Community Guidelines

These Community Guidelines are designed to ensure that everyone understands what the SoundCloud community is all about. Don't forget that your use of SoundCloud is also subject to our Terms of Use.

Do:

Respect others

Soundclouders are a diverse group with a lot of different opinions and views. That's great, but it means that everybody needs to be tolerant and respect people whose ideas are different to their own. Of course, if you feel that someone is expressing views or opinions that are offensive, defamatory, abusive, or otherwise contrary to our Terms of Use, you can let us know by sending an email.

SoundCloud enables you to express yourself through your sounds, and lets you share those sounds across the web. So, be creative, be expressive and let the world know how awesome you are. But remember – only share sounds that you have created yourself and have permission to share. If you are unsure whether you can upload something, check out our Copyright Information pages.

Give us a link

Our widgets enable you to take tracks from SoundCloud and embed them on other websites. This is really great, but we're picking up the bandwidth bill each month, so we’d really appreciate it if you could link back to us whenever you post Soundcloud hosted content elsewhere on the web.

Criticize, but do it constructively

Criticism can be really valuable, but only when it’s done constructively. So, please share your opinions, but before posting anything, ask yourself "Would I appreciate receiving the same comment?".

Don't

Upload things that aren't yours to upload

Uploading and sharing means you must always be 100% certain that you are the creator of what you're uploading, or have permission from all relevant rights holders. Anyone who repeatedly uploads other people’s content risks having their account suspended or terminated. If you need more information about copyright, check out our Copyright Information pages.

Use someone else’s name

SoundCloud usernames are allocated on a first come, first served basis. Please don’t register accounts in the name of another person, or using someone else’s trademark, even if this is meant as a tribute. If you feel that someone is impersonating you on SoundCloud, or is infringing your trademark, you can tell us about it by sending an email.

Rant, flame, troll or be an asshole

SoundCloud is a social place but it's not the place for you to act out rage from other parts of your life. Don't let a personal issue strain the rest of the community. Inappropriate behaviour, including abusive, defamatory, obscene, racist or offensive comments, will put you at risk of having your account suspended or terminated.

Spam

There’s a fine line between promoting your sounds and spamming. The more you can make your messages and actions personal and relevant, the less likely you are to be reported for spam. Faking your own popularity, or using sounds or comments to promote other products or services can be considered as spam and isn’t welcome on SoundCloud.

If you break these rules

We take these rules seriously, and expect you to as well. If you break these rules we will take action. If we receive notification from a rights holder that any sounds, text or images in your account infringe their copyright, or if we believe that your behaviour is inappropriate, we will send you a warning. If we have to send you more than two of these warnings, we will suspend your account. In the most extreme cases, we may suspend your account without warning.

Tell us about it

If you feel that someone is infringing your copyright, you can tell us about it here.

If you want to report any other breaches of these Guidelines or our Terms of Use – including offensive or defamatory comments, trade mark infringement, impersonation, stalking, harassment, breach of privacy or spamming - you can report this to us by sending an email.

Remember, we want SoundCloud to be a community where everyone feels comfortable and respected - it’s up to all of us to make sure this happens.

To Sum It Up

Basically, be nice, respect the law and think before you post. In most cases, we'll send you a warning before we take other measures and we'll always try to act reasonably. We think this is fair but if you don't agree, maybe SoundCloud is not the place for you.

These guidelines have been written down to ensure that everyone within the community has the experience they want. We're not trying to set up rules and regulations for exactly how you should and shouldn't act but rather to make clear that this should be a place of respect between people and a place for responsible content posting. We hope you agree and understand. If you do, don't or have any other questions or comments please let us know.

We may change these Community Guidelines from time to time, so please be sure to check back here every so often for any updates.

The SoundCloud Team