Most streaming services spent 2026 working out how to hold back the flood of AI-generated music. SoundCloud is opening a new door for it instead. On Thursday 5 November 2026, SoundCloud and ElevenLabs announced a partnership that lets creators publish songs made in ElevenMusic, ElevenLabs’ AI music app, directly to SoundCloud.
Until now, anyone who made a track in ElevenMusic and wanted it on SoundCloud had to download it and upload it again by hand. The new integration removes that step. Songs published this way will be labelled with their source, and they still have to follow SoundCloud’s rules on AI, ownership and rights. Here is what was announced, how it fits SoundCloud’s recent moves, and what it means for AI artists and listeners in Australia and worldwide.
What SoundCloud and ElevenLabs announced
- Direct publishing: creators can make music in ElevenMusic and publish it straight to SoundCloud without leaving their workflow.
- A first for ElevenMusic: Music Week reports this is the first time ElevenMusic has let creators publish directly beyond its own platform.
- Labelling: tracks published directly from ElevenMusic carry platform-specific disclosures identifying ElevenMusic as their creation source.
- Rules still apply: music published through the integration is subject to SoundCloud’s existing content policies on AI, including applicable ownership and rights requirements.
- Subscriber offer: new and existing SoundCloud Artist Pro subscribers can unlock three months of ElevenMusic Pro for free through SoundCloud’s Member Benefits programme.
According to Music Week, the ElevenMusic Pro plan on offer includes up to 1,000 song creations, 500 stem splits and five custom styles or vocals per month. The companies described the integration as “the beginning of a broader collaboration”, with both sides exploring further ways to bring creative tools and artist communities closer together.
By becoming the first platform to bring ElevenMusic creations directly to fans beyond its own ecosystem, we’re opening up new possibilities for artists to experiment, share their work, and build an audience. — Eliah Seton, CEO of SoundCloud, as quoted by Music Week
ElevenLabs co-founder and chief executive Mati Staniszewski said: “We built ElevenMusic to help more artists create, experiment and reach their fans. Music creation and discovery belong together and now, with SoundCloud, that music can reach even more audiences and communities.”
How ElevenLabs got here
ElevenLabs is best known for AI voices, but it has moved quickly into music. TechCrunch reports the company released its first music-generation model in 2025. It launched ElevenMusic as a standalone app on 29 April 2026, describing it as a platform for music discovery and creation where users can remix tracks or start a song from a lyric, melody or mood, and publish and earn from their work. A month later it released a new music model, which TechCrunch says can switch genres mid-track and handle more complex vocals.
ElevenLabs told TechCrunch that users have so far created more than 25 million tracks with its models. In September, it also signed its first major-label deal. On 10 September 2026, Universal Music Group and ElevenLabs announced a multi-year licensing agreement and strategic collaboration, starting with a new AI music creation platform built on licensed music and artist participation. UMG said that platform will be offered separately from ElevenMusic.
SoundCloud’s growing list of AI partners
The ElevenLabs deal is SoundCloud’s second AI music partnership in about two weeks. On 21 October 2026, SoundCloud and Moises announced an integration that lets artists bring their own SoundCloud tracks into Moises for stem separation, mixing, mastering and collaboration, then publish finished music back to SoundCloud. The Verge notes the ElevenLabs integration is not as deep as the Moises one, which also lets users pull tracks from SoundCloud into Moises and republish them. SoundCloud also already works with Google’s Flow Music and the remix platform Hook, according to The Next Web and TechCrunch.
SoundCloud has had its own AI controversy. In May 2025, after artists raised concerns about its terms of use, SoundCloud said it had never used artist content to train AI models and committed to new wording: it would not use members’ content to train generative AI models that aim to replicate or synthesise their voice, music or likeness without explicit, opt-in consent. In its October announcement with Moises, SoundCloud said its approach to AI is grounded in “consent, attribution, transparency, and creator control”, and that it “does not use artists’ music to train generative AI models without their explicit consent.”
A different bet from other platforms
SoundCloud’s approach stands out. The Verge describes it as more willing than other streaming services to embrace AI-generated music, while noting it “encourages” users subject to EU rules to label tracks as AI-generated or manipulated and has rules against impersonation. TechCrunch points out that most streaming platforms lean towards labelling AI music and helping listeners filter it out. Bandcamp has banned AI-generated tracks outright, TechCrunch reports.
Elsewhere, Deezer is giving listeners a switch to hide fully AI-generated tracks, as we covered in Deezer Will Let Users Block Fully AI-Generated Music. Spotify says it has taken more than 50 million slop and spam tracks out of recommendations this year, covered in Spotify Pulls 50M AI Slop Tracks From Recommendations, and YouTube Music is adding its own labels, covered in YouTube Music Starts Labelling AI-Generated Songs.
Why it matters
For AI music creators
A shorter path from generator to audience makes it easier to share work and test ideas with real listeners. The built-in disclosure means listeners will know where tracks published through the integration came from, which is the kind of transparency many platforms and fans are asking for. But an easier upload is not the same as an audience. Creators who publish a steady catalogue of considered work, rather than a flood of near-identical tracks, are more likely to build real listeners anywhere.
For listeners and human artists
More AI music on SoundCloud is likely, and the labels on tracks published through the integration will help listeners decide what they want to hear. Human artists will be watching whether AI-made uploads crowd discovery on a platform long known for emerging talent, and whether the rights and ownership requirements SoundCloud says apply are enforced in practice.
For Australia
Neither company described the integration as limited to particular countries, so it is relevant to Australian creators who use SoundCloud. It also lands in a market drawing firmer lines. Since late August 2026, ARIA’s charts have excluded recordings made mostly or entirely by generative AI, while AI-assisted music that is substantially human-made remains eligible, as the ABC reported. Publishing to SoundCloud is a route to listeners, not to the official charts.
What happens next
Watch for how many creators use the direct route, how SoundCloud displays the ElevenMusic disclosure to listeners, and what the companies’ “broader collaboration” brings next. The licensed UMG platform ElevenLabs is building is also still to come. Dizy will keep tracking how platforms decide where AI-made music can go and how it is labelled.
Following AI music on Dizy
Dizy charts original tracks, and artists declare whether a track is AI-assisted or AI-generated when they submit. See the Top 100 and New releases, browse AI artists, or submit your track for free. For context on how streaming services are treating AI music, read Is Spotify’s AI Spam Filter Hitting Real Playlists? and Universal Music: AI Slop Shouldn’t Be Paid Like Real Music.
Sources
Music Week: SoundCloud integrates with ElevenLabs’ AI music generation platform (5 November 2026)
The Verge: You can post AI music straight to SoundCloud from ElevenLabs (5 November 2026)
The Next Web: SoundCloud lets ElevenMusic users publish AI-made songs directly (5 November 2026)
ElevenLabs: Introducing ElevenMusic (29 April 2026)
The Verge: SoundCloud changes its TOS again after an AI uproar (May 2025)
ABC News: Fully AI-generated music to be banned from ARIA charts (25 August 2026)
