SoundCloud to introduce advertising and paid subscriptions

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With 175 million listeners around the world each month, music streaming service SoundCloud has become near ubiquitous, particularly in the fast-moving world of dance music, where releases and remixes often premiere on SoundCloud months before getting an official label release.

But the free ride for listeners is about to end. SoundCloud’s lack of royalty or licensing deals with record labels means it’s been plagued by threats of legal action over copyright infringement, as well as by complaints from artists for taking down content deemed to infringe copyright (most memorably by electronic artist Kaskade, who criticised the service after it deleted tracks from his page owned by the producer’s former label Ultra).

Earlier this year news surfaced that Twitter was considering buying SoundCloud, a move which would likely have forced SoundCloud into acquiring licenses with record labels. It now appears that SoundCloud has taken the matter into its own hands, as The New York Times reports that “as part of a new licensing deal with entertainment companies, SoundCloud will begin incorporating advertising and for the first time let artists and record labels collect royalties.”

According to The New York Times, “major labels and some independents are negotiating with SoundCloud for equity stakes in the company; in exchange, the labels will agree not to sue SoundCloud over past copyright infringements.” SoundCloud has also announced that it will introduce a Premier subscription service for users that will allow ad-free streaming.

The news comes as online mix and radio streaming service Mixcloud announced that it’s also introducing two new subscription packages: Mixcloud Premium and Mixcloud Pro. The Premium service, costing US$6.99 a month, allows users ad-free streaming, while the US$15 a month Pro service gives artists and content creators a ““sophisticated analytics dashboard,” as The Next Web reports. Meanwhile, both YouTube and Beatport have indicated this week that they plan to enter the music streaming market.

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