Questions artists ask
What Soundae does today, in plain words. Signed in, the same answers are under Help in your own language.
Making covers
What can I make with Soundae?
Cover art for your song. Soundae reads the recording and the words, then makes finished pictures whose scene comes from what the song says. Still pictures only, not video.
How many covers are in a set, and how long does it take?
A set is four pictures: three from different parts of your song and one for the song as a whole. The first lands in about 45 seconds and the whole set in about a minute and a half.
What happens if the first pictures are not right?
Under every picture are two buttons, Keep and Pass, and Pass asks nothing more. Anything you type in the Tell Soundae box becomes a rule for this song, which you can widen to all your songs or remove at any time. Then tap Three more for the next set.
Will my song title or my name be on the cover?
No. The picture is made with no title, name, logo or lettering on it, so you add any type yourself. The one exception is merch, where the song title goes on the back of a shirt.
Can Soundae suggest a title for my song?
Yes. Under More, Run Title Lab proposes titles and marks one as Recommended, and Use this title locks it for the song. A round costs 1 credit.
Can I choose a visual style?
Yes, Fits my song is the default: the genre, mood and words decide. You can instead pick up to two of 15 styles, from Photograph and 35mm film to Anime and Pixel art, or describe the style in your own words. The style is saved per song.
Can I add my own photos and visual references?
Yes, under More, then References. Add an image for the look (colour, light, material and texture) or a photo of yourself, and add only yourself or someone who has agreed to appear. Each one must carry no text or logo and stays private to your account until you tap Remove.
Can the pictures show bare skin?
Only if you turn on Mature pictures for that song, and it is off by default. When it is on, bare skin and nudity are allowed where the song is sensual, never explicit, and that song stays off the Soundae homepage.
Does Soundae remember what I like across songs?
Yes, if you let it. Soundae notes what you keep, pass, download and release, and the Your taste page shows what it has read from that and the rules you typed, where removing a line stops it at once. With Your taste from other songs on in a song's settings, which is the default, what you kept on other songs shapes the next covers a little, and the song comes first.
Your song and your words
What files can I upload?
One song file at a time: MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG or FLAC, up to 250 MB. A larger file is refused before anything uploads. The file is private to you.
Is there a maximum song length?
No, the only limit is the 250 MB file size. The read costs 1 credit for every minute or part of one, up to 8, so a song longer than eight minutes still costs 8.
Can I start with lyrics instead of an audio file?
Yes, with the link No recording? Use the words instead: paste the words or drop a text file and give the song a title. The read is written from the words alone and costs 1 credit.
What does Soundae read from my song?
The audio itself, not the filename: how it heard the song, the lines that matter, who is singing to whom and how it feels. The words are taken down word for word in whatever language is sung, never translated, and unclear passages are marked, never guessed.
What happens if the words are wrong?
Tap a line to change it, or use Paste full lyrics and Soundae lines them up with the audio, flagging any line the audio contradicts for you to settle. Mark lyrics verified reads the song again from the corrected words at no extra charge, and the pictures are made from them.
What happens if my song has no vocals?
If Soundae hears no vocals, you confirm that the song is instrumental and the covers are made from the sound of the production. If it hears a faint, buried vocal it says so, and you can paste the lyrics instead.
How long does a read take, and can I leave the page?
Between one and three minutes, depending on the length of the song. Keep the page open until the upload finishes; once the server has the song you can leave, and the read picks up when you come back.
Can I write a song in Soundae?
Yes. The Write room lets you write to a beat from a YouTube link or an audio file, write your lines and record takes. Make the cover then takes you to the song drop with your lines attached, and you can tick Use the words I wrote as the lyrics so the read uses them.
Your covers: files and rights
What files do I get, and in what format?
Use this cover or Download full size gives you the original picture as the engine made it, a 1024 by 1024 square, normally a PNG. Download all sizes adds a zip with JPGs for a square post, streaming, a story, a landscape video frame and a 3000 by 3000 release file made from the original. Downloads are free and no watermark is added.
Can I use the artwork for a commercial release?
Yes. The Terms say you own, outright, the images generated through Soundae's tools, with full commercial usage rights for release, merchandise, marketing or any other purpose, on every plan including the free one. Soundae claims no ownership stake and holds only the licence it needs to store, process and display your work as part of the service.
Do I need to own the rights to what I upload?
Yes. The Terms say you keep ownership of what you upload and are responsible for holding the rights to it, including permission from any person whose photo you add as a reference.
What am I not allowed to do?
The Terms ask you not to upload or generate illegal, harmful or offensive content, violate others' intellectual property, reverse engineer the service, use bots or automated tools, share your sign-in or get around usage limits, or make content meant to deceive or mislead.
Credits and plans
How do credits work?
