SoundCloud has announced a new deal that should ease tensions with music industry executives. Since the popular online audio distribution platform previously didn’t operate with formal licensing contracts, it did not pay royalties.
On Thursday (June 4) the Berlin-based company reached an agreement with Merlin that will allow SoundCloud to continue to host music from artists that belong to nearly 20,000 independent record labels, The New York Times reports.
Last month, SoundCloud struck a similar deal with the National Music Publishers’ Association.
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“Independent creators have always been at the core of SoundCloud, and with this partnership we’re thrilled to extend new revenue-generating opportunities to thousands of independent labels,” Alexander Ljung, one of the founders of SoundCloud, said in a statement.
SoundCloud has been searching for ways to capitalize off its 175 million monthly users and monetize aspects of its services to pay out royalties. Advertisements were added to the site this year.
