Privacy
Last updated 8 November 2026
This page explains what Music One knows about you, why, and how long we keep it. It covers musicone.fm, the player at play.musicone.fm, the Music One app, our streams and our emails.
The short version
- We never sell your information, and we never give it to anyone else for their own use.
- No advertising and no tracking companies: no Google Analytics, no Facebook pixel, no ad networks.
- You can listen without an account and without telling us anything.
- We keep listening records because the law requires us to pay royalties on every song we play. What we report to royalty bodies is numbers only, never anything about you.
- Ask us at any time for a copy of what we hold about you, or to delete it: privacy@musiconeradio.com.
What we collect, and why
When you listen
To send you the stream, our stream server has to know your internet (IP) address. For each connection it records your IP address, the time, how long you listened and the name of the player or app you used.
- Why: to pay royalties to the artists and songwriters. Royalty bodies need to know how many people heard each song, and those figures come from these records. They also help us fix problems with the stream and keep it free of abuse.
- We work out roughly where you are (your country, and sometimes your city) from your IP address. This is done on our own server, with a location database we keep there (from DB-IP). Your address is never sent to anyone to look it up. We use it to count listeners by country, and to play the right version of the station where we run regional versions.
- Separately, we keep a record of each listening session: when it started and ended, and the country. This record does not hold your IP address. It's what our royalty reports are built from.
When you vote on a song
Your ❤️ and 💀 votes shape what we play. When you vote, we store the vote, the song, the date and a random ID that your browser or the app makes up the first time you vote. That ID says nothing about who you are; it lets us count one vote per song a day.
We also store a scrambled (one-way hashed) form of your IP address with the vote, so we can spot one person voting many times. We don't store the address itself.
When you sign in with Apple or Google
Signing in is optional. If you do, Apple or Google tells us your name, your email address and an account ID of theirs. If you use Apple's "Hide My Email", we only get the private relay address Apple gives us. We never get your password. We store these details, the date you last signed in, and the votes you make while signed in.
To keep you signed in, we set a cookie on play.musicone.fm (see On your device). You can sign out, or delete your account, in the player under your name. Deleting your account removes your name, email and sign-ins. Your votes stay, with nothing linking them to you.
When you join our email list
We store your email address, your first name if you give it, and when and where you signed up (on the website, in the app, or carried over from our previous email service). Our emails are sent by Amazon's email service on our behalf. In each email:
- A small image tells us when you open it. If your email app blocks images, we don't see this.
- Links tell us when you click them. Links to musicone.fm carry a tag, so we can see when you visit the website after coming from one of our emails. Your browser keeps the tag, so later visits are noted too. We only note the date of your visit, not what you do on the site.
We use this to see whether our emails are worth sending, and to know who is still interested. You can unsubscribe with the link in any email. We then keep your email address with a note that you unsubscribed, so you're never added back by mistake. If you'd rather we removed it completely, email us.
When you sign up, we use your IP address for up to an hour to stop automated sign-ups. It isn't saved.
If you reply to one of our emails, we keep your message so we can read it and answer it.
When you message the studio
You can send the studio a WhatsApp message or a text on +1 212 682 0111. We keep your phone number, the name on your WhatsApp profile, what you sent (including any voice note or photo), when you sent it, the song that was on air, and the song you asked for if you named one. We use it to read your message, answer you and perhaps play or mention it on air. In the studio, only the last four digits of your number are shown.
WhatsApp messages come to us through Meta's WhatsApp service; texts and calls through Twilio. Once a text has reached us, we delete Twilio's copy. The number doesn't take calls: if you call, you hear a short message and the call ends. Nothing is recorded, though Twilio keeps its usual record that the call happened (your number and the time).
Messages are deleted after 90 days, unless we use one in a show, in which case it's kept with the show. If we block a number (for abuse or spam), we keep the number so its messages stay blocked. We never message you first: we only reply to you, and on WhatsApp only within 24 hours of your last message.
When you play us on Sonos
If you choose Play on Sonos, you sign in to your Sonos account on Sonos's own page; we never see your Sonos password. Sonos gives us a key that lets us list your Sonos rooms and tell one to play or stop our stream, and nothing else. We keep that key, linked to your browser (a cookie) or to the app (a code kept on your phone), until you choose Forget Sonos, or for a year after you last used it. Your speakers then connect to our stream server themselves, like any other listener.
VIP listening links
If you become a VIP, we give you a personal listening link. Your browser or the app remembers it, so you don't need to keep the link. When you listen with it, we note when you last listened, and your votes are counted as VIP votes. We can switch off one person's link without affecting anyone else.
What we don't collect
We don't run analytics or advertising trackers. We don't record which pages you look at, what you search for or where you go after leaving our site. We don't take payments today; if we ever do, the card details will be handled by a payment company and never reach us, and we'll update this page first.
On your device: cookies and local storage
We only store what makes the site or app work for you. Nothing here is used for advertising or tracking across other websites.
| Name | What it's for | How long |
|---|---|---|
| musicone_listener | Cookie on play.musicone.fm that keeps you signed in. Only set if you sign in. | 1 year, or until you sign out |
| musicone_signin | Cookie used while you sign in with Apple or Google, so we can bring you back to the right page. | 10 minutes |
| musicone.voter | The random voting ID described above. | Until you clear your browser's data |
| musicone.votes | What you voted today, so the buttons show it. | Until you clear your browser's data |
| musicone.key | Your private or VIP listening link, if you have one. | Until you clear your browser's data |
| musicone.sub | The tag from our emails, if you came from one. Lets us note the date of your visits. | Until you clear your browser's data |
| musicone_sonos | Cookie on play.musicone.fm that remembers you connected Sonos. Only set if you do. | 1 year, or until you choose Forget Sonos |
| musicone_sonos_signin | Cookie used while you connect Sonos, so we can bring you back to the right page. | 10 minutes |
| musicone.format | The stream quality you picked, if you picked one. | Until you clear your browser's data |
| musicone.volume | Your volume, so the player starts where you left it. | Until you clear your browser's data |
| musicone.pending-vote | A vote you tapped before signing in, so it counts when you come back. | Until you close the tab |
The app keeps the same kind of things on your phone: its voting ID, today's votes, and the stream and region you chose, and, if you connect Sonos, a code in the phone's secure storage. Deleting the app removes them. On iPhone, the app asks to look for devices on your local network: it only looks for Sonos speakers, and only after you tap the speaker button.
Mixcloud shows. The "Mixes and shows" section on musicone.fm gets its list of shows and their pictures from Mixcloud, so Mixcloud sees your IP address when the page loads. Mixcloud's own player, and any cookies it sets, only load when you press play on a show. Mixcloud's use of that information is covered by Mixcloud's privacy policy.
Who else handles your information
We don't sell or share your information. A few companies run parts of the service for us. They only handle it to do that job for us, and aren't allowed to use it for anything else:
- Amazon Web Services runs our servers and database, and sends our emails (in the United States).
- NatcoWeb hosts the servers our streams play from, which is where the listening records above are made.
- Apple and Google, only if you choose to sign in with them.
- Meta (WhatsApp) and Twilio carry your messages to the studio, if you send us one.
- Sonos, only if you choose Play on Sonos.
- Apple's App Store delivers the app. Apple's own privacy terms cover what it collects there.
Royalty reports go to the bodies that collect royalties for artists and songwriters. They contain numbers only: how many times each song played and how many people were listening. They never include your name, email or IP address.
We would only hand over personal information if the law made us, for example under a court order.
How long we keep it
- Stream server records (with IP addresses): 3 years, because royalty bodies can ask us to back up our reports for that long. Then they're deleted.
- Listening sessions and votes (no IP addresses): kept, as the station's history and for royalties.
- Your account: until you delete it.
- Messages to the studio: 90 days, unless used in a show. Blocked numbers: until we unblock them.
- Your Sonos connection: until you choose Forget Sonos, or a year after you last used it.
- The email list: until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove you. Emails you send us arrive through a mailbox that deletes them after 90 days; we keep the replies in our studio's inbox so we can follow up.
Your choices and rights
Wherever you live, you can ask us to:
- tell you what we hold about you, and give you a copy;
- correct it;
- delete it (we'll keep only what the law requires, such as the royalty records above);
- stop using it for something, such as tracking our emails.
Email privacy@musiconeradio.com and we'll reply within 30 days. You can also act yourself: unsubscribe from any email, delete your account in the player, clear your browser's data for musicone.fm and play.musicone.fm, or turn off images in your email app.
If you're in the UK or the European Union, data protection law gives you these rights, and you can complain to your data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office). We rely on these legal bases: your consent for our emails and for tracking them; our legitimate interest in running the station, counting votes fairly and keeping it secure; and our legal obligation to report and pay royalties. Your information is stored in the United States.
If you're in California: we don't sell or share personal information as California law defines it, and we don't respond differently to "Do Not Track" signals because we don't track you across other sites in the first place.
Children
Music One isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them. If you think a child has signed up or joined our list, tell us and we'll delete it.
Changes to this page
If we change what we collect or how we use it, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If it's a big change, we'll tell people on our email list before it happens.
Contact
Questions about your privacy, or any of the above: privacy@musiconeradio.com.