SoundCloud have announced they are moving to a fan-powered royalties system, meaning only the acts that you listen to on SoundCloud will receive your money, rather than the system currently used by the likes of Spotify which distributes your money to popular acts that you don’t listen to based on their market share, as well as the ones that you do listen to.
The move will create ‘royalty parity’, increasing revenues significantly for smaller artists.
“Many in the industry have wanted this for years. We are excited to be the ones to bring this to market to better support independent artists. SoundCloud is uniquely positioned to offer this transformative new model due to the powerful connection between artists and fans that takes place on our platform,” said SoundCloud’s CEO Michael Weissman.
“As the only direct-to-consumer music streaming platform and next generation artist services company, the launch of fan-powered royalties represents a significant move in SoundCloud’s strategic direction to elevate, grow and create new opportunities directly with independent artists.”
View this post on Instagram
Fan-powered royalties go into effect April 1, 2021 for our Pro Unlimited subscribers in the Premier monetization program and Repost by SoundCloud artists, including those in Repost Select. Premier artists will receive their first statement in May 2021, as Premier runs on a 45-day payment cycle. Repost artists will receive their first statement in June 2021, as Repost runs on a 60-day payment cycle.
Anything that puts more money into the hands of acts that people actually listen to can only be good for artists and consumers alike. Hopefully this announcement will force the hand of other streaming services and more will follow suit. For more info on the move visit here