What Sonic keeps, and what it doesn’t, for each thing you give it.
Last updated 30 September 2026.
When you tap Listen, your phone turns what it hears into fingerprints, short numbers that describe the sound, and sends only those to Sonic to find the record. The audio stays on your device, and nothing is kept.
A full reading on Listen, a bounce you drop into Aim a track, or the 30 seconds Aim a track records from your microphone is sent to Sonic’s reader, which runs on Modal, a cloud computing service. The audio is split into its parts and measured in a temporary folder that is deleted when the reading finishes. The reading itself, a set of numbers rather than audio, is held briefly so your page can collect it.
When Aim a track tries each part to find what moves your track most, the same clip goes through the reader once more, in the same way. If you ask to hear the separated parts of a recording, they are sent back to your device and not kept.
Aim a track remembers each bounce’s reading and how close it came to your target on your device only, in your browser’s storage, under the file name you gave it. Clearing this site’s data in your browser removes it.
Loops you drop into What to make’s pack check are sent to the reader, measured as they are, compared, and deleted. They are not kept, and they are not used to train anything.
A Rekordbox or Traktor collection, or a playlist, you import into Build a set is read and matched on your device; the file is never uploaded. The matched library is kept in your browser’s storage so you don’t have to import it again. Clearing this site’s data removes it.
A set you build stays on your device. A share link carries the set inside the link itself: Sonic doesn’t store shared sets.
If you ask for access, Sonic keeps your email address, what you told us you do, any note you add, and which page you asked from, so that we can invite you. These are stored in a database run by Upstash. Your IP address is not stored: it is used only in scrambled form, day by day, to stop repeated requests. We keep your request until you ask us to delete it.
If you take part in the listening test, Sonic keeps a random id made on your device, each yes or no you give, whether you said you make or sell sample packs, and the scenes you picked. It is used only to count how many listeners judged each loop usable.
Signing in sets one cookie that records that you have signed in. It holds no personal details.
Sonic uses Google Analytics to count visits and which features are used, for example that a bounce was read, never what was in it. Google signals and ad personalisation are switched off. Google Analytics sets its own cookies.
The switch applies to this browser, from your next page load.
Record details and previews come from Beatport. DJ tracklists come from MixesDB, used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence. Suggested loops are openly licensed loops from Freesound, each under its own licence and linked to its page there.
The only personal details Sonic stores are access requests. To see yours, or have it deleted, email benpmcewen@gmail.com from the address you used, and we will reply and act on it.