Until now, SoundCloud has been one of the prime destinations for people looking to listen to free music and podcasts, much like YouTube has been a popular choice for free music videos. That changes today, as the Berlin-based startup has started rolling out a new premium subscription service called ‘SoundCloud Go’, giving its 12 million creators a way to monetize the over 125 million tracks available on the platform.
SoundCloud wants a piece of the action in the premium music streaming market, currently dominated by the likes of Deezer, Apple Music, and Spotify. The company wants to capitalize on a large pool of 175 million monthly listeners by offering ad-free, uninterrupted access to a “significantly expanded catalog of the greatest established and hottest emerging artists”.
The SoundCloud Go service is launching first in the U.S., and will cost $9.99 per month for Android and web users, and $12.99 for iOS users (as Apple takes a 30% transaction fee), with a one-month free trial so that you can decide if it’s worth your money. This will give you access to millions of additional tracks from artists signed to both bigger labels, as well as small independent ones, with the ability to save them for offline listening.
It’s important to note that SoundCloud Go will not replace the free, ad-supported tier and if you happen to be an active subscriber of the company’s Pro Unlimited service (for creators), you get six months of SoundCloud Go at a discounted rate of $4.99 per month. If you’re not in the U.S., the company plans to expand the service to other regions later this year, but there are no specific dates for when that will happen.
SoundCloud has been in hot water with rightsholders in the last few years for the difficulties in monetizing their content, which prompted the company to launch an advertising program in August 2014, as well as work on strategic partnerships with other companies – and now it finally has a more attractive platform with SoundCloud Go, even though they are a bit late to the party.
If you"re interested in SounCloud Go, hit this link for more details.
Source: PRNewsWire via TechCrunch