Yes, Soundcloud Is Getting Ads, And Producers Should Rejoice [Updated]

That fateful day has finally arrived when another of our favorite (or love-to-hate-it) free online services drinks the evil elixir of advertisement-for-use. With Soundcloud’s new On Soundcloud Premier membership, “Creators” can subscribe to a membership tier that will allow them to place ads on their content: and make money from them. Starting today the ad-supported SoundCloud is live in the U.S. It will soon be available to the rest of the world.

“As artists ourselves, Eric and I started Soundcloud with a simple vision. We wanted to develop a tool for creators, help them reach fans all over the world, and shape a way we could pay the creators who fuel the growth of Soundcloud.” – Alex Ljung, Founder and CEO of Soundcloud

We know what you’re thinking. “How could Soundcloud do this to us??” Or “This is the last straw! F*ck off forever, Soundcloud!” But take a moment and think about the last 3 months. Musicians are having their music removed from Soundcloud left and right for copyright infringement. Kaskade hilariously even had his own music removed from his own Soundcloud. Even Dance Music Northwest has dealt with the secretive Soundcloud copyright police. Soundcloud has been trying to ink copyright deals with the Big 4 record labels, but in the meantime is forced to overpolice their own network. It all seems pretty bleak and evil. But have you ever asked yourself if it’s really Soundcloud themselves that want to put this hardship on artists?

By following in the footsteps of emergent streaming services like TheFuture.FM, Soundcloud has ensured that, for a small fee, producers never have to worry about the copyright process again. Sure, your listeners will have to listen to an ad, but has that ever stopped them from watching a YouTube video? Surely we can all understand that other producers want to be legally protected for content just the way we do.

“People know that SoundCloud is very much a creator platform,” he said. “They understand that if they hear an ad, then a creator is getting paid for it as well.”

Also not a small consideration whatsoever is the fact that, for the first time ever, Soundcloud can make producers money. How much has yet to be seen, but the inclusion of ads allows creators to earn revenue and encourages them to further strengthen and invest in their online presence. We all know why most independent artists avoid doing things the “legal” way. It isn’t because they don’t want to be on the up-and-up. It’s because music copyright law is notoriously complicated and buying rights can be absurdly expensive. Soundcloud has just removed both barriers for producers.

Soundcloud’s New Membership Tiers

So what kinds of ads will we be hearing? Currently signed on as initial advertisers are Red Bull, Jaguar and Comedy Central, among others. The majority of revenue will go to music publishers Sony/ATV and BMG, the distributors INgrooves and Seed, the comedy site Funny or Die, and a number of independent artists, including Washington rapper GoldLink. Soundcloud hasn’t commented on how their revenue model works, what distribution looks like, or where negotiations with the remaining major labels are at.

In the end, Soundcloud users are being asked to trade minor inconvenience to remove copyright worries; allow content creators to make money on their music; improve server speed and quality (we hope); and keep the service free for the rest of Soundcloud’s 350 million users. Only On Soundcloud Premier users will be able to enable ads, so there’s no reason local Pacific Northwest artists have to serve ads on their music…for now. There are also rumors that Soundcloud will introduce a premium membership for listeners that would turn off ads like Spotify or Pandora. It’s all a big yet cautious move into a new ad-supported world. Is the cost too high for you?

UPDATE: Soundcloud has quietly rolled out 50% increases in all tiers’ upload limits. This is likely due to having projected revenue with which to purchase more server space. They have also released an On Soundcloud FAQ which should help further clear up matters.