Latest news with #SoundCloud
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Join Wreaths Across America's Annual Giving in July Celebration!
Support local Sponsorship Groups in your community now while sharing the year-long mission to Remember, Honor, Teach. Columbia Falls, Maine, June 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, national nonprofit Wreaths Across America (WAA) announces the kickoff of its annual Giving in July campaign! For WAA, this annual celebration is dedicated to local groups and individuals participating in the organization's Sponsorship Group Program. Through this unique program, supporters can help local programs make a difference in their communities with each $17 sponsorship to WAA. Since its founding in 2007, WAA has collaborated with hundreds of charities, community programs and civic groups nationwide to remember and honor our nation's veterans and active-duty military all year. Giving in July celebrates these groups and highlights the opportunity to give back to them through the sponsorship of veterans' wreaths. WAA has given back more than $28 million in local contributions through this national program over the last 17 years! Click here to learn more and show your support by sponsoring a veteran's wreath through one of WAA's many Sponsorship Groups nationwide! 'I have long said it would be disingenuous for us as an organization whose mission is to Remember the fallen, Honor those who serve, and Teach the next generation the value of freedom if we do not support other like-minded programs doing just that in their communities,' said WAA Executive Director Karen Worcester. 'Our Sponsorship Group Program is a year-round effort, but through 'Giving in July,' we hope to remind people that across the country there are programs providing resources to our nation's veterans, active-duty military and families who need our support now.' Follow the hashtag #GivinginJuly to learn the impactful stories of volunteers and Sponsorship Groups doing good in their communities and benefiting from dollars raised through wreath sponsorships. Tune in to Wreaths Across America Radio to hear their stories, available on the iHeart Radio app, TuneIn, and the Audacy app, at or on SoundCloud here. More than 5,000 locations will participate in National Wreaths Across America Day this year on Saturday, December 13, 2025. This free event is open to all, and WAA encourages community members to participate by volunteering locally or sponsoring a wreath for an American hero. # # # About Wreaths Across AmericaWreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun in 1992. The organization's yearlong mission – Remember, Honor, Teach – is carried out by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington and thousands of veterans' cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond. For more information about volunteering, getting involved in the mission, or sponsoring a wreath, please visit CONTACT: Amber Caron Wreaths Across America 2075136457 acaron@ in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SoundCloud updates AI policy after backlash: ‘AI should support artists, not replace them'
Following controversy over a quiet update to the terms of use that seemed to permit the content uploaded to the streamer being used to train AI, SoundCloud has updated its AI policy. Futurism had previously reported that SoundCloud 'quietly' updated its terms and conditions in February 2024 in which users were 'explicitly agreeing' by using the platform to have their content used to train AI. The policy read: 'You explicitly agree that your Content may be used to inform, train, develop, or serve as input to artificial intelligence technologies as part of and for providing the services.' Users were understandably upset and now, following backlash, SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton has responded regarding the platform's stance on AI and 'how content may interact with AI technologies within SoundCloud's own platform'. The letter, titled 'A Letter from our CEO: Clarifying our Terms of Use', states: 'SoundCloud has never used artist content to train AI models. Not for music creation. Not for large language models. Not for anything that tries to mimic or replace your work.' It also states: 'We don't build generative AI tools, and we don't allow third parties to scrape or use artist content from SoundCloud to train them either.' 'Our position is simple: AI should support artists, not replace them.' Seton went on to explain the updates to the Terms Of Use last February were meant to clarify how 'we may use AI internally' to improve SoundCloud for its users, including 'powering smarter recommendations, search, playlisting, content tagging, and tools that help prevent fraud'. Now, SoundCloud has changed its Terms Of Use, and it will only use AI-training on content uploaded to the platform with users' consent. The new policy reads: 'We will not use Your Content to train generative AI models that aim to replicate or synthesize your voice, music, or likeness without your explicit consent, which must be affirmatively provided through an opt-in mechanism.' Today, the Data (Use and Access) Bill returns to the UK House of Lords for consideration, in order to address how the government's desire to foster a British AI industry could allow technology companies to circumvent copyright laws and use creative content to train their models – all without the permission of the creators. Chi Onwurah, the chair of the cross-party committee, has previously urged the government to bring forward the AI safety bill. Onwurah told the Guardian: 'It's absolutely critical that the government shows it is on the side of people when it comes to technology, particularly when it comes to the tech platforms and the impact technology is going to have in their lives.' This also comes at a time when artists have been speaking out against companies exploiting copyrighted works and warning against 'predatory' use of AI in music. Earlier this year, more than 200 artists featured on an open letter submitted by the Artist Rights Alliance non-profit, calling on artificial intelligence tech companies, developers, platforms, digital music services and platforms to stop using AI "to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.' Amongst those names were Stevie Wonder, Robert Smith, Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, R.E.M., Peter Frampton, Jon Batiste, Katy Perry, Sheryl Crow, Smokey Robinson, and the estates of Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra. The letter, while acknowledging the creative possibilities of new AI technology, addressed some of its threats to human artistry. Those include using preexisting work to train AI models - without permissions - in an attempt to replace artists and therefore 'substantially dilute the royalty pools that are paid out to artists.' The letter stated: 'Make no mistake: we believe that, when used responsibly, AI has enormous potential to advance human creativity and in a manner that enables the development and growth of new and exciting experiences for music fans everywhere. Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are employing AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rightsholders. When used irresponsibly, AI poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music and our livelihoods.'
