music · Spotify
You’re creating on Spotify, which means…
This contract signs you up as a listener, not as an artist — and the licence it takes is “irrevocable” and “sublicensable”, but it reaches what you post as a user, not your records, because your records arrived under somebody else's agreement.
Spotify gives you a different contract depending on where you are. This page reads all 2; every clause below says which one it comes from.
What they own
Not what you post: “You retain ownership of your User Content when you post it to the Spotify Service.” The catalogue is on the other side of a line the document draws early. “Content” is defined as “any music, videos, podcasts, audiobooks, or other material that is made available through the Spotify Service”, and “The Spotify Service and the Content are the property of Spotify or Spotify's licensors.” If your record is on Spotify, it is there as Content, under a distribution or label agreement that is not this one.
What you own
Everything you post as a user. The document never lists what that means — it hands you a catch-all instead: “all information, materials, messages or other communications, and any other content that is added, created, uploaded, submitted, distributed, or posted to or through the Spotify Service by users.” Messages are the single form of post that definition names by kind, and the licence reaches private ones — Spotify may monitor User Content “whether publicly posted or privately shared”. The licence you give is non-exclusive, so you keep the copyright and can do anything you like with the same material elsewhere.
What you don’t
Any way to take the licence back. It is “irrevocable”, and it is “transferable, sublicensable”, so it can be passed to companies you never dealt with. In the same sentence you “agree to waive, and not to enforce, any “moral rights”” — the right to be named as the author and the right to object to derogatory treatment. Feedback you send Spotify “is considered a type of User Content under these Terms”, so it falls under the same licence and “may be used by Spotify without restriction and without payment to you.” Most disputes you also do not get to take to court: arbitration is mandatory and class actions are barred, though an “Exceptions to arbitration” section keeps small claims court, intellectual-property suits in the federal courts of New York, preliminary injunctions and agency complaints open. Claims die after “ONE (1) YEAR”, and total liability is capped at whichever is larger — what you paid Spotify in the previous twelve months, or “$30.00”.
What they can do with it
“reproduce, make available, perform and display, translate, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, and otherwise use” anything you post — royalty-free, worldwide, “through any medium”, “whether now known or hereafter created, in connection with the Spotify Service.” That last phrase is the only limit the sentence puts on what Spotify may do with it. On AI, the two documents say something narrower than most people assume: the words “train”, “machine learning” and “AI model” appear only in the User Guidelines, and only in a rule aimed at you — you may not use the Services or Content “to train a machine learning or AI model”. Neither document says what Spotify may do.
The clauses
Two kinds of content, and only one of them is yours to grant
Please read these Terms of Use (" Terms ") carefully as they govern your use of (which includes access to) Spotify's personalized services for streaming music and other content … and any music, videos, podcasts, audiobooks, or other material that is made available through the Spotify Service (" Content "). … The Spotify Service and the Content are the property of Spotify or Spotify's licensors. … Spotify users may post, upload, or otherwise contribute content to the Spotify Service (" User Content "). For the avoidance of doubt, User Content includes all information, materials, messages or other communications, and any other content that is added, created, uploaded, submitted, distributed, or posted to or through the Spotify Service by users.
Where your record sits
Music on Spotify is “Content,” and Content belongs to “Spotify or Spotify's licensors.” For a musician the licensor is whoever delivered the record — a label, a distributor, an aggregator. The terms governing that delivery are in that agreement, not in this one.
What this contract actually reaches
The licence in Section 4 attaches to User Content: what you post through the app as a user. The document does not enumerate what that includes, and neither will we — “messages or other communications” is the only form of post the definition names.
The definition has no floor
“all information, materials, messages or other communications, and any other content” is drafted to catch everything, including private messages. The clause says so itself: Spotify may monitor User Content “whether publicly posted or privately shared”.
Spotify Community is a different contract
“By using Spotify Community, you agree to the Community Terms .” Those terms are not this document and are not in this reading; what the Section 4 licence does to a community post is governed somewhere we have not read.
This is a US contract
“These Terms are between you and Spotify USA Inc.” and you must “reside in the United States”. Spotify publishes different terms in other markets; this reading covers this document.
The licence you grant, and the rights you waive with it
Spotify Terms of Use — Section 4, Licenses that you grant to us — User Content ↗
You retain ownership of your User Content when you post it to the Spotify Service. However, in order for us to make your User Content available on the Spotify Service and to provide you with certain features and functions, we do need a limited license from you to that User Content. Accordingly, you hereby grant to Spotify a non-exclusive, transferable, sublicensable, royalty-free, fully paid, irrevocable, worldwide license to reproduce, make available, perform and display, translate, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, and otherwise use any such User Content through any medium, whether alone or in combination with other Content or materials, in any manner and by any means, method or technology, whether now known or hereafter created, in connection with the Spotify Service. Where applicable and to the extent permitted under applicable law, you also agree to waive, and not to enforce, any "moral rights" or equivalent rights, such as your right to be identified as the author of any User Content, including Feedback, and your right to object to derogatory treatment of such User Content.