Reading a song costs 1 credit for every minute or part of a minute, from 1 to 8, so a 3:20 song costs 4. A set of four covers costs 12 credits, one image or one refinement costs 3, and a Title Lab round costs 1. The cost of each step is shown before you spend.
Do I get free credits to start?
Yes. A new account gets 40 credits once, with no card needed, enough for one read and about three sets. Nothing is added daily.
What are the plans and what do they cost?
Starter is 100 credits a month for $25, or $240 a year. Pro is 450 credits a month for $99 or $949 a year, or 900 credits a month for $189 or $1,788 a year. Studio is 2,500 credits a month for $500 or $4,800 a year, or 12,000 credits a month for $2,000 or $19,200 a year, and all prices are in US dollars.
Do unused credits expire?
No. Credits stay in your balance from month to month, whether they came with a plan or you bought them separately. On a yearly plan you receive the plan's credits each month, not all at once.
What happens if something fails halfway?
A step that fails costs you nothing, and a step that delivers only part of what you asked for is charged only for the part that arrived. A set is charged per picture that landed, never more than quoted.
What happens if I do not have enough credits for a step?
Soundae refuses the step before anything runs and tells you how many credits it needs. You can buy credits without a subscription on the Billing page, under Top Up Credits, paid once through Stripe.
How do I cancel, and what happens to my credits?
Cancel plan on the Billing page ends your plan at the close of the paid period, never at once. After that date monthly credits stop refilling, and you keep your balance and every song, read and picture you have made.
Can I change my plan?
Yes. Change Plan on the Billing page opens the plans and starts a checkout for the size and billing period you pick, and Manage Subscription opens Stripe's billing page for your subscription.
Privacy and what is public
Are my songs and covers private?
Your song, its read and your pictures are stored privately: only your account can open them, through links that expire, and your song's audio is never published. Two things can be public: covers on the Soundae homepage, described below, and any visual you put on sale in the Merch store.
Who can see my covers on the Soundae homepage?
Anyone who visits the homepage, signed in or not. It shows up to six recent covers; tap one and it opens with the song's title, your username and the idea it was made from, and never your song's audio or your email. A song with Mature pictures on never shows.
How do I keep a cover off the homepage?
On any plan, open the Artwork page and tap the eye button, Hide cover, on that cover; Restore cover puts it back. On Pro or Studio, each song on your songs page can be set to Only you, and the Account page has a switch, Your work on the showcase, that keeps all of it off.
Do you use my songs or pictures to train models?
The Privacy page says your content is not used for public model training, and the Terms say your reference images are used only to serve your own requests and never to train models shared across other artists' accounts.
How long do you keep my files?
The Privacy page says your content is kept while your account is active or until you delete it, and usage data is typically kept for 24 months. The Terms add that after your account ends you lose access to your content, so download what matters first.
Can I delete a song, a cover or my account?
Not from the app yet: you can hide a cover, remove a reference image and delete a Write session. The Privacy page says you can request deletion of your personal information at any time, and in the app the way to ask is Something off? in the studio menu.
Your account
How do I sign in?
New or returning, it is the same screen: Continue with Google, or type your email and Soundae sends a code, which you type in or open through the link in the email. There is no password to make. The Terms ask that you are 13 or older.
What if my account has a password?
Tap I have a password when signing in. If the email and password do not match, sign in with a code instead; there is no password reset in the app.
Can I use Soundae in my language?
Yes. Soundae speaks 13 languages: English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Turkish and Arabic. Pick one from the globe on the sign-in page, the Account page or the studio menu, and any sentence without a translation yet shows in English.
Is there a phone app?
Soundae runs in your browser, and you can add it to your home screen: it offers an install prompt, and on an iPhone you tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. It then opens in its own window.
How do I get help or report a problem?
Tap Something off? in the studio menu on any screen and say it in your own words; it is sent with the screen you are on, and we read every one. Your plan, payment details and invoices are on the Billing page, and the Terms and Privacy pages cover legal questions.
Merch
Can I put my cover on a shirt?
Yes. Design yours in the Merch store puts one of your kept visuals on the front of a shirt, where you can move it, resize it, cut it to a shape, soften its edges and match the shirt colour to it. The song title goes on the back, and a visual you have not kept yet is refused, so keep it first.
Can I sell shirts with my covers?
Yes. On Your merch, each visual you kept has a switch, and nothing is on sale until you turn it on. Once a design is on, your creator page in the Merch store is public with your name and a short bio, and your email address is never shown.
What do I earn from a sale?
A royalty on each sale, as a percentage set for your account and shown on Your merch, with your sales, what you earned and what has been paid out.
How do people buy, and what happens after they pay?
Anyone can buy, signed in or not: the buyer adds their address and card on a Stripe checkout screen, and the price shown there is the one that counts. An order moves through Waiting for payment, Paid, In production and Shipped, and Soundae keeps a private copy of the picture so a sold shirt can be printed.