Euronews
2 days ago
- Business
- Euronews
SoundCloud updates AI policy following backlash
Following controversy over a quiet update to the terms of use that seemed to permit the content uploaded to the streamer being used to train AI, SoundCloud has updated its AI policy. Futurism had previously reported that SoundCloud 'quietly' updated its terms and conditions in February 2024 in which users were 'explicitly agreeing' by using the platform to have their content used to train AI. The policy read: 'You explicitly agree that your Content may be used to inform, train, develop, or serve as input to artificial intelligence technologies as part of and for providing the services.' Users were understandably upset and now, following backlash, SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton has responded regarding the platform's stance on AI and 'how content may interact with AI technologies within SoundCloud's own platform'. The letter, titled 'A Letter from our CEO: Clarifying our Terms of Use', states: 'SoundCloud has never used artist content to train AI models. Not for music creation. Not for large language models. Not for anything that tries to mimic or replace your work.' It also states: 'We don't build generative AI tools, and we don't allow third parties to scrape or use artist content from SoundCloud to train them either.' 'Our position is simple: AI should support artists, not replace them.' Seton went on to explain the updates to the Terms Of Use last February were meant to clarify how 'we may use AI internally' to improve SoundCloud for its users, including 'powering smarter recommendations, search, playlisting, content tagging, and tools that help prevent fraud'. Now, SoundCloud has changed its Terms Of Use, and it will only use AI-training on content uploaded to the platform with users' consent. The new policy reads: 'We will not use Your Content to train generative AI models that aim to replicate or synthesize your voice, music, or likeness without your explicit consent, which must be affirmatively provided through an opt-in mechanism.' Today, the Data (Use and Access) Bill returns to the UK House of Lords for consideration, in order to address how the government's desire to foster a British AI industry could allow technology companies to circumvent copyright laws and use creative content to train their models – all without the permission of the creators. Chi Onwurah, the chair of the cross-party committee, has previously urged the government to bring forward the AI safety bill. Onwurah told the Guardian: 'It's absolutely critical that the government shows it is on the side of people when it comes to technology, particularly when it comes to the tech platforms and the impact technology is going to have in their lives.' This also comes at a time when artists have been speaking out against companies exploiting copyrighted works and warning against 'predatory' use of AI in music. Earlier this year, more than 200 artists featured on an open letter submitted by the Artist Rights Alliance non-profit, calling on artificial intelligence tech companies, developers, platforms, digital music services and platforms to stop using AI "to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.' Amongst those names were Stevie Wonder, Robert Smith, Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, R.E.M., Peter Frampton, Jon Batiste, Katy Perry, Sheryl Crow, Smokey Robinson, and the estates of Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra. The letter, while acknowledging the creative possibilities of new AI technology, addressed some of its threats to human artistry. Those include using preexisting work to train AI models - without permissions - in an attempt to replace artists and therefore 'substantially dilute the royalty pools that are paid out to artists.' The letter stated: 'Make no mistake: we believe that, when used responsibly, AI has enormous potential to advance human creativity and in a manner that enables the development and growth of new and exciting experiences for music fans everywhere. Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are employing AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rightsholders. When used irresponsibly, AI poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music and our livelihoods.' First, Donald Trump lashed out at one music icon... Now, Elon Musk is following suit and making his own rock star enemy. Bono was on the Joe Rogan podcast on Friday (30 May) to talk about the release of his documentary Bono: Stories Of Surrender. During the three-hour conversation, the U2 frontman took the opportunity to critise the Trump administration and singled out Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which oversaw the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Bono, who has been a campaigner for humanitarian aid for decades, criticised the cuts to international aid and cited a Boston University study that estimated that the cuts will cause more than 300,000 deaths around the world. 'There's food rotting in boats, in warehouses – 50,000 tons of it,' Bono said. 'The people who knew the codes, who were responsible for distributing that aid, were fired. That's not America, is it?' Unsurprisingly, considering Rogan voted for Trump, his audience were quick to react – and not in a happy way. One wrote: 'That guy's about as evil as they come Joe', while others stated they would be skipping the episode altogether and that it would be 'the first time I look forward to commercials'. Then came Elon Musk's reaction, who took to X to say brand the singer 'such a liar/idiot', before adding that 'zero people have died' as a result of the USAID cuts. In a later exchange, he said: 'South Park lampooned Bono as the biggest shit in the world. They were right.' Musk stepped down from his wildly unpopular role at DOGE last week after serving the maximum 130-day term as a special government employee without Senate confirmation. During his time at DOGE, hundreds of thousands of people participated in the "Hands Off" protests across all 50 states of the US to express their opposition to the policies of the Trump administration and cuts made by Musk's DOGE. "Hands Off" event organizers said: "They're taking everything they can get their hands on — our healthcare, our data, our jobs, our services — and daring the world to stop them. This is a crisis, and the time to act is now." Check out some of the best signs seen during these nation-wide protests. Bono: Stories Of Surrender is a hybrid of concert movie and visual memoir, featuring spoken word passages from the singer's 2022 autobiography, 'Surrender.' It is streaming on Apple TV+ now.