Irrevocable
Delete the playlist and the licence does not go with it. This word appears exactly once in the Terms of Use and not at all in the User Guidelines, and this is where it sits.
Transferable and sublicensable
Spotify can pass these rights down to someone else, or hand the licence over wholesale. Both words appear here, and “Spotify may assign any or all of these Terms” under the Assignment section — while “You may not assign these Terms, in whole or in part, nor transfer or sublicense your rights under these Terms to any third party.”
The word “limited” is doing no work
The sentence before the grant calls it “a limited license”. The grant sentence itself then lists no limit on Spotify's permitted uses except the closing phrase “in connection with the Spotify Service.” The verbs in between — modify, translate, create derivative works from, otherwise use — carry no restriction on medium or technology.
Non-exclusive is the real limit
The one restriction that bites sits at the front of the grant and protects you rather than restraining Spotify: the licence is non-exclusive. You keep the copyright, you can license the same material to anyone else, and nothing here stops you using it elsewhere.
Moral rights
Moral rights are the right to be credited as author and the right to object to treatment that distorts your work. Here you agree both to waive them and not to enforce them. “Moral rights” appears once in the whole corpus, in this sentence.
Feedback counts
The next paragraph pulls your suggestions in: Feedback “may be used by Spotify without restriction and without payment to you. Feedback is considered a type of User Content under these Terms.” The idea you email them is licensed on the terms above.
The licence running the other way
Spotify Terms of Use — Section 3, Access to the Spotify Service ↗
Subject to your compliance with these Terms (including any other applicable terms and conditions), we grant to you limited, non-exclusive, revocable permission to make personal, non-commercial use of the Spotify Service and the Content (collectively, " Access "). … You agree that you will not redistribute, sell or transfer the Spotify Service or the Content.
The Spotify software applications and the Content are licensed, not sold or transferred to you, and Spotify and its licensors retain ownership of all copies of the Spotify software applications and Content even after installation on your Devices.
Read the subject
“we grant to you” is Spotify giving; “you hereby grant to Spotify” in the clause above is you giving. The two sentences use nearly the same vocabulary and mean opposite things.
The asymmetry, word for word
What they give you is “revocable”. What you give them is “irrevocable”, “transferable” and “sublicensable” — and each of those three words appears exactly once across both documents, all three in that one sentence.
The same verb, both ways
The licence you grant lets Spotify “create derivative works from” your User Content. The User Guidelines put the same act on the prohibited list when you do it: “reverse-engineering, decompiling, disassembling, modifying, or creating derivative works”. One act, a granted right in one direction and a bannable offence in the other.
Downloads are not copies you own
Offline files stay licensed, not sold. Spotify and its licensors “retain ownership of all copies” of the software applications and Content “even after installation on your Devices”.
The only AI rule in either document points at you
Spotify User Guidelines — prohibited activities ↗
"crawling" or "scraping", whether manually or by automated means, or otherwise using any automated means (including bots, scrapers, and spiders), to view, access or collect information, or using any part of the Services or Content to train a machine learning or AI model or otherwise ingesting Spotify Content into a machine learning or AI model;
One direction only
“Train”, “machine learning” and “AI model” appear in the User Guidelines and zero times in the Terms of Use. Every appearance is inside this prohibition on users. Neither document contains a promise about what Spotify itself may do.
It covers your own uploads too
The bar is on using “any part of the Services or Content”. It is written by reference to the platform, not by reference to who made the recording.
The licence is not technology-limited
The User Content licence is granted “by any means, method or technology, whether now known or hereafter created”. It does not name AI, and it does not exclude it.
The rules that catch musicians
Spotify User Guidelines — prohibited activities, and prohibited material ↗
selling, renting, sublicensing, leasing or other monetization except as expressly permitted under the Agreements;
selling a user account or playlist, or otherwise accepting or offering to accept any compensation, financial or otherwise, to influence the name of an account or playlist or the content included on an account or playlist; or
artificially increasing play counts or follow counts, artificially promoting Content, or other manipulation including by (i) using any bot, script or other automated process, (ii) providing or accepting any form of compensation (financial or otherwise), or (iii) any other means; … unauthorized linking to, referencing, or otherwise promoting commercial products or services, except as expressly authorized by Spotify; … is illegal, or intended to promote or commit an illegal act of any kind, including violations of intellectual property rights, privacy rights, publicity rights, or proprietary rights of Spotify or a third party, or would violate any agreement to which you are a party, such as, by way of example and not limitation, an exclusive recording agreement or publishing agreement;
Paid playlist placement
Accepting or offering compensation “to influence the name of an account or playlist or the content included on an account or playlist” is prohibited in terms, and so is being paid to change a playlist's name. This is the clause behind playlist-pitching services that trade money for placement.
