SoundCloud’s Australian creators can now distribute directly to Spotify, Apple & more

Berlin-based SoundCloud has been branding itself as the service where unsigned and DIY artists go to get their start, and in the past 12 months has been rolling out initiatives to help them.

The latest is a tool unveiled overnight which allows Australian creators to distribute their music directly to most major streaming platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Tencent and Instagram.

They will not be charged for the service and will SoundCloud has no plans to take a cut either.

The feature is built into the SoundCloud Pro and Pro Unlimited subscription accounts for artists.

The move puts SoundCloud in direct competition with digital distributors, including the majors.

“It’s about a two-sided ecosystem: Creators bring great content and that content has the opportunity to be discovered,” says CEO Kerry Trainor.

“We want to be the first place that creators come to share their work with the world.”

The tool is available only to artists who are aged 18 and over, own or control 100% rights to their original music, and have had 1,000 plays in the last month.

The offer is also offered to creators in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and New Zealand.

Recent SoundCloud initiatives have been the “First On SoundCloud” rising artist campaign, allowed indie artists to directly upload their tracks onto the service, and expanded its revenue-share direct monetisation program.

Last week, SoundCloud’s number of uploaded tracks hit the 200 million mark.

It now has close to 20 million creators on the platform, with 76 million users in 190 countries as of late last year.

The number of its Australian creators, users and subscribers is not known

It is estimated 12 hours of music are uploaded on to SoundCloud every minute.

“While we are one of the largest listening services, we’re built in a very different way, which is from the creators outward,” Trainor adds.

“We’re always going to be looking for opportunities to invest in more tools for those creators.”