
The "Lizenzgewährung" section; the licence is tied to its purpose rather than unconditional
source, checked 2026-07-28
other users and operators of sites with the embedded player are granted a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to copy, listen offline, repost, distribute, publicly display and perform, adapt, create derivative works and compile — within the bounds set by the author through the track settings
The bounds are set in the "Permissions" tab in track editing
source, checked 2026-07-28
the agreement: content is not used to train generative AI models aimed at reproducing or synthesising the author's voice, music or likeness without explicit consent through an opt-in mechanism
The clause covers models aimed at replicating a specific author
source, checked 2026-07-28
licences are granted separately for each uploaded item of content
The last sentence of the licence section
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
the API: base address https://api.soundcloud.com, authorisation via OAuth 2.1 with mandatory PKCE, a token lifetime of about an hour, single-use refresh tokens; the authorization code and client credentials flows
The official API guide
source, checked 2026-07-28
an account with an Artist Pro subscription is required to obtain an API key
The Prerequisites section
source, checked 2026-07-28
limits are counted per client_id: 15,000 requests to /tracks/:id/stream per 24 hours; 50 client credentials tokens per 12 hours per application and 30 an hour per IP; a general limit on the number of calls is not currently applied; going over returns 429
A separate Rate Limits page
source, checked 2026-07-28
the API terms: all content available through the API belongs to third parties; the platform passes on no rights to user content; access may be revoked without warning by cancelling the client ID, and attempting to obtain a new key in circumvention of a revocation is forbidden
API Terms of Use
source, checked 2026-07-28
the address https://api.soundcloud.com was found on the home page by the «api/dev» marker in the address itself, but the address does not open
CORRECTED the previous version declared any address containing the word api or dev found on the home page to be a developer section. All 57 such records were checked by opening the address: 24 turned out to be documentation. See data/technical/dev-links-verified.tsv and docs/research/S195-догадка-по-адресу.md
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: en
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
Catalogue section: all similar See also: catalogue index · region: Western Europe · scheduler comparison · find by situation · platform restrictions