NEWS
EVENTS
The State of $oundCloud
Other | Thursday 6th November 2014 | edhowe
Major label syncing deals, stricter uploading laws and the OnSoundCloud advertisement scheme are set to cause controversy with SoundCloud users
Merging with Warner Music Group
Rumours earlier in the year of SoundCloud planning to sell shares to major labels have been confirmed. Discussions with Sony, Warner and Universal started in April, subsequently SoundCloud have just agreed a licensing deal with Warner Music Group. SoundCloud’s plans to introduce a subscription service next year have made this deal possible as Warner Artists will receive royalties from advertising revenues. Launching a subscription service is no doubt a solution to SoundCloud’s falling revenue having made loses of $29 million in 2013.
OnSoundCloud Advertising
Those who enjoyed the ad-less streaming service Sound Cloud offered will be annoyed because music publishers BMG and Sony/ATV have a hand in the new OnSoundCloud scheme that will introduce artist-advertising starting in the US. This is a positive for artists, though, as they will be able to collect royalties for the first time but not so good for users who will have to endure advertisements from the likes of Red Bull, Jaguar and Comedy Central.
Twitter Audio Card Deal
SoundCloud’s relationship with Twitter has also been one of the most talked about subjects in the music industry this year. Twitter’s apparent interest in acquiring SoundCloud in May was put to a halt due to the many grey areas of copyright including DJ mix content and unlicensed bootlegs and remixes. Now with a licensing deal with Warner already underway and a crack down on copyright infringement uploads, Twitter have already closed a deal with SoundCloud and iTunes to play audio within tweets using the new Twitter Audio Card.
SoundCloud backlash
The reaction of this news is mixed amongst SoundCloud users. Many questions have not been addressed about how smaller artists be able to earn revenue and if users have to pay to access the site or for access to certain mixes, songs and artists? With no exact detail on the SoundCloud/ Warner deal, this is yet to be seen. An online trend which has taken off by many disappointed SoundCloud users since yesterday’s deal is the changing of the lettering to $oundCloud.
The Future
If SoundCloud does eventually get sold to Twitter - which seems increasingly probable - like YouTube did to Google, it is the record labels that will be the real winners in the battle of the streaming services. With iTunes launching the new Beats Music subscription service and Spotify rumoured to being bought by Google, it will be interesting to see how SoundCloud will adapt to its new market position as primarily a streaming subscription service.
