{"id":247194,"date":"2025-12-15T15:52:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=247194"},"modified":"2025-12-15T15:53:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:53:02","slug":"soundcloud-partners-with-imogen-heaps-auracles-on-artist-data-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/soundcloud-partners-with-imogen-heaps-auracles-on-artist-data-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"SoundCloud partners with Imogen Heap\u2019s Auracles on artist data platform"},"content":{"rendered":"

SoundCloud is teaming up with Auracles<\/a>, a digital identity platform founded by Grammy-winning artist Imogen Heap, to offer \u201cclarity, protection, and creative autonomy\u201d to artists in the digital world.<\/p>\n

The collaboration was announced alongside the release of a live podcast<\/a> at Web Summit in Lisbon last month featuring Heap and SoundCloud<\/b> CEO Eliah<\/b> Seton<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The integration brings Auracles<\/b> into SoundCloud\u2019s Benefits Partner Program<\/b>, allowing artists to connect their SoundCloud profiles directly to Auracles, import music projects between the two platforms.<\/p>\n

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Through the integration, artists will be able to access all of their metadata, stems, press releases, assets, event listings, bios, IDs, contact information and more in a single platform, according to a dedicated webpage<\/a> for the partnership.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the partnership, Heap said: \u201cI am very excited to be working with Eliah and his team on this game-changing collaboration with SoundCloud and Auracles. We believe in the simple vision of promoting and enabling artist sustainability\u2026 This partnership is an essential step in delivering the missing layer we\u2019ve envisioned for many years, to kickstart the future marketplace\u2014one artist and one song at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cA home for songs. Songs as a service. It\u2019s the only way we all get individually what we want\u2026 This is just the beginning of our relationship with SoundCloud, and I really look forward to seeing what\u2019s ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cA home for songs. Songs as a service. It\u2019s the only way we all get individually what we want\u2026”<\/p>\n

Imogen Heap<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SoundCloud said Heap has spent over a decade building tools to help artists maintain ownership of their creative information, starting with her research hub Mycelia<\/b>, before launching Auracles.<\/p>\n

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Auracles functions as what Heap calls a “sovereign digital ID” for artists, allowing them to \u201cprotect, manage, and control their work in an increasingly complex digital landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the Web Summit, Heap and Seton also discussed the artist\u2019s experiments with fan interaction, including fan-submitted audio on\u00a0The Song That Never Was<\/i>, her wearable musical instrument called the MiMU<\/b> Gloves<\/b>, and her virtual AI assistant, AI.Mogen<\/b>.<\/p>\n

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“This partnership is an essential step in delivering the missing layer we\u2019ve envisioned for many years, to kickstart the future marketplace\u2014one artist and one song at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imogen Heap<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The SoundCloud and Auracles partnership comes amid the increasing use of AI in the music industry. Last month, French streaming platform Deezer<\/b> revealed<\/a> that fully AI-generated music now accounts for 34%<\/b>, or over 50,000<\/b>, of all tracks uploaded to its platform each day.<\/p>\n

AI music generators Suno<\/b> and Udio<\/b>, once targeted by major labels for \u201cmass infringement\u201d of copyright, have already settled lawsuits with the majors and struck licensing deals.<\/p>\n

Three weeks ago, Warner Music Group <\/b>struck what it calls a \u201cfirst-of-its-kind partnership\u201d with Suno<\/b>, claiming the deal will \u201copen new frontiers in music creation, interaction, and discovery, while both compensating and protecting artists, songwriters, and the wider creative community\u201d.<\/p>\n

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That deal came just a week after WMG also settled its lawsuit\u00a0with Udio<\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/b>and struck a licensing deal with the company for \u2018next-generation\u2019 AI music platform coming in 2026.<\/p>\n

Universal Music Group<\/b><\/a>\u00a0also settled<\/a>\u00a0with Udio in October, in addition to signing a deal for a licensed AI music platform set to launch in 2026.<\/p>\n

As MBW previously reported, entities such as\u00a0Denmark\u2019s Koda<\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/b>and\u00a0Germany\u2019s GEMA<\/b><\/a>,<\/b> continue to pursue copyright claims against\u00a0Suno.<\/p>\n

For SoundCloud, its Auracles partnership comes nearly two years after the company faced backlash over a policy update in February 2024 which stated: \u201cYou 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s choice of language drew\u00a0fierce criticism<\/a>\u00a0from artists and prominent AI experts alike, such as\u00a0Ed Newton-Rex<\/b>, founder of the non-profit\u00a0Fairly Trained.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

In May of this year, Seton announced<\/a> that SoundCloud is updating the troublesome text in its Terms of Use, saying the new adjustments \u201cmake it absolutely clear\u201d that SoundCloud \u201cwill not\u201d use artists\u2019 content to \u201ctrain generative AI models that aim to replicate or synthesize your voice, music, or likeness\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The integration allows artists to import music projects between the two platforms and access all of their metadata, stems, PRs and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":247195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[134873,3485,457],"class_list":["post-247194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-auracles","tag-imogen-heap","tag-soundcloud"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247194"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247248,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247194\/revisions\/247248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}