Privacy

Last updated 2026-09-21

This page covers two things: the Visualise Music desktop app, which you point at a folder of audio to get a map of what sounds like what, and the Freesound map on this website. In short: neither sends your audio, your file names or your maps to anyone, and there is no account and no tracking. During the beta, the app sends us only what you choose to send — a bug report, an idea, a survey answer, a thumbs up or a correction — and, only if you switch it on, anonymous usage statistics. None of it contains your audio, file names or folder paths. The app and the site also download things from a few other services, which can see your IP address when they do. Everything is listed below.

Who is responsible

Visualise Music is made by Alex Marshall, an individual based in the United Kingdom, who is the data controller for the purposes of UK data protection law. Contact: alex@visualise.music.

The desktop app

Your audio stays on your machine

The folder you add is read, analysed and drawn on your own computer. Your audio, file names, folder paths, analysis results and maps are never uploaded anywhere. Nothing about your library is sent to us as part of normal use.

Beta feedback and usage statistics

While the app is in beta it can send feedback to us, always because you did something to send it:

Reports you write from the Feedback button or a Report button: what you typed, the type of report, and, if you leave Include technical details ticked, the app version, your operating system, processor, memory, display scale, whether you have an NVIDIA graphics card, counts about your libraries (how many samples, how many failed), recent messages from the app and the last lines of its logs. You can see exactly what will be sent before you send it.
Survey answers: the optional questions about you (how you make music, which DAW, library size), what you would pay, and a short check-in after a couple of weeks.
Ratings and corrections: a thumbs up or down on a “sounds like” match, or a corrected tempo, key or drum role. These describe the sounds by their features (length, format, drum role, family, similarity score), never by name.
Crash reports, only if you press Send when the app asks after closing unexpectedly.
Your email address, only if you type it into a report because you would like a reply or launch news, or your Microsoft account email in the Beta reward window so we can give you a beta reward.
Usage statistics, off unless you switch them on (at first launch or in About): counts of which features you use and how long builds take for how many samples.

Before anything leaves your computer, the app replaces every folder path and audio file name with a placeholder such as <library> or <file>, and our server refuses anything that still looks like one. Each install is identified only by a random tester number, which has nothing to do with you, your files or your Microsoft account.

Starting the app does not contact our beta service. The app asks it whether the beta is still open at most once a day, and only when you send something, have usage statistics switched on, or open one of the beta windows; that request carries nothing about you, your library or your tester number. If you buy the full version through our website checkout, the checkout receives the tester number so the purchase can unlock your copy, and after the beta a copy holding such a licence sends its tester number to check it at most once a week. A copy from the Microsoft Store relies on the Store's own licence and never makes that check.

Restoring a purchase. If you reinstall or move to a new computer, Restore a purchase asks for the email address you bought with. The service emails a one-time code to that address, through ZeptoMail as below, and keeps the address with the code for 15 minutes, until the code is used or runs out; entering the code moves your licence to the new copy.

Feedback is received and stored by a service we run on Cloudflare (privacy policy), and reports that need a reply are forwarded to our own inbox through Zoho ZeptoMail (privacy policy). Both see your IP address when the app connects; we do not store it. If the app is offline, feedback waits on your computer and is sent later.

To delete it, press Delete my beta data in the app's About window: everything stored under your tester number is erased and the app starts again with a new one. Or email us with the tester number shown there.

What the app downloads, and from where

What the app downloads depends on where you got it. Every request is a plain download, and none of them includes anything about your audio. Like any download, the server can see your IP address and basic request details such as software versions.

From the Microsoft Store, the app comes with everything it needs, including the default audio model, and downloads nothing on its own. It never runs its own update check: Windows and the Store handle updates, under Microsoft's privacy statement. It only downloads when you ask it to:

GPU support, about 2.5 GB, if your computer has an NVIDIA graphics card and you press Use the GPU. It comes from download.pytorch.org, run by the PyTorch Foundation (privacy policy).
An alternative audio model, about 780 MB each, if you choose one of the two alternatives, from Hugging Face (privacy policy).

