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SoundCloud opens up Premier monetisation programme to more artists

By | Published on Wednesday 10 October 2018

SoundCloud

SoundCloud has announced that is opening up its Premier programme – where creators can opt-in to share any advertising and subscription revenue the firm generates around their content – more widely.

SoundCloud, of course, placated an increasingly angry music community a few years back by introducing advertising and subscriptions on its platform and then entering into licensing deals with the record labels, music publishers and collecting societies, so the music industry could share in that income.

However, for more grassroots creators, that option was initially only available on an ad hoc and invite-only basis, unlike YouTube, which makes monetisation available to any creator once they pass certain subscriber numbers and viewing hours.

SoundCloud did open up its Premier programme to some DJs and producers last year. And with this latest development, Premier will become available to any music creators on SoundCloud’s Pro and Pro Unlimited tiers – ie all the people who pay to publish music content on the platform. The new option to tap some of that ad and subscription money will be included in those creator’s existing pro subscription packages.

“SoundCloud is the world’s largest open audio platform, with content from more than 20 million creators”, says CEO Kerry Trainor. “Expanding SoundCloud Premier’s direct monetisation offering from thousands, to hundreds of thousands of eligible creators is an exciting step in our commitment to empowering as many creators as possible to grow their careers first on SoundCloud”.

To be eligible to join the Premier party, Pro or Pro Unlimited users on SoundCloud need to be over eighteen, be posting original music, and have no copyright strikes on their accounts. Here’s a little video explainer:

Elsewhere in SoundCloud news, the company recently updating its ad sales contracts. In the UK, it will continue to use DAX to serve up advertising, while in the US Pandora has won the contract, via its recently acquired AdsWizz company. SoundCloud was already working with AdsWizz, so it’s not that big a change.



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