SoundCloud has finally inked a licensing deal with UMG

Image: Miley Cyrus made her LP ’Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz’ available to stream on SoundCloud

SoundCloud and Universal Music Group have finally reached a licensing deal to give the streaming service full access to UMG’s catalogue.

UMG artists like Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar and Miley Cyrus already use SoundCloud as a platform to release singles. The new agreement means the major’s entire roster will receive income from advertising when their songs are played on the free service and will create commercial and promotional opportunities for artists and songwriters.

Negotiations haven’t run smoothly for SoundCloud, which launched in 2008 and now boasts over 175m users per month. In August last year British publishing organisation and collection society PRS for Music announced it would take SoundCloud to court for failing to pay royalties to its songwriters. The lawsuit was settled last month.

SoundCloud struck its first licensing deal in 2014 with Warner Music Group when it entered the advertising realm to pay content owners. It also has a deal with global indie label representative Merlin; but in early 2015, Sony Music Entertainment pulled its entire catalogue from SoundCloud. It’s now the only major music company without a licensing agreement with the platform.

According to the New York Times, which broke the story, SoundCloud is now readying a paid subscription plan, to be introduced this year. Michael Nash, Universal’s executive vice president for digital strategy, told the New York Times the paid tier would mean the label group could experiment with making certain content exclusively available to paying users.

Alexander Ljung, SoundCloud Founder & CEO, said: “With the majority of the music industry partnering with us, and adding to the more than 100 million tracks already available to discover on the platform, we are able to offer a service to both creators and listeners that is unrivalled in the music streaming space today.

SoundCloud’s chief content officer Stephen Bryan told Music Week the deal should lead to a "significant increase in the amount and diversity of content on the platform."