From this website, the installer is kept small, so the app downloads its analysis tools the first time you set it up:

Python packages, about 1–1.4 GB, from the Python Package Index (privacy notice). GPU support, if you choose it, comes from download.pytorch.org as above.
The audio model, about 600 MB for the default model and about 780 MB for each of the two alternatives if you pick one, from Hugging Face (privacy policy). The app only goes back to Hugging Face for a model that is not already on your machine.
Update check. Once each time the app starts, it asks a release feed hosted on GitHub whether a newer version exists (GitHub's privacy statement). The request contains nothing about you or your library. If you are offline, the app skips it without saying anything. If you install an update, it is downloaded from the same place.

What the app stores on your computer

All of this is kept in the app's own folders on your machine. The app never writes to the folders you add; it only reads them.

Your libraries and maps: the list of folders you have added, including their full paths, plus each folder's map, analysis results and analysis cache. On Windows this is in %APPDATA%\com.visualisemusic.desktop, and on Linux in ~/.local/share/com.visualisemusic.desktop.
Rebuildable data: the Python environment (or, in the Microsoft Store version, any GPU support you have added), the downloaded models, playback copies of your audio, and logs from recent runs. Logs can include file names from your library. On Windows this is in %LOCALAPPDATA%\com.visualisemusic.desktop, and on Linux in the same folder as above. It can run to several gigabytes, and deleting it only means the app will download or rebuild it.

The Microsoft Store version usually keeps both folders in a private folder Windows gives each Store app, under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages, and Windows removes them when you uninstall the app. The installer from this website instead asks, with a separate checkbox for each folder. On Linux, or to remove things by hand, delete the folders listed above.

The Freesound map on this website

The Freesound map is a single static page hosted on GitHub Pages. It has no account, no cookies, no analytics and no tracking.

Hosting. Like any web host, GitHub records your IP address when you load the page (GitHub's privacy statement). We do not receive those logs.
Sound previews. When you play or download a sound, your browser fetches the preview file directly from Freesound, which can see your IP address (Freesound's privacy policy).
Original files. The map does not sign in to Freesound or use its API. Each sound links to its page on freesound.org, where you can download the uploader's original file. If you used the earlier Freesound sign-in, the page deletes the credential and token it stored in your browser the next time you open it. You can also revoke that access from your Freesound settings.
Your settings, such as layout, looping, tempo, key and the list of sounds you have picked, are saved in your browser's local storage so they are still there next time. They never leave your device, and clearing this site's data in your browser removes them.
Support button. The coffee-cup button opens Buy Me a Coffee. Nothing is sent unless you click it, and what happens on that site falls under their privacy policy.
Download button. Installers are downloaded from GitHub Releases, which falls under GitHub's privacy statement.

Legal basis and what we keep

Apart from beta feedback, we hold no personal data about users of the app or the website. The IP address that download services see is handled under their own policies, linked above; the app makes those requests because it cannot work without them, and the update check keeps it secure and up to date. That is our legitimate interest in providing software that works.

Beta feedback you choose to send is used to fix problems and decide what to build, which is our legitimate interest in developing the app; usage statistics are sent only with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time in About. An email you give for a beta reward is used only to give you the reward you asked for, which is the basis for keeping it. To apply a reward price to your account, we add that email to a private customer list in Microsoft Partner Center, which Microsoft handles under its privacy statement. We remove it from the list and delete it once the reward period ends. We keep beta feedback until twelve months after the beta ends, then delete it, apart from anonymous totals. We will quote what you wrote only if you ticked You may quote me, and then by first name only.

If you email us, we keep your message and email address only as long as we need them to deal with your question, and use them for nothing else.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask for access to, correction of, or deletion of personal data we hold about you, and you can object to how it is used. Email the address above to do so. If you are unhappy with the answer, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Changes

If the app or the site starts handling data differently, this page will be updated before that version is released, and the date at the top will change.