Last updated: March 21st, 2024
PRIVACY & COOKIE INFORMATION FOR USERS AGED 13 - 17
Under 13? Try the under 13s’ version instead. 18+ or just want more information? Check out the full version here.
This privacy and cookie policy (our “Privacy Policy”) has been written for teenagers and young adults aged 13 to 17 who use Sony Music websites, apps, and services.
To help you stay safe online and explore our content with confidence, this Privacy Policy explains your data privacy rights and how we collect, use, share and protect information about you.
If you have any questions or you don’t understand any part of this Privacy Policy - that’s okay, some of this stuff is complicated! – speak to your parent or guardian (the person who looks after you), or email our data privacy team at musicinfo@sonymusic.com.
We encourage you to read the entire Privacy Policy. Please click on any of the links below to jump to that section:
We are Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited. We’re part of a bigger group of companies called Sony Music Entertainment. We work with singers, musicians, and artists to bring music, videos, podcasts, live events, and other content to fans around the world. Where you see “Sony Music”, “us” or “we” in this Privacy Policy, it means Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited together with any Sony Music Entertainment company using your data as set out below. Where you see “Site” or “Sites” in this Privacy Policy, it means Sony Music websites, landing pages, online and offline services, apps, online stores, podcasts, emails, direct messages, and any other place where we release our content and products.
YOU MUST BE 13 OR OLDER TO REGISTER WITH OUR SITES AND SERVICES. PLEASE DO NOT SHARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA WITH US IF YOU ARE UNDER 13 YEARS OF AGE.
If you’re under 13, some of our music and videos might not be right for you, so please ask your parent or guardian to check the Site or content first, and then explore it together if they say it’s okay.
You can read our privacy notice for younger Sony Music fans here.
While we do not knowingly allow registration on our Sites or services by children under the age of 13, parents and legal guardians should supervise their children's online activities and, where appropriate, consider using parental control tools available from online services and software manufacturers that help provide a child-friendly online environment. These tools can also prevent children from disclosing online their name, address, and other personal data without parental permission.
We want to encourage younger users to understand their data privacy rights and develop confidence in their online choices. Our Sites and services allow the user to set their own privacy and cookie preferences (subject to the browser’s parental controls, if applicable). This Privacy Policy and our cookie preference centre explain what will happen with a user’s personal data if they change our default high privacy settings, but we also encourage younger users to speak to a responsible adult first before changing those default settings.
From you:
From third parties with your consent:
If you use your social media or streaming service (such as Facebook, X, Google, Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer or YouTube) account details to register or participate on a Site, for example to:
the social media or streaming platform will share with Sony Music your basic contact information and might also share what type of account you have and how you use your account (for example, what artists you follow, the songs you like, and your playlists).
Before we collect any of this data from your account, you’ll see a pop-up explaining what data will be shared and what actions we’ll be able to take on your account to carry out your request (like following an artist, or adding a track to your library), and asking if you agree. It’s always your choice. We won’t collect any information from or take any actions on your account unless you say we can. And you can always change your mind.
We’ll need your basic contact information and account access to carry out your request (such as pre- saving an artist’s new release, entering you into a contest, or adding you to the artist’s mailing list) but we might also use the information about how you use your account (also called “behavioural data”):
At any time, you can remove Sony Music’s access permissions on your account and stop the platform from sharing any more of your personal data with us, either by emailing us at musicinfo@sonymusic.com or changing the data privacy settings on your account page on the platform.
It’s okay if you don’t want us to collect information from your social media or streaming accounts. You’re in control, and we will always encourage you to make informed online choices that are right for you. You don’t need to share such platform account information to enjoy Sony Music content, sign up to an artist newsletter, enter a contest, or join in with most Sony Music campaigns. For example, you could fill in the form yourself, or pre-save the album next time you’re on your streaming account. However, we won’t be able to create certain personalised content for you without the right account information and permissions from such platform; such as an artist playlist based on your favourite songs, but you can still enjoy the artist’s official playlist on your streaming service.
