20,000 indie labels will now get royalties from SoundCloud

SoundCloud has partnered with Merlin, a company that represents 20,000 independent labels.

The move will ensure that imprints such as Domino, PIAS, Warp Records, Armada Music and Ninja Tune receive royalties from the streaming site.

After much wrangling with majors, this is a great step forward for indies who have music on SoundCloud.

The labels will be part of On SoundCloud, a scheme that allows them to put advertising around certain tracks and benefit from the resulting revenue.

The scheme has so far paid out $2m to 100 partners (ie. labels and musicians) since launching last year.

Read SoundCloud's statement here.