SoundCloud to double royalties on tracks streamed this Friday
The "Bandcamp Friday-esque" initiative will see independent artists' income doubled from the service
This Friday, SoundCloud will begin to match streaming royalties for independent creators.
In April 2021, it launched its ‘Fan-Powered Royalties’ initiative which meant that individual subscribers would have their monthly payments distributed.
As described by SoundCloud Fan-Powered Rotates work "you get paid based on your fans' actual listening habits. The more of their time your dedicated fans listen to your music, the more you get paid."
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Royalties are also based on whether the fan has a paying subscription to SoundCloud Go+ as well as how many advertisements the fan has consumed.
Since then, statistics show that from 135,000 independent artists on SoundCloud surveyed, 60% earn more royalties compared to using the traditional ‘pro rata’ model.
To celebrate, SoundCloud is introducing Fan-Powered Fridays on April 29 which “invites fans to stream music from their favourite independent artists all day long” and they pledge to match 100% of their revenue earned that day.
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Also within the report, there has been a 97% growth since March 2021 in the number of fans on SoundCloud who have individually contributed more than $5 to “a single artist they love” via Fan-Powered Royalties.
Becky Buckle is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow her on Twitter