Please note that this version of the Cookies Policy is outdated. See here for our current Cookies Policy.

SoundCloud Cookies Policy

This Cookies Policy forms part of our general Privacy Policy.

In common with most other websites, we use cookies and similar technologies to help us understand how people use SoundCloud® so that we can keep improving our Platform. We have created this Cookies Policy to provide you with clear and explicit information about the technologies that we use on SoundCloud®, and your choices when it comes to these technologies.

If you choose to use the Platform without blocking or disabling cookies or opting out of other technologies, you will indicate your consent to our use of these cookies and other technologies and to our use (in accordance with this policy and the rest of our Privacy Policy) of any personal information that we collect using these technologies. If you do not consent to the use of these technologies, please be sure to block or disable them using your browser settings, the opt-out links identified in this policy, or the settings within our mobile apps.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. These text files can be read by these websites and help to identify you when you return to a website. Cookies can be “persistent” or “session” cookies. Persistent cookies remain on your computer when you have gone offline, while session cookies are deleted as soon as you close your web browser.

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to block and delete cookies, please visit http://www.aboutcookies.org/.

SoundCloud Cookies

We use our own cookies to recognize you when you visit our website or use our apps. This means that you don’t have to log in each time you visit, and we can remember your preferences and settings.

Those cookies with one- or two-letter names (such as “a”, “c” or “qc”) are SoundCloud cookies.

Third Party Cookies

In addition to our own cookies, we work with various reputable companies to help us analyze how the Platform is used, and to optimize our Website and Apps to deliver the best possible experience. The following companies help us achieve this through use of cookies:

Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer

Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer are services provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies to help us analyze how users use our website, our mobile site and any SoundCloud® players embedded o n third party sites. Google Web Optimzer uses the same cookies to measure how different users respond to different content. The information generated by these cookies (including your truncated IP address) is transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your, and other users’, use of our website, mobile site and SoundCloud® players, compiling reports for us on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and Internet usage. Please note that Google only receives your truncated IP address. This is sufficient for Google to identify (approximately) the country from which you are visiting our sites or accessing our players, but is not sufficient to identify you, or your computer or mobile device, individually.

Google cookies are those beginning “__ut”.

You can find more information here, including a link to Google’s privacy policy.

To opt out of this analysis by Google, please see the Opting Out section below.

Google AdWords and Google Remarketing

We use the online advertising program Google AdWords and the Google Remarketing technology, both operated by the company Google Inc. ("Google").

For measuring conversion with Google AdWords, a conversion tracking cookie is placed when a user clicks on a SoundCloud advertisement delivered by Google (“Ads”). Conversion tracking cookies expire after 30 days and are not used for personal identification. Google uses a different cookie for each Google AdWords customer and there is no consolidation of the cookie data with other data. If you click on one of our Ads and proceed to a page equipped with a conversion tag and the cookie has not yet expired, the conversion is documented. With the help of the conversion tracking cookie we see the total number of conversions and are able to review the performance of our Ads. You can find more information about Google AdWords here.

When you click on one of our Ads, a Google Remarketing cookie is placed. This cookie helps to serve our Ads to you at a later time when you browse pages of the Google content network. Remarketing cookies expire after 30 days and are not used for personal identification. For more information on Google Remarketing, please see here.

Google cookies are those beginning “__ut”.

To opt out of personalized ad serving by Google, please see the Opting Out section below.

DoubleClick

We also use DoubleClick, an ad serving service operated by Google Ireland Limited (“Google Ireland”). Google Ireland uses cookies in order to facilitate to show relevant and interesting ads to you. When you interact with our Platform your browser automatically makes information available to Google Ireland on our behalf, including your IP-address. This information as well as information automatically collected by us or on our behalf about your use of the Platform will solely be used to create pseudonym user profiles. These enable us to display more appealing advertising to you. You can find more information on DoubleClick cookies here. If you wish to opt out of personalized ad serving by Google Ireland, please see the Opting Out section below.

Please be aware that even if you opt out of interest-based ads, you may still see ads based on factors such as your general location derived from your current IP-address, your browser type and recent, previous searches related to your current search.