We’ve set out below the information and access each platform may share with us, subject to your agreement and/or depending on your settings when using the platform:
Spotify By clicking the ‘Spotify Connect’ button on a Sony Music Site, and then clicking ‘Agree’ on the permissions pop-up, you agree to Spotify sharing the following personal and account information with Sony Music and letting us take certain actions on your account (until you remove those permissions and stop Spotify sharing your information with us):
Facebook By clicking the ‘Facebook’ button on a Sony Music Site, and clicking ‘Continue as… [your Facebook username]’ on the permissions pop-up, you agree to Facebook sharing the following personal and account information with Sony Music (for 60 days or until you remove those permissions and stop Facebook sharing your information with us, if sooner):
X (formerly Twitter) By clicking the ‘X’ or ‘Twitter’ button on a Sony Music Site, and clicking ‘Authorize app’ on the permissions pop-up, you agree to X sharing the following personal and account information with Sony Music (until you remove those permissions and stop X sharing your information with us):
YouTube By clicking the ‘YouTube’ button on a Sony Music Site, and clicking ‘Next’ on the permissions pop- up, you agree to YouTube sharing the following personal and account information with Sony Music and letting us take certain actions on your account (until you remove those permissions and stop YouTube sharing your information with us):
Deezer By clicking the ‘Deezer’ button on a Sony Music Site, and clicking ‘Accept’ on the permissions pop-up, you agree to Deezer sharing the following personal and account information with Sony Music and letting us take certain actions on your account (until you remove those permissions and stop Deezer sharing your information with us):
From online stores & paid subscriptions:
When you buy music and other content, subscribe to paid podcast content, or buy products from our Sites, you will be directed to a web page that is not controlled by Sony Music to complete your transaction. You might also buy merchandise from a Sony Music artist’s official store that is not controlled by Sony Music, which means the store may share with us the information listed below. These third-party sites will have a link to their own privacy policies, so you know which company is collecting your personal data and why. You should refer to those policies if you have any privacy- related questions about your purchase or subscription.
These third parties may share with us the following information relating to your purchase: • your personal data (such as email, name, country, as provided by you at checkout or when registering an account with the store); • transactional data (such as what you purchased, how much you spent and your billing city, but never your payment details); and • information about your actions and behaviours on the store.
Sony Music uses the above information for internal analytics so that we can better measure our audience, improve our product range, and enhance the Sony Music user experience. We also need to keep certain transactional data for reporting and accounting purposes.
Where you already receive marketing updates from Sony Music, or you opt-in to receive marketing when checking out on the store or at a later date, we may combine certain transactional and behavioural data (such as what you’ve bought previously and most recent billing city) with the personal data you provided when registering for marketing updates. We use this information to send you the marketing updates you’ve requested and to personalise that marketing content, which might include sending you information about other artists, products, or services based on your listening preferences or use that may be of interest to you. For example, we might let you know about new releases you may like, or relevant artists’ shows in your city.
By using cookies and other tracking technologies:
We use technology on our Sites, services, and content to collect information that helps us enhance your online experience, measure our audience, and provide you with personalised advertising and content based on your behaviour on our Sites, and interactions with our content, and, if applicable, your behaviour on the social media platforms and streaming services listed above. We call this technology "cookies" throughout this Privacy Policy, but we mean all similar technologies including web beacons, log files, pixel tags, gifs. For more information see the "Cookies and other tracking technologies" section below. Sometimes we receive information about you from third parties. For example, if you use a ‘like’ or a ‘share’ button for a feature on our Sites, then the third-party platform will share information with us. If you participate in activities on other third-party sites or apps, such as participating in a Facebook app, you may allow us to have access to personal data held by Facebook, or other site or app owners, as applicable.
Other sources of information:
We may receive information about you from other sources, including:
The above information may be combined with personal data we already have about you, which helps us to update, expand and analyse our records, identify new customers, and provide content and services that may be of interest to you.
We use the data collected via our content, Sites, and services as described in this Privacy Policy as follows:
(a) To fulfil a contract, or take actions linked to a contract, such as;
(b) Where Sony Music (or a company we work with) has a valid and important business reason for using the data. Those reasons are called our “legitimate interests”. For example:
When you share your details to receive marketing from Sony Music, we may personalise such marketing by combining the personal data and any other information provided by you with additional information lawfully collected by Sony Music (such as how you use a Site, and how you interact with Sony Music content and communications).
As mentioned above in the “How We Collect Your Data” section, when you access our services, take part in a campaign or otherwise interact with Sony Music by logging-in with your social media or streaming service account details, we will use the basic contact information and account access to carry out your request, but we may also combine your personal and behavioural data to:
(c) Where you give us consent:
(d) For reasons required by law:
We may share your personal data with the following categories of recipient: (a) Other Sony Music entities and Sony Group companies worldwide, for the purposes listed in the “How We Use Your Data” section above).
(b) Artists & artists’ managers so they can send you updates (where you have asked to receive marketing information about that artist).
