SoundCloud’s New Features Aim to Bring More Money to Artists

SoundCloud, a leading platform for independent artists and their fans, is debuting new features to make streaming more financially rewarding for its customers. On Thursday (Oct. 30), the company announced new components to its all-in-one offerings that will put more money into artists’ pockets.  

“We’ve got an opportunity to solve the problem that streaming is not enough for artists or fans, because this is going to be new dollars on the table for artists and new ways for fans to express their fandom,” CEO Eliah Seton tells Billboard. 

For music distributed through SoundCloud, artists signed up to the Artist and Artist Pro plans will now keep 100% of royalties from streams on other platforms such as Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music and TikTok. Previously, SoundCloud took a 20% cut of those royalties as a distribution fee. This change mirrors the existing 100% payouts on royalties generated from streams on the SoundCloud platform.  

In addition, SoundCloud is launching a new patronage feature. Artists will also keep 100% of the money received from a new feature on artist profiles, Fan Support. Fans can donate from $1 to $1,000 at a time in exchange for their names being acknowledged on the artists’ pages. At launch, Fan Support is available only to Artist Pro subscribers in the U.S.

Early results of Fan Support have been promising. According to Seton, artists who have tested Fan Support have earned more than they’ve received from streaming in their entire careers. “This can really unlock a major new opportunity for a middle class of artists that a lot of people have been talking about for a long time,” he says. 

The Artist plan is billed annually for $39 and allows distribution of up to two tracks per month. The $99-per-year Artist Pro plan offers distribution of an unlimited number of tracks. The new distribution terms and Fan Support feature are not available on the free Basic tier, which does not include distribution to other streaming providers.  

SoundCloud’s latest moves are an attempt to address the financial problems faced by independent artists on its platform. Music streaming has revitalized the larger music industry, attracting major investors to artist and songwriter catalogs and driving the global industry’s decade-long winning streak. For many independent artists, however, streaming itself isn’t financially sustainable. 

More than 40,000 new creators upload music to SoundCloud each week, according to Seton, and new music accounted for 50% of streams on the platform in 2024, according to the company’s Music Intelligence Report from March. But the volume of new music is itself seen as a hindrance: 67% of independent labels believe the glut of new tracks uploaded to streaming services — including AI-generated music — makes it harder to develop new artists, according to MIDiA Research.  

In a prior attempt to make streaming more equitable, in 2021, SoundCloud changed how it pays royalties to help emerging, less popular artists. Called “fan-powered” royalties, the scheme gives artists a share of the fees from users who stream their music. That’s different from the traditional “pro-rata” method, which pools subscription fees and pays royalties based on aggregate streams. In a pro-rata model, independent artists share a revenue pool with superstars. SoundCloud’s approach, which attracted Warner Music Group and independent rights organization Merlin, is more favorable to independent artists, according to a 2024 report.   

Artist and Artist Pro have additional components, such as on-demand vinyl manufacturing through a partnership with Elastic Stage that was announced in July. Both tiers also allow artists to create merch storefronts on their pages. The goal, Seton explains, is to provide a menu of options for artists to build a career in different ways. “We want to be able to unlock all those possibilities,” he says.

Thursday’s announcement is a bet that giving artists a larger share of royalties will be good for business. Unlike most streaming platforms, SoundCloud is a two-sided marketplace that generates income from both artists and listeners — a symbiotic relationship that creates a “virtuous circle,” Seton explains. Luring and retaining artists with career-building tools and attractive terms not only generates more income, it makes SoundCloud a more attractive destination for fans.  

“We feel like we’ve really begun to crack the code on being a two-sided marketplace and what really distinguishes us,” says Seton.