SoundCloud has introduced advertising on its platform for the first time and is preparing to roll out a paid subscription service in the near future, which will provide an ad-free listening experience.
Concurrently, the company has been in negotiations with music labels about royalty payments and the possibility of offering equity stakes. The aim is to attract labels through the potential for increased revenue and equity shares, which could offset potential lawsuits over copyright infringement instances.
The newly established advertising platform, On SoundCloud, is set to launch with a variety of advertisers such as Red Bull, Jaguar, and Comedy Central. Initially, the ads will be featured only on licensed content from certain partners like Sony/ATV and BMG, music distributors INgrooves and Seed, and a selection of independent artists.
In recent times, SoundCloud has faced several disputes with artists and labels that are worried about online radio stations and others using SoundCloud’s API to freely broadcast licensed music. The introduction of the ad revenue will partly address this issue, creating a source of income for these artists and their respective labels.
The On SoundCloud platform will consist of three tiers. The Partner tier is cost-free, allowing users to become a part of the community, share their first track, and receive basic stats and feedback. The Pro level, on the other hand, offers more upload time, detailed stats, and advanced tools like Spotlight. The new Premier tier is the aforementioned advertising platform, enabling SoundCloud Partners to earn revenue from the tracks they share through advertising, potentially creating a significant revenue stream for SoundCloud.
Introducing advertisements at this point could work in SoundCloud’s favor, seeing as other services like Spotify have done so much earlier – this could make it less disruptive to users. However, at this time, only content played in the US will carry ads.
The ad revenue will be shared between SoundCloud and the creators. Upon launch, access to the Premier level will be possible only through an invitation.
In June, SoundCloud updated its iOS app to attract more listeners and redesigned its site in May. It’s competitor, MixCloud, has just added some paid features, including an option for listeners to pay to remove ads.
SoundCloud reports to currently “reach” over 350 million people every month, with more than 175 million unique monthly listeners. To put it in perspective, half the people exposed to SoundCloud on the web play at least one track. More than 10 million creators are heard on SoundCloud each year, with users uploading 12 hours of music and audio every minute.
This article was updated in 2025 to reflect current trends and insights.
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
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