(c) Suppliers and vendors, who perform services on our behalf to help us run our business, such as hosting or operating our Sites, sending e-mails, and carrying out data analysis.
(d) Other third parties if we need to for a valid business reason or legal purpose. For example, if Sony Music, or any part of it, is sold to another company.
We may also share with other third parties statistical data about purchases and the use of our content, which may include age ranges or geographic locations of groups of users, but no personal data (such as names or email addresses).
(e) To enforce legal rights and comply with applicable laws in special cases when we have reason to believe that sharing this data is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be trying to harm or interfere with the rights or property of Sony Group companies or artists, or to otherwise comply with applicable law. Personal data may be shared with government authorities and/or law enforcement (for example, the police) if we are instructed to do so by law or court order, or if required for the legal protection of our legitimate interests. (f) At your instruction or direction, we may share personal data, including when you decide to participate in certain types of activities that require your personal data to be shared. For example, your personal data may be shared with:
When you upload User Submissions via a Sony Music form as part of a “user-generated-content” opportunity, if we include your content in the final product then anyone will be able to see it. For example, we may publish an online gallery, or make a video featuring clips from contest winners’ videos along with first name and city. If you’re under 18, you’ll need your parent’s or guardian’s permission before you can share your content with us.
The personal data we collect about you may be transferred to, or stored or processed in, a different country to where you live, including a place in the USA, or another country outside the UK or European Union. For example, if we or a company that we work with (a “service provider”) has servers located outside the UK or European Union; or if one of our service providers is based in a country outside the UK or European Union; or if we share your data (as described in the “How we share your data” section above) then personal data may be transferred abroad. We make sure your data is safe in these other places by checking the relevant country’s data privacy laws, and, if extra protection is needed, we might add special wording in our contracts or rely on other recognised ways to safely transfer personal data.
What is a cookie? Cookies are text files containing small amounts of coded information that are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each future visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user's device.
Cookies help us to improve our Sites and to deliver a better and more personalised experience, for example, by storing information about how you use our Sites and allowing us to recognise you when you return to a Site. You may refuse to accept cookies by changing the privacy settings on your internet browser (such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Google Chrome), but this can mean certain parts of the Site may not work properly. The information we collect may include IP addresses, browser version, number of visits, which pages you access and what you do and the choices you make on the Site.
We use the following categories of cookies on our Sites, marketing content and services:
Category 1: Strictly Necessary Cookies We need these cookies so that you can move around the Site and use its features. Without these cookies, services you have asked for (like shopping basket items) cannot be provided. We don’t use these cookies to gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you've been on the internet.
Category 2: Performance Cookies These cookies collect information on how a Site is used. For example, which pages are most popular, or if a page doesn’t work properly. We can’t identify you from these cookies. They’re only used to improve how a website works.
Category 3: Functionality Cookies These cookies remember choices you make on the Site, for example your language or the country you’re in. These can then be used to make your future visits easier for you. We don’t identify you personally from these cookies, and they cannot track your activity on other websites.
Category 4: Targeting cookies or advertising cookies These cookies collect information about your habits online, so the adverts you see are more relevant to you. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advert, and to help measure how well an advertising campaign is working. The cookies are usually placed by advertising companies with the website owner’s permission. These cookies remember the websites you visit, which is then shared with other companies, such as advertisers. This is why you might have seen adverts on your social media feed about something you’ve just been looking at on another website. If you’re under 18, you won’t see personalised adverts anymore on certain sites, like your Facebook feed or Google.
Category 5: Social Media Cookies These cookies allow you to share on your social media accounts what you’ve been doing on our Sites. We don’t control these cookies, and this information may be used for advertising purposes. Check out each social media platform’s privacy & cookie policies to understand how their cookies work.
Consent to Cookies We need your consent to place cookies on your device. You’ll see a cookies banner at the bottom of all our Sites. You can either click: • ‘Accept All’ cookies, • ‘Reject All’ cookies, or • ‘Manage Cookies’ for more information, and to choose which type of cookies to accept or reject. If you do not change the default setting, we will only collect “Strictly Necessary Cookies”, which we need so you can move around the Site and access its content. If you don’t want to receive cookies at all, you can change your internet browser settings, but this can mean certain parts of our Sites may not work properly. If you’re under 18, speak to your parent or guardian if you’re not sure how to change those settings. If you’ve given us permission to use cookies, you can still change your mind at any time by changing your browser settings. You can also use your browser settings to delete cookies that have already been set (it might be called “clear history” or “clear cookie cache”). The ‘Help’ function on your browser should tell you how; or ask your parent of guardian for help. If you want to know more about cookies, visit www.aboutcookies.org, If don’t want to see any personalised advertising, visit www.youronlinechoices.eu. Opting out doesn’t mean you won’t receive online advertising, just that the adverts you see won’t be based on the website pages you’ve visited.
