Today SoundCloud announced that the Warner Music Group is the first partner for its upcoming subscription service.
The service is due to launch in the first half of 2015 and will be supported through the ‘On SoundCloud‘ ad program, which was first introduced in August to help artists make some money from their creations.
As part of the deal with WMG, artists are given control over the availability of their content, and can make money from remixes and mash-ups of their music made by the site’s users. This, of course, in addition to additional revenue every time a song is played.
It’s a major move by a platform that’s been primarily known as a place for indie artists and DJs to share their music and remixes for free . Neither labels nor artists made any money from SoundCloud until this summer, and its success was built largely on the engagement of fans.
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Now that it’s partnering with such a large music group, the company and its artists gain a significant source of potential revenue, while keeping the unique collection of underground music and remixes SoundCloud is known for.
We’ll keep an eye out if any other major music groups are added. Who knows, maybe Taylor Swift will like SoundCloud more than Spotify.
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