SoundCloud Starts Paid Subscription Version

Audio-sharing platform SoundCloud on Tuesday began selling paid subscriptions to one of the biggest music catalogs online, a move that will test the willingness of consumers to pay for tunes from a service they are accustomed to using free of charge.

SoundCloud Go, as the company’s new paid tier is called, lets users listen to music offline (if they are logged in as subscribers) and without ads.

It includes access to 125 million tracks, mostly mixes, mashups and other musical creations by emerging artists and DJs for which the site is known, in addition to the roughly 30 million-song catalog offered on other subscription services such as Spotify.

It is the first service of its size to allow artists and labels to control, on a case-by-case basis, what they put behind the paywall—an ability that record companies have been pushing for in recent years as they aim to maximize revenues amid declining CD and download sales and streaming growth.

Spotify so far has required that all of the content on its paid service also is available to its more than 80 million free users, who can’t listen to songs on demand but can play specific albums or artist catalogs on shuffle.

Apple Inc.’s Apple Music, with about 12 million subscribers, doesn’t have a free tier, while Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube contains all the same videos that paying YouTube Red subscribers can view ad-free and offline.

To tempt free users to upgrade, SoundCloud’s app highlights paid-tier songs in red and offers 30-second previews of each. Users can press buttons on their screens to unlock the songs by paying for a subscription, which costs $10 a month for Android and Web users.

The cost is $13 a month for iPhone and other Apple device users because of a 30% fee that Apple charges app makers for in-app purchases. Free users can still add songs behind the paywall in snippet form to their playlists, and share them with friends.

SoundCloud currently reaches about 175 million listeners each month through its own mobile apps and sites, as well as through other channels such as social media.

Berlin-based SoundCloud, founded in 2007, gained most of its traction as a free site for emerging artists and DJs to share and promote their music. The company started advertising two years ago amid pressure from major record companies, which owned the rights to some of the material being shared on the site without the companies’ permission.

SoundCloud struck its first big licensing deal with Access Industries’ Warner Music Group in November and has since also reached agreements with Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group and Sony Corp.’s Sony Music Entertainment.

All three deