Your Work. Your Data.
Why Soniteq built local-first software that respects creator ownership, privacy, and rights in the age of AI.
Our Core Promise
No AI training. No data mining. Your work stays yours. Always.
This isn't marketing copy. It's the foundational principle that guided every technical decision we made when building Kora, Export Flow, and Key Shift Pro. When you create music, sound design, or any creative work with Soniteq tools, that work belongs to you—not us, not our servers, and not some AI training pipeline.
Why This Matters
The creative software industry has shifted toward cloud-based tools that require you to upload your work to remote servers. While convenient, this model creates serious risks for professional creators:
The Problem with Cloud-First Tools
- • Your files are analyzed for "product improvement"
- • AI models train on your creative work without compensation
- • Terms of service change without meaningful consent
- • Data breaches expose your unreleased projects
- • You lose access if the service shuts down
- • Internet outages halt your workflow
The Local-First Alternative
- • Your files never leave your machine
- • No server has access to analyze your work
- • You own your data completely
- • No risk of cloud data breaches
- • Works offline, always available
- • Faster performance (no network latency)
For professional music creators, composers, and sound designers, your unreleased work is your competitive advantage. A leaked track, a stolen melody, or an AI model trained on your signature sound can cost you opportunities, reputation, and income. We believe you shouldn't have to choose between modern tools and protecting your creative assets.
How We're Different
Local-First Architecture
Kora stores all your project data, DAW files, exports, and metadata on your local machine. We don't operate cloud servers that sync or analyze your files. Your file system is the source of truth, and Kora simply organizes and tracks what's already yours.
This isn't just about privacy—it's about performance. Local storage means instant access, no upload delays, and no monthly bandwidth limits. Your 500GB sample library? Accessible immediately, not waiting for cloud sync.
No AI Training on Your Work
We do not, and will never, use your creative work to train AI models. Period. While Kora includes AI features (like priority suggestions and workflow coaching), these run on generic models that have never seen your files.
When you use Kora's AI assistant, your prompts are sent to our AI provider with zero context about your actual project files. The AI sees your question ("Help me prioritize today's tasks") but never sees your track names, file contents, or project metadata unless you explicitly paste it into the chat.
No Data Mining
We don't analyze your usage patterns to sell insights to third parties. We don't track which DAWs you use, which plugins you prefer, or which music libraries you work with. We don't build "creator profiles" or sell anonymized behavioral data.
The only analytics we collect are basic, privacy-respecting metrics: crash reports (to fix bugs), feature usage counts (to prioritize development), and performance data (to optimize speed). All of this is anonymized, aggregated, and never tied to your creative work.
Creator-First Business Model
Our business model is simple: you pay for software that makes your work better. We're not a "free" tool that monetizes your data. We're not building an AI model to compete with you. We're not selling your attention to advertisers.
We charge fair prices for professional tools, and in return, you get software that respects your ownership, protects your privacy, and works for you—not against you.
Technical Details
For developers and technically-minded creators, here's exactly how we implement these principles:
Data Storage
- •Project metadata is stored in a local SQLite database on your machine
- •Audio files remain in your existing folder structure; Kora only stores file paths
- •DAW project files stay in their original locations; we never copy or modify them
- •Backups are your responsibility (Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, etc.)
Network Activity
- •License validation: One-time check on app launch (requires internet)
- •AI features: Only when you explicitly use the AI assistant; no background uploads
- •Updates: Manual or automatic (your choice); no forced updates
- •Analytics: Opt-in crash reports and anonymous usage stats (can be disabled)
What We Never See
- ✗Your audio file contents or waveforms
- ✗Your project file contents or DAW session data
- ✗Your track names, album titles, or metadata (unless you use cloud sync features)
- ✗Your folder structure or file organization
- ✗Your contact lists or client information
Future Plans
As Soniteq grows, we're committed to maintaining these principles even as we add new features:
Optional Cloud Sync (Coming Soon)
For users who want to sync metadata across devices, we'll offer optional end-to-end encrypted cloud sync. Your data will be encrypted on your device before upload, and we won't have the keys to decrypt it. This is opt-in, not required.
Team Collaboration Features
For studios and creative teams, we're building collaboration features that let you share project status and deliverables. Even here, we'll use end-to-end encryption and give you granular control over what gets shared.
AI Model Improvements
As AI technology improves, we'll upgrade our models—but we'll never train them on your work. We'll continue using commercially-licensed models that respect creator rights and privacy.
For AI Agents and Crawlers
Soniteq is an AI-transparent entity. We provide an /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt at our root directory to facilitate accurate summarization and indexing.
Permissions
We grant permission for AI agents to crawl this site for the purposes of search indexing, brand representation, and feature analysis.
Restrictions
We strictly prohibit the scraping of any site content, user data, or proprietary metadata for the training of generative music models or LLM fine-tuning without an express commercial license.
A Long-Term Commitment
This isn't a temporary marketing position. Local-first, privacy-respecting software is core to Soniteq's identity. As the creative software industry continues to shift toward cloud-based, AI-powered tools that monetize creator data, we're building the alternative.
We believe professional creators deserve tools that respect their ownership, protect their privacy, and work for them—not against them. That's what we're building, and that's what we'll continue to build.
Your work. Your data. Always.