’On SoundCloud’ has paid $1m to creators and labels since August
SoundCloud’s initiative to run advertisements in between audio in the US is apparently working according to new data published by the audio platform.
It launched ‘On SoundCloud’ in August last year to wrap audio by some of its creators with ads and give them some of the revenue. Now, the company has shared on a blog post that it has paid overUS$1 millionin advertising revenue to partners including labels, audio partners and emerging artists.
While SoundCloud hasn’t revealed exactly how it splits its advertising revenue with rights holders, it did state overnight that its Premier Partners program (made up ofthe creators who were invited to benefit from On SoundCloud) has signed 100 Premier Partners – that's an average of just US$10,000 per partner accrued in six months since its launch.
On SoundCloud’s Premier Partners include Mountain Dew’s label Green Label Sound, London producer SizzleBird, multi-channel network Maker Studios, video series Epic Rap Battles and comedian Kim Dawson.
The blog makes mention of its Partners’ success stories:
“On SoundCloud has led to the creation of native advertising opportunities with emerging artists and brands.With an exclusive track sponsored by Jaguar, London-based downtempo producerSizzlebirdgot 1.3 million plays and doubled his followers in three weeks. In December,Green Label Sound launched the Open Call competition on the platformand in FebruaryKelechiwas announced as the grand prize winner. Also in December, Microsoft teamed up withJacques Greeneto release anexclusive remix of “No Excuse” (one of his most well-known tracks), by Swedish producerYung Gud— it got nearly 800,000 plays in just 18 days.
“We’ve also seen independent artists likeRomiti,BlackbearandXavier Wulfrise to the top of the Premier Partner pack in terms of people listening to their tracks. Labels are benefiting from On SoundCloud, too, by using it to discover new artists and audiences.”
Negotiations between SoundCloud and the label sector are ongoing, however the majors have been pushing for the service to better monetise its content for rights holders. Universal Music Chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge was quoted by Wall Street Journal last October with his concerns about SoundCloud’s business plan.
In November last year, Warner Music Group became the first music major to close a deal with SoundCloud, licensing On SoundCloud and hinting at plans to involve itself in a paid subscription streaming service.
On SoundCloud will be launching in more countries “later this year”.
Since its inception in 2008, SoundCloud has become the second largest music streaming service globally with 175m listeners per month, behind YouTube of course. It’s said to be in talks with venture capital firms to raise US$150m; SoundCloud has raised $123.3m since it was founded.