Irish Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The mystery of Spotify's disappearing songs: What we lose when artists erase their music
Not long ago, while skidding through the melodious hall of mirrors that is Spotify , I had the urge to play a half-decade-old EP by an independent Dublin rapper I've long been a fan of. But there was a snag. Upon arriving at their artist page, I found it was no longer available to stream. Searches of SoundCloud and other platforms yielded the same result. All traces of the EP seemed to have evaporated, as if the music had never existed. This was not the first release I'd looked for that turned out to have been deleted. It makes you feel helpless, the music permanently out of reach, lost to listeners forever. The EP had never been released physically, and I'm unsure it was ever available to download. Its accessibility, it would appear, was entirely at the whims of its creator, who had apparently decided it no longer spoke to their artistry. This is a consequence of the streaming era: as critics have often pointed out, you don't own the music. John Lennon once said that music is everybody's possession. Traditionally, you might say, artists have ceded the spiritual ownership of their recordings to their fans. Every seven-inch single they released was locked into their catalogue and became part of their legacy. READ MORE But the concept has become flimsy as music has evolved into something less tangible. As neatly as a body of work appears on an artist's Spotify page, it can be clipped, altered, rearranged. This raises moral questions: should it be acceptable for musicians to constantly primp their discographies as if they were bonsai trees, removing what they no longer like, retroactively shaping their legacies? Or once a work is in the world should it stay out there forever? Digital expungement more broadly has been a tool in the writing, or rewriting, of recent history. When Donald Trump became US president for the second time, his department of justice deleted information from its website about the storming of the Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021. It was the first of many official erasures. The New Yorker magazine soon remarked on the symbolism of Trump firing the head of the US National Archives and Records Administration, an institute guided by the motto 'The written word endures'. [ We are up to our necks in a rising tide of AI-generated slop Opens in new window ] I'm uncomfortable about music deletion as an artistic practice. I dislike the thought of musicians hindering fans' access to their work – and an artist's release history should stay intact, for better or worse. But music has always been heavily shaped by technological advancement. The emergence of formats such as cassette tapes and MP3s provided exciting new ways for artists to record music and get it to their audiences. Streaming has opened up new possibilities, too, and many in the business enjoy testing the boundaries. The talented, and entirely independent, Dublin-based rapper Jehnova is in complete control of his music and the way it is released. In his mind a body of work is malleable, susceptible to his whims. 'It's to some degree like an art show or art gallery,' he says. 'If you're curating an art show it's not necessarily about that one piece all the time. It's about everything together, and the context of everything. So you can rearrange certain paintings. 'Maybe this painting doesn't fit by the door. Maybe I'm going to put it deeper in [the gallery]' – further back, to where people can start with the old, end with the new. Curation is an art form as well. So how you put this stuff out, how it's presented, is a huge part of how I tend to interact with stuff like that.' Some artists take advantage of the streaming format by changing music they've already released. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty Jehnova says that removing some of his music has helped to foster a deeper connection with diehard fans: if they get in touch about missing tracks, he'll send them the music directly. Being independent allows this. It's not such good news when corporations get involved. I've heard of labels that order new signings to delete their early recordings; the past must be expunged so every move can be plotted carefully. Some artists take advantage of the streaming format by changing music they've already released – re-recording vocals, tweaking the mix, editing the order of songs – which again runs counter to the traditional idea of music being finished once a track or an album has been signed off. This makes music more like software to be patched and updated. 'There are definitely merits to it,' says Dave McAdam, a one-time musician and producer. 