Quantcast Measurement

Quantcast Measurement is an audience measurement service provided by Quantcast Corporation (“Quantcast”). Quantcast uses cookies to help us better understand our users, and to help us keep SoundCloud® and our marketing messages relevant to your use of the Platform. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the Website (including your IP address) is transmitted to and stored by Quantcast on servers in the United States. Quantcast will use this information, together with information it collects from other websites that you may visit, for the purpose of evaluating your behavior across the web and compiling reports for us on website activity. All information provided by Quantcast is aggregated and Quantcast does not provide us with any information relating to your activity on any other website.

Quantcast cookies are those beginning “__qca”.

You can find more information on Quantcast’s collection and use of data [here]https://www.quantcast.com/help?jump=faqs_layer), including a link to Quantcast’s privacy policy.

To opt out of this analysis by Quantcast, please see the Opting Out section below.

Scorecard Research

ScorecardResearch is a service provided by comScore, Inc ("comScore"). comScore uses a combination of cookies and web beacons to count when user visit our website, our mobile site and any SoundCloud players embedded on third party sites. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the Website (including your IP address) is transmitted to and stored by comScore on servers in the United States. Please note that comScore only stores your obfuscated IP address. This is sufficient to identify (approximately) the country from which you are visiting our sites or accessing our players, but is not sufficient to identify you, or your computer or mobile device, individually.

Scorecard Research cookies are those that begin with UID and UIDR.

To learn more about comScore, please visit www.comscore.com. You can find ScorecardResearch's privacy policy here. To opt-out of the tracking, please see the Opting Out section below.

Similar Technologies

In addition to cookies, we also use the following standard Internet technologies in connection with your use of the Platform:

Clear GIFs: We use “clear GIFs”, sometimes known as “web bugs”, which are small image files that we embed into our email newsletters. These clear GIFs tell us whether you opened the newsletter, clicked on any of the content or forwarded the newsletter to someone else. This provides us with useful information regarding the effectiveness of our email newsletters, which we can use to ensure that we are delivering information that is relevant to our users.
Flash cookies: We use Flash cookies to synchronize information between multiple SoundCloud® players. This ensures that one player is stopped when another player starts. We do not use Flash cookies for the purposes of collecting any personal data, and do not use Flash cookies to respawn any cookies that you might previously have deleted.
HTML5 local storage: We use HTML5 local storage to store your default listening volume (i.e. the volume at which you prefer to hear sounds on SoundCloud®) and, in the case of pro users, to set the widget control color. If you access the mobile version of our website, we use HTML5 local storage to store certain cookie data, including your user plan, authentication data, your username and your display preferences. We further use HTML5 local storage to store the track IDs of the last 250 tracks you have listened to. This information helps us to suggest content that you might enjoy when you visit the Platform without being logged in or when you sign up for a SoundCloud account. Depending on your browser you can remove local storage when clearing your cache and cookies. We do not use HTML5 local storage to collect any personal data.
Activity Tracking: In our apps we make use of Appboy, an in-app analytics and messaging service provided by Appboy, Inc. (“Appboy”). When you launch a SoundCloud App, Appboy collects and stores usage data from our iOS and Android mobile apps on our behalf in order to help us understand how users are interacting with our apps for the purpose to customize the app experience to users’ needs and to engage with them. Appboy is used to track activities within the App such as likes, follows and plays. This information, including your IP address, is transmitted and stored by Appboy on servers in the United States. For more information see Appboy’s privacy policy. If you wish to opt out of Appboy tracking, please see the Opting Out section below.
App performance tracking: Our mobile apps use the app performance and analysis technology “adjust.io”, a service provided by Adjust GmbH ("Adjust"). When you launch the SoundCloud app, Adjust collects install and event data such as the number of tracks played and the listening time from our iOS and Android mobile apps in order to help us understand how our users are interacting with our apps and to optimize and analyze mobile ad campaigns. For such analysis, Adjust uses your anonymized (hashed) IDFA or Android ID, and your anonymized (hashed) IP- and MAC address. The hashes used are one-way hashes and it is not possible to identify you or your mobile device individually. If you wish to opt-out of Adjust tracking, please see the Opting Out section below.
Bug reporting: We work with Crashlytics, Inc (“Crashlytics”) and Bit Stadium GmbH (“HockeyApp”) to report any bug affecting our iOS and Android mobile apps. HockeyApp’s software is built into our iOS app and Crashlytics' software is built into our Android app. If either app crashes during normal use, the app will send certain information about the incident to Crashlytics or HockeyApp as applicable. This information consists of the device type, OS version and certain hardware information about your mobile device, and the time of the crash, the state of the application at the time of the crash, and stack traces. The information does not include your IP address or any other information that could be used to identify you or your mobile device individually, and does not include any other information from your mobile device. Click here to review Crashlytics' privacy policy, and here for HockeyApp’s privacy policy. To opt out of bug reporting please see the Opting Out section below.
Personalized advertising on mobile devices: Where cookie technology is not available other unique identifiers may be used instead (e.g. in mobile applications), which perform similar functions, such as IDFA, Android-ID or the Google Advertiser ID. To opt-out of identifiers on mobile, please see the Opting Out section below.

