Mar 29, 2016
Words by Connor Lawrence
After taking down countless tracks due to copyright infringement, hiring a Chief Revenue Officer and, most recently, signing a deal with the third and final major record label, Sony Music Entertainment, SoundCloud has finally announced a subscription service.
Titled ‘SoundCloud Go,’ the announcement of the service was made in a post on the company’s blog by CEO Alexander Ljung earlier today.
The specifics are as follows: after a 30-day free trial, users have the option to pay USD$9.99/month for the service if they sign up through the SoundCloud website/the Android App, or USD$12.99/month if they sign up for the service through the Apple app Store (according to Music Business Worldwide the price difference is due to Apple’s 30% ‘app tax’).
Interestingly enough, users who already pay for SoundCloud’s premium service, Pro Unlimited, will be able to purchase the ‘SoundCloud Go’ service at a discounted price of $4.99/month for the first six months of their subscription.
According to the post, the perks of ‘SoundCloud Go’ include the ability to listen to more tracks from the SoundCloud catalog, the ability to listen to music offline and the ability to listen to music with no advertisement breaks. The announcement of a subscription service doesn’t come as a surprise as rumors regarding a subscription service have been circulating for years now.
The question is, is it too late for SoundCloud to enter the streaming battle? Other major streaming services have recently announced milestones in their battle for users with Apple Music announcing it hit 11 million subscribers and Spotify announcing it hit 30 million. For SoundCloud to come in this late to the game, you have to wonder if the market is already over saturated.
Image: Soundcloud