We are the music makers

Topic

Contracts

  • Read the AI clause before you upload: what the SoundCloud terms fight teaches about platform ToS

    In February 2024 SoundCloud added a line to its terms letting uploads "inform, train, develop" AI. When artists noticed in May 2025, it replaced the line with a narrower promise: no training of generative models that "aim to replicate or synthesize" your voice, music or likeness without opt-in. The fix is real, but it is narrower than it sounds. Here is how to read clauses like it.

    Artist rightsvia SoundCloud

  • Work for hire in music: when the song you played on isn't yours

    Under US law a "work made for hire" makes the hiring party the legal author, which also switches off the right to take your work back after 35 years. A clause saying "work for hire" doesn't make it true, though. Here is when it actually applies to music, and what to check before you sign.

    Artist rightsvia U.S. Copyright Office

  • The EU's "bestseller clause": your right to fair pay, yearly statements and a second negotiation

    Articles 18 to 22 of the EU's 2019 copyright directive give songwriters and performers a right to proportionate pay, a yearly report on what their work earned, a claim for more when a deal turns out lopsided, and a way to take back rights that sit unused. The rules are real, but each country wrote its own version, and most of it only works if you ask.

    Artist rightsvia EUR-Lex, Publications Office of the European Union

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