Opting Out

We think it’s important that you are able to control the collection of personal data relating to your use of SoundCloud®, and have therefore made sure that you can opt out of any personal data collection using cookies or other technologies as set out below. (Please note that you cannot opt out of our use of Flash cookies or HTML5 local storage as these are necessary for the technical operation of the platform. However, we do not use these technologies to collect any personal data.)

Cookies:

You can use the settings within your browser to control the cookies that are set on your computer or mobile device. However, please be aware that cookies are important to many aspects for the Platform – if you set your browser to reject cookies, you may not be able to enjoy all of the features of the Platform. To find out how to see what cookies have been set and how to reject and delete cookies, please visit http://www.aboutcookies.org.

To opt-out of analysis by Google Analytics on our website and other websites, please visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
To opt-out of personalized ad delivery on the Google content network, please visit Google’s Ads Preferences Manager or if you wish to opt-out permanently even when all cookies are deleted from your browser you can install their plugin here.
To opt-out of analysis by Quantcast on our website and other websites, please visit http://www.quantcast.com/opt-out.
You can also disable analytics for mobile apps from the settings screen on your mobile device.
To opt-out of tracking by Scorecard Research on our website and other websites, please visit http://scorecardresearch.com/optouttag.aspx.
You can also manage many companies’ cookies used for online advertising at the US-based aboutads.info choices page or the EU-based Your Online Choices. Or you may choose to change your browser settings to opt-out of cookies.
To opt out of interest-based ads on mobile devices, please follow these instructions for your mobile device: On android open the Google Settings app on your device and select “ads” to control the settings. On iOS devices with iOS 6 and above use Apple’s advertising identifier. To learn more about limiting ad tracking using this identifier, visit the settings menu on your device.
To opt-out of location tracking when using our apps, you can use the settings of your device.

Clear GIFs:

Clear GIFs are included in our email newsletters. You can unsubscribe from our newsletters at any time by following the link in the newsletter itself, or by changing your email preferences within your Settings in your SoundCloud® account.

Activity Tracking and Bug Reporting:

You can use the settings within our iOS device or within the Android app to opt-out of analytics tracking and bug reporting. For the opt-out, if you are using our iOS app, go to the settings of your iOS device and open the SoundCloud® tab. With an Android device you need to open the SoundCloud® app and open the basic settings tab within. From there you can simply disable analytics and/or bug reporting to stop any analytics data or bug reporting information being sent from the app.

We have done our best to provide you with clear and comprehensive information about our use of cookies and similar technologies. If you choose to use the Platform without blocking or disabling cookies or opting out of these technologies (as described above), you will indicate your consent to our use of these cookies and other technologies and to our use (in accordance with this policy and our Privacy Policy) of any personal information that we collect using these technologies. If you do not consent to the use of these technologies, please be sure to block or disable them using your browser settings, the opt-out links above, or the settings on your mobile device.

Last amended: 11 January 2016

Link to prior versions

You will find a link to prior versions of our Cookies Policy and a summary of the change(s) below.

June 2015 - Updating service providers and opt-out information.
July 2014 - Adding Adjust tracking app performance for us.
March 2014 - Using HTML5 local storage for storing track IDs of sounds you have listened to in the past.
December 2012