'If I write a song, release it and then go, 'Okay, no, I'm not too happy with that drum beat,' if I redo it and then swap out, am I doing something artistically against my integrity? I don't think so. I think as long as it's an artistic choice, or just a decision by an artist to change things that they put out there, or maybe take things down they just feel don't represent them, that's totally valid.' This feeling of impermanence, of fleetingness, reflects a broader issue with online-only releases: digital decay. The internet is a wonderful tool to circulate rare music – I recently managed to play Kid Capri's decades-old home-made mixtape Old School Vol 1 on SoundCloud. But its reputation as an archive – the idea that digitisation can be synonymous with preservation – is overstated. It's not uncommon for artists who took a carefree approach to backing up their work to permanently lose songs because of a hosting issue. In 2019 MySpace admitted that a server-migration error caused the loss of as many as 50 million tracks, many of which the creators had kept nowhere else. (A rescue attempt by the Internet Archive retrieved only about 10 per cent of the music.) It's a misconception that once something is posted online it's online forever. As a teenager in the late 2000s and early 2010s, McAdam would volunteer to record music with nascent bands in a small youth centre studio in Ennis, in Co Clare. Much of that work is irretrievable. [ If you find music on Spotify increasingly bland, it might be the ghosts Opens in new window ] 'We could record a lot of music and put it online, but a lot of those services are either just gone or, if you leave your account inactive for long enough, things just disappear. It was kind of a funny, unfortunate thing: there's a lot of music recorded but not a lot of physical media actually made, so, unfortunately, a lot of it was just lost. 'This was the relatively early days of putting music on the internet ... I think we all probably thought, 'Oh yeah, put our music on the internet, it'll be there forever. Put it on MySpace, we'll never have to worry about where we'll find it again in 10 years' time.'' Physical media's feeling of permanence is perhaps one of the things that makes it special. The vinyl craze is still with us; the rise in cassette tape sales suggests a yearning for the relationship between physical objects and music. Even Jehnova recently released a CD edition of his album IOU 3. He's aware that many people who buy it probably don't own a CD player but nonetheless like the idea of possessing a keepsake of an artist they like. 'Having something tangible – having something you can hold and open and touch – that's an experience I would love to give someone with my stuff, because that's the kind of experience I had first with music,' he says. There's always space for nostalgia, but streaming is likely to remain the dominant way we listen to music. Artists and their labels will therefore continue to test its possibilities, contorting the system to their will. As listeners, this brings the risk that the songs we love will change or disappear. As uncomfortable as that may be, deliberate music erasure was bound to happen, simply because it can happen.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
TikTok Expands Music Options With SoundCloud Integration
This story was originally published on Social Media Today. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Social Media Today newsletter. TikTok has added another music discovery element, with SoundCloud now being integrated into TikTok's 'Add to Music' feature, providing more opportunities for TikTok users to discover emerging artists. With 'Add to Music,' TikTok users can easily save songs they find in the app to their preferred music streaming service. And now, SoundCloud will be included in that mix, which will not only enable more music connection options, but will provide more opportunities for non-label artists to expand their listenership. As explained by TikTok: 'SoundCloud, the artist-first platform with over 400+ million tracks from 40+ million artists, is well known for being the home of emerging artists, genres, and music that cannot be found anywhere else. Starting today, a new integration will begin rolling out to all TikTok users, making it easier than ever to save the music they discover on TikTok directly to their Liked Tracks playlist on SoundCloud - empowering artists and fans to build lasting connections, so casual listeners can become lifelong superfans.' TikTok notes that this also coincides with the launch of SoundCloud's 'Move to Music' feature, which enables users to transfer their music libraries from other music platforms to SoundCloud. That could help SoudCloud users find even more artists similar to what they like, while also making SoundCloud a more viable option for music fans. Of course, Spotify and Apple Music remain the big names in the space, and SoundCloud is a lesser consideration, in terms of overall usage. But again, the benefit of SoundCloud is that anyone can upload their tracks to the site, so it has a range of music that can't be found anywhere else. Which could make this a valuable integration for TikTok users. Music is central to the TikTok experience, and music discovery more broadly, with 84% of songs that reached the Billboard 200 list in 2024 gaining traction on TikTok first. U.S. TikTok users are also 74% more likely to discover and share music in the app, and the record industry now relies on TikTok trends to help drive discovery and reach. Indeed, some record labels have changed the names of songs to better align with TikTok trends, while many trending artists have emerged from TikTok clips. An integration with SoundCloud will expand on TikTok's potential in this respect, providing more music promotion and engagement options via the app. You can learn more about TikTok's Add to SoundCloud addition here. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
