SoundCloud co-founder Alexander Ljung on SoundCloud Go’s AU/NZ launch

Following launches in the US, France, the UK and Ireland earlier this year, SoundCloud has launched its subscription service in Australia and New Zealand.

Just like its now competitors Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal Premium, SoundCloud Go’s ad-free listening offering costs AU$11.99 / NZ$12.99 a month via the SoundCloud app.

Similar to Apple Music’s launch last June, SoundCloud is offering a 30-day free trial. However, it’s unclear whether it will pay rightholders during the free trial.

“We do not disclose the specifics around artist payments,” Alexander Ljung, SoundCloud co-founder and CEO, told TMN.

SoundCloud currently has licensing deals with all of the major labels, independents and publishers such asUniversal Music Group,Sony Music Entertainment, Merlin, Warner Music Group, Sony/ATV and SACEM, to name a few.

SoundCloud Go launches with a catalogue that’s more than 4x larger than that offered by Spotify.

With more than 135 million songs in its catalogue from over 12 million creators heard each month – including mash-ups and remixes from emerging artists as well one million albums from music’s biggest names – the German audio distribution platform is the world’s largest audio and music streaming platform. Spotify and Apple Music currently offer 30 million songs, Google Play Music offers 35 million and Tidal offers 40 million.

“Unlike any other service, SoundCloud provides one place for artists at all stages of their careers to share the spectrum of their creativity,” Ljung told TMN. “This might be the latest release, back catalogue, the remixed version, and raw demo available across the free service and SoundCloud Go.

“It’s also a place for all genres (and subgenres which only emerge and multiply on SoundCloud) to live side by side, from hip hop and pop through to ‘witchhop’ and ‘epic doom’. The difference is you get access to so much more content for your money with a SoundCloud Go subscription, plus an ad-free listening experience you can take offline,” he added.

In addition to experiencing the platform ad-free, paying SoundCloud Go subscribers are given access to “a significantly expanded catalogue of the greatest established and hottest emerging artists.”

Similar to its rivals, both SoundCloud Go’s paid tier offers offline listening and both tiers were developed using a machine learning algorithm, which delivers new music and audio suggestions based on likes and plays.

Both the paid and free version will feature full albums, Artist Stations and Suggested Tracks. However, unlike on Spotify, artists can choose to monetise all or none of their tracks. Spotify made headlines in 2014 when it refused to give Taylor Swift’s latest LP 1989 the same treatment. Swift pulled her entire catalogue from the service saying its free tier fails to fairly compensate artists.

Creators who do participate in the SoundCloud monetisation programme will receive royalties on the free version as a result of audio advertising, promoted profiles, mobile interstitials, promoted tracks and creator partnerships, among other revenue builders.

“SoundCloud has always put creators front and centre, giving them control around their content,” Ljung told TMN. “With the introduction of SoundCloud Go, that control remains. While rights holders have the freedom to choose where to make tracks available, we expect them to fully utilise the benefits both free and subscription offers.

“For creators, in addition to revenue opportunities that both subscriptions and advertising will bring, SoundCloud Go opens up a new way for them to build audiences and generate additional plays by allowing fans to save tracks for offline listening,” he added.

Just how often free users will experience advertisements hasn’t been announced. Ljung told TMN, “We are mindful not to overload consumers with ads, so you’ll hear an occasional ad on our free offering.”

SoundCloud is also tight-lipped on the percentage of revenue given to rights holders as part of the monetisation programme.

“We don’t disclose specifics around the distribution of revenue to rights holders, but what I can tell you is after introducingmonetisation for the first time in August 2014, today we represent rights holders across all of the major labels, independents and publishers,” Ljung said.

“As such we’re in the position to build on the existing momentum and the revenue we generate for creators will continue to grow as we scale the programme,” he added.

Speaking exclusively to TMN, APRA AMCOS Head of Revenue, Richard Mallett, voiced his support of SoundCloud Go.

“Double digit income growth in the last year alone shows adequate licensing of streaming services is of vital importance to our members’ livelihoods,” Mallett told TMN.

“We support SoundCloud’s positive engagement with music rights holders and its fair and transparent approach to negotiations,” he added. “SoundCloud Go’s monetised model rightfully rewards the music creators whose works are vital to the service. We have achieved a competitive licence fee arrangement comparable to other negotiations of this scale and we hope to see strong return for our members from SoundCloud Go’s innovative service.”

Ljung told TMN SoundCloud is developing a solution for rights holders to see them paid for the thousands of underground unlicensed studio remixes, mash-ups, DJ edits, bootlegs, live sets and podcast-style mixes.

“We are working with the music industry on our own solution that will one day enable creators of derivative content and user generated content to also make money, as well as the original rightsholder,” said Ljung. “That being said, we don’t have anything additional we can share at the moment.”

Launched in 2008 by Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud boasts over 175 million monthly listeners – more than Spotify’s100 million, Apple’s 15 million, and Tidal’s 4 million. 2.059 million of those SoundCloud users are Australian, according to ComScore data.

SoundCloud told TMN it isn’t revealing the number of its paid subscribers just yet.

Ljung told TMN that following successful launches of SoundCloud Go in the US, France, the UK and Ireland, its Asia Pacific entrance in Australia and New Zealand felt like the right fit.

“SoundCloud has a substantial base of users in both Australia and New Zealand, and both countries have a vibrant creative community,” he said. “Many Aussies and Kiwi’s already love SoundCloud, so we see a big opportunity with SoundCloud Go in both of these markets.”

For more information go to: https://soundcloud.com/go