Society of Authors urges Findaway Voices by Spotify to clarify its new Terms of Use

The Society of Authors (SoA) is urging Findaway Voices by Spotify to clarify its new Terms of Use after backlash from creators. 

The new terms gave Findaway Voices a range of new rights over creators’ works, including permission to “create derivative works” from the audiobooks posted by creators to the platform – without their consent or remuneration – and included a blanket waiver of moral rights. 

Spotify acknowledged the “confusion” and published a revised version after an outcry from creators, but the SoA says it is still concerned with the wording.  

"Their Terms of Use still refer to use of the audiobooks for ‘training’ in connection with the ‘promotion’ and ‘marketing’ of the Spotify Service,” an SoA spokesperson said. “We urge Spotify to make it explicitly clear in their Terms of Use that no works will be used in the development any type of generative Artificial Intelligence model or product without creators’ permission.” 

The spokesperson added: “We are pleased to see confirmation that the Terms of Use do not authorise Spotify to use audiobooks to ‘create a new book, e-book or audiobook, or to use User Content to create a new, machine-generated voice without your permission’ – however, their wording is too broad. Spotify must reinforce it to make clear it covers all types of derivative works, including, for instance, podcasts.” 

The SoA has previously raised concerns about the lack of communication from publishers with authors and agents about the streaming deals publishers signed with Spotify.  

A spokesperson for Spotify said: "We heard from the author community, swiftly took action and updated the terms the following day. We are not going to generate derivative works such as podcasts, books, sequels, films, e-books, or audiobooks, or create a new AI voice without their permission. We are committed to supporting authors to find breakout success, and discover new audiences/fans with the varied interest and tastes of our global audience through promotional efforts. Our recommendation algorithms have had a longstanding impact in helping our listeners discover new content. Following our update, some direct feedback we got from the community was ’they took quick action to address it AND made the changes we literally asked for’."

On 23rd February the US writers’ group The Authors Guild published an updated statement, after originally expressing its concerns about updates to the terms of use for Findaway Voices. After Spotify clarified the intent behind the language "was not to grab rights, or to train AI, but to give Spotify the rights to use the audiobooks to improve discoverability and implement technical protocols against fraud", they said "we appreciate Spotify’s responsiveness to our concerns and those of the author community". They added: "We will continue to review the terms and any future updates to ensure that they do not encroach on authors’ rights, and look forward to continuing a productive dialogue with Spotify."