We may allow you to create a profile on our Sites for accessing blogs or online communities for sharing User Submissions. Separate terms & conditions may apply to User Submissions on our Sites and third- party platforms, which you should read before submitting content. To take part in certain Community Forums, you may be asked to select a username, screen name or member name and password; please do not use your real name or email address or the real name of another person when choosing a username (or screen name or member name). Please note that we cannot control the actions of other people who you may choose to share your pages and information with. Anything you post to a Community Forum is public, and others will have access to your User Submission(s), and may view, collect, and use that information or share it with third parties. If you choose to voluntarily post your User Submissions, the protections of this Privacy Policy will not cover such sharing of information. We encourage you to think carefully before you post, and to use caution before sharing any personal data in Community Forums and other online communities.
We may also allow you to post content from some of our Sites to your profile on social media networks. You can access these services from our Sites using Facebook Connect, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), or other Open ID providers. These services will confirm your identity and allow you to post and share certain personal data or other information with that site. Please be aware that the privacy policy of that third-party site or service will apply to any content you provide them in these instances. We do not allow these services to provide any personal data or content back to our Sites unless you agree to participate in such Community Forums. To request removal of your personal data from a Community Forum, contact musicinfo@sonymusic.com. If we cannot remove your personal data, we will let you know the reason why.
Widgets and Social Media Plug-Ins: Our Sites may include interactive mini programs that provide specific services from another company (such as, displaying news feeds, playing music or video, ‘liking’ or sharing content, etc.), often referred to as “widgets” or “plug-ins”. You may be able to share personal data, such as your email address, for collection through a widget. A widget may also use browser or Flash cookies and/or collect clickstream and usage data. The company that created the widget will have its own privacy policy, and any information collected by the widget will be subject to that privacy policy.
If you live in the UK or the European Union, you have the following data protection rights, and you can use them at any time: (a) Withdraw your consent – If you’ve given us permission to collect and use your data, you can change your mind at any time. We’ll stop using your data when you withdraw consent, unless we have another valid reason to carry on using it for another purpose (see the “How We Use Your Data” above). At any time, you can change your mind about receiving direct marketing (that’s called “opting out”), and you can ask us to stop using your data for profiling (that’s where we personalise your marketing content). • It’s easy to withdraw consent – you can: o email us at musicinfo@sonymusic.com; or o click the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of any marketing email we send you; or o click on the ‘Manage Your Preferences’ link at the bottom of any marketing email we send you, and then update your newsletter subscriptions in the Sony Music preference centre. • To stop your social media or streaming accounts sharing any more information with us, change your data-sharing preferences in the account section of each relevant platform. (b) Access your data – You can ask Sony Music to confirm whether we’re processing your personal data, and if we are, the types of data and how we’re using it. You can also request a copy of your personal data, which we’ll send to you in a simple format, as long as that won’t negatively affect someone else’s rights. Email your request to musicinfo@sonymusic.com. (c) Modify, correct, delete, or restrict your data - • If you believe the personal data we might have about you is wrong or incomplete, you can ask us to change or fix it by: o emailing us at musicinfo@sonymusic.com; or o if it relates to a newsletter subscription, clicking on the ‘Manage Your Preferences’ link at the bottom of any marketing email we send you, and then updating your subscriptions in the Sony Music preference centre.
If there is a valid reason why we can’t carry out your request, we will let you know. You also have the right to complain to the relevant data protection authority. In the UK, that’s the Information Commissioner’s Office (or the ICO). Here’s a link: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.
If you want to learn more about data privacy and your rights, please talk to your parent or guardian, and have a read together of our more detailed Privacy Policy here.
EMAIL: musicinfo@sonymusic.com. POSTAL ADDRESS: Sony Music Privacy Office, Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited, 2 Canal Reach, London, N1C 4DB.
Our Sites may contain links to other websites that are outside our control and are not covered by this Privacy Policy. If you access other sites using the links provided, the companies that own these sites may collect and process information from you in a way that is different to how we do so. We encourage you to read these other sites’ privacy and cookie policies.
We might update this Privacy Policy at any time, so check back for the latest version or if you want to remind yourself of your data privacy rights or access more information. Last updated: March 21st, 2024