Here’s How SoundCloud’s Monetization Plan Will Affect You
We’re going to take a wild guess and say you use SoundCloud. You’ve likely even wondered how the platform makes money. The company got one step closer to answering that question by announcing their monetization plan today. Here’s how it will affect your listening experience:
If you’re a listener
Here’s the simple truth: SoundCloud will start running ads, letting artists and record labels collect royalties for the first time ever. Just like Spotify, forthcoming subscription services will let users skip those ads… for a price.
If you’re a producer
SoundCloud is introducing On SoundCloud, a three-tiered platform consisting of Partner, Pro and Premier levels. Partner has been designed with new artists in mind, allowing them to post their tracks for free and get basic stats and analytics. For those wanting extra storage and the ability to pin their favorite songs to their profile, Pro is the way to go. Pro plans start at $6/month and also come with extensive stats and analytics. Premier lets artists make money off their uploads through promotional opportunities (Red Bull, Jaguar and Comedy Central have already signed on), exclusive features and more. The catch: Premier-level partnerships are invite-only.
These changes come in part as a result of licensing and copyright infringement lawsuits, many of which have directly affected dance music artists. Kaskade, for example, had 70% of the content he uploaded to SoundCloud pulled because of copyright issues, an act he did not take sitting down. By running ads and introducing On SoundCloud, the site hopes to earn artists and labels royalties from their music, which has been a major point of contention with the current model. As for how the plan will affect its 200+ million user base, we’ll leave that up to you to decide.
