SoundCloud signs with Universal ahead of subscription launch

The deal follows SoundCloud’s accords with Warner and indie label representative Merlin agreed late past year.

It is highly likely that, in order to attract Universal’s signature to the deal, SoundCloud gave up equity to UMG.

Sony Corp.’s Sony Music Entertainment has also been in licensing negotiations with SoundCloud but hasn’t reached a deal, removing music by some of its most popular artists from the site a year ago. “One of the core components of our relationship with the industry is a new push within the deals that will enable the monetization of user-generated content like remixes and mashups”, SoundCloud’s Chief Content Officer, Stephen Bryant, told Billboard.

It’ll be interesting to see whether that can be translated into subscribers whenever SoundCloud launches the platform.

The report from The New York Times also says that Soundcloud is going to launch a paid subscription option later this year which will help the service pay royalty fees on the music that it’s licensing from major labels. A number of big-name labels operate under UMG, including Virgin Records, Blue Note Records, Geffen Records, Island Records, Motown Records, and Polydor Records, so this is a major boost for SoundCloud as it moves to become a much stronger commercial entity. “With this partnership, were ensuring recording artists, songwriters and labels benefit, both creatively and commercially, from the exciting new forms of music community engagement on SoundCloud. SoundCloud will gain access to Universal’s large catalog while Universal will be able to monetize and monitor streams of their music through SoundCloud.

Ljung continued: “With the majority of the music industry partnering with us, and adding to the more than 100 million tracks already available to discover on the platform, we are able to offer a service to both creators and listeners that is unrivalled in the music streaming space today.”.