First came the ads, now SoundCloud has a deal with a bonafide record deal with Warner Music Group. SoundCloud has made it official, with a real record company. It’s really growing up.
Every time a track from a Warner artist is played on SoundCloud here on out, SoundCloud will pay Warner a little bit of money. SoundCloud is a great service, but nothing gold can stay that way, and we knew it would have to figure out a way to keep the lights on — aside from venture funding — at some point.
The deal with Warner was contingent on another coming-of-age type development from SoundCloud: its impending launch of a premium service, which offers different paid tiers for different amounts of listening and uploading. The licensing agreement, of course, also applies to the premium plans.
So, yes, it’s true. SoundCloud, as it exists in its current form, is changing. It still remains a place where you can discover great and weird underground artists. Let’s just hope that big kid business deals doesn’t mean SoundCloud gets too far afield from the SoundCloud we love.