Sony Music is the latest to strike a deal with SoundCloud, which already holds deals with Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Merlin. The label pulled its music off SoundCloud past year, after reports surfaced that Sony Music wasn’t happy with the “lack of monetization opportunities”, according to Billboard. But getting a deal done with Sony Music has been a bit more challenging.
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Sony Music Entertainment is a global recorded music company with a current roster that includes a broad array of both local artists and worldwide superstars. In other words, SoundCloud has agreements in place with all of the major labels out there.
There have also been rumors that SoundCloud’s subscription service will be priced at $10 per month (similar to Spotify and Apple Music) with the inclusion of a lower-priced tier.
It was originally believed that the startup’s subscription service would launch in 2015, but it has since been delayed for unknown reasons.
Though SoundCloud stated in its announcement that listeners will be abl access more music from SME “soon”, it did not state when exactly those tracks will be available to stream.
The music streaming site is set to introduce a paid subscription service later this year.
SoundCloud launched in 2008 as a “YouTube for music”.
Sony and SoundCloud’s agreement comes less than a year after the label yanked several of its artists’ catalogs from the streaming service amid a breakdown in negotiations.
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It also provides artists signed to Sony Music Entertainment or its affiliated and distributed labels, including those distributed by The Orchard and RED Distribution, with a way of making money from their tracks on SoundCloud. It reported a loss of €39 million ($44 million) on revenue of €17 million in 2014, according to its most recent publicly available accounts.