Streaming manipulation
Artificially increasing play counts or follow counts is banned whether it is done by bots or by paying people. Enforcement is written at the top of the Guidelines: violations “may result in removal of any content or material you've contributed to the Services and/or termination or suspension of your account.”
A termination is permanent
The sentence immediately after that one is the harshest thing in either document: “We try to make the Services broadly available to everyone, but you cannot use our Services if we've previously terminated your account on any of our Services. We also prohibit attempts to circumvent prior enforcement actions, including through the creation of new accounts.” There is no stated appeal, no stated expiry, and opening a fresh account is itself named as a violation.
Linking to your own merch
“unauthorized linking to, referencing, or otherwise promoting commercial products or services, except as expressly authorized by Spotify” sits on the prohibited-activities list. The rule is written by reference to what Spotify has authorised, not to whether the product is yours.
Your record deal is in here
The Guidelines make breaching your own contract a breach of Spotify's — an exclusive recording agreement or publishing agreement is named as the example. If you are signed, posting material you owe elsewhere can violate this document too.
Re-uploads are covered
Material “has been removed from any of our services for a breach of our terms or policies, such as a prohibited track, episode or show” stays prohibited, and so does “content being created or repurposed to reconstitute or serve the same objective as previously removed Content.”
Arbitration by default, no class, one year, and thirty dollars at the bottom
THESE TERMS CONTAIN A MANDATORY ARBITRATION PROVISION THAT, AS FURTHER SET FORTH IN SECTION 6 BELOW, REQUIRES THE USE OF ARBITRATION ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS TO RESOLVE DISPUTES, RATHER THAN JURY TRIALS OR ANY OTHER COURT PROCEEDINGS, OR CLASS ACTIONS OF ANY KIND. IN ARBITRATION THERE IS LESS DISCOVERY AND APPELLATE REVIEW THAN IN COURT. … Subject to the exceptions set forth in the "Exceptions to arbitration" section below, you and Spotify agree that any Dispute between you and Spotify … will be determined by binding individual (not class) arbitration. … nothing in this Arbitration Agreement will be deemed to waive, preclude, or otherwise limit either of your or Spotify's rights, at any time, to elect to have an individual action heard in: (1) a U.S. small claims court … YOU AND SPOTIFY AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER IN ARBITRATION OR LITIGATION ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. … AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SPOTIFY SERVICE, THIRD-PARTY APPLICATIONS, OR THIRD-PARTY APPLICATION CONTENT MORE THAN THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS PAID BY YOU TO SPOTIFY DURING THE TWELVE MONTHS PRIOR TO THE FIRST CLAIM; OR (B) $30.00. … ANY CLAIM ARISING UNDER THESE TERMS MUST BE COMMENCED … WITHIN ONE (1) YEAR AFTER THE DATE THE PARTY ASSERTING THE CLAIM FIRST KNOWS OR REASONABLY SHOULD KNOW OF THE ACT, OMISSION, OR DEFAULT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM
$30 is the floor, not the ceiling
The cap is “THE GREATER OF” two numbers: what you paid Spotify in the twelve months before the first claim, or thirty dollars. A free account's ceiling is thirty dollars. A Premium subscriber's is a year of subscription fees — higher, and still a number you could recover by cancelling.
The clock is short
One year from when you first know or reasonably should know of the problem, and after that “THERE SHALL BE NO RIGHT TO ANY REMEDY FOR ANY CLAIM NOT ASSERTED WITHIN THAT TIME PERIOD.”
What still gets a courtroom
Arbitration is the default, not the whole of it. An “Exceptions to arbitration” section preserves a “U.S. small claims court”, sends any dispute over “any actual or alleged infringement of your or Spotify's intellectual property rights” to “the federal courts of New York, New York”, leaves open a court action “seeking only temporary or preliminary individualized injunctive relief”, and says the agreement “does not stop you or us from bringing issues to the attention of federal, state, or local agencies.” For a musician, the infringement carve-out is the one that matters.
No sign-up opt-out
The two opt-outs in the document are narrow, and only one of them sits in the arbitration section: opting out of arbitration after a second global mediation session in a mass-arbitration batch. The other is in Section 7, About These Terms — rejecting a material change to the Arbitration Agreement within thirty days of notice — and it “is not an opt-out of arbitration altogether.” Neither is a general opt-out at sign-up.
Others can enforce it against you
“the owners of the Content and certain distributors (such as app store providers) are intended beneficiaries of these Terms and have the right to enforce these Terms directly against you.” Rights holders you never contracted with can sue on this agreement.
The 2 agreements
Due Dilly reads the paperwork and reports what it says. This is not legal advice.