Written by Zach Frydenlund, Complex
Just when things were starting to get a little shaky for SoundCloud, the streaming site has reached a major royalty deal with Merlin, which is a licensing company that reps around 20,000 independent record labels. With this new deal, the label's will now make money from SoundCloud streaming, and will also begin to use SoundCloud's advanced user data going forward. This news comes just weeks after Sony started to remove some of their biggest artists' music, such as Adele, Miguel, and more, from the site, which brought a large cloud of doubt around the company.
“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. Even with this major move, SoundCloud will still have to try and convince the major labels that they can generate high levels of revenue that they see from streaming sites such as Pandora and Spotify.
While SoundCloud has signed a deal with Warner Music, it continues to be a slow process in negotiations with Sony and Universal Music Group. As of right now, FKA twigs, Bon Iver, and Vampire Weekend are just a few of the artists now covered under the SoundCloud deal with Merlin.
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