Sony Music's AI terms only cover its own websites, not deals

The audio task

An artist, engineer or AI developer wants to know what Sony Music Entertainment actually permits when it comes to its own websites, catalogue and public statements about AI – separate from any bespoke licence SME may or may not have signed with a specific company.

What the documents show

SME's own AI Usage Terms, last updated 4 June 2024 and retrieved 16 September 2026, prohibit scraping, crawling or otherwise collecting any content from SME's websites and apps "to create, develop, modify, train or commercialize any system... utilizing artificial intelligence technologies." The terms state that all such content is "expressly opted out" of text and data mining rights under the European Union's DSM Directive, citing Article 7(2) specifically, while carving out an exception for ordinary search-engine indexing. Separately, SME's own account of testimony given by Dennis Kooker, its President of Global Digital Business, at a U.S. Senate AI Insight Forum, published 1 December 2023, quotes him stating that AI opportunities "must be grounded by the human creators' vision with the machine assisting, not with the machine replacing the human creator," and that SME's active licensing business shows strong copyright protection does not block innovation. Neither document names a specific AI company as licensed or unlicensed.

Rights status

The AI Usage Terms are a defensive opt-out covering SME's own web properties; they do not state what SME permits under a signed licence elsewhere, and they explicitly exclude ordinary search indexing. Kooker's Senate remarks are a policy position favoring licensing over unlicensed training, not a specific grant of rights to any party. Neither document is a court ruling or licence agreement, so neither settles what a given third party may or may not do with SME's catalogue.

What to check before you use it

This is an editorial checklist. Treat the AI Usage Terms as governing SME's own websites only, not SME's full catalogue everywhere it appears; confirm whether a specific AI product has a separate signed licence before assuming these terms apply to it; and check for a newer version of the terms before citing this June 2024 text as current.

• Does my use touch SME's own websites and apps, or a recording accessed elsewhere?
• Is there a specific signed licence covering the AI use I'm evaluating, distinct from this opt-out?
• Has SME published a newer AI Usage Terms revision since June 2024?

Sony Music's public record combines a narrow technical opt-out with a broader policy argument for licensing; treating either as a comprehensive AI policy overstates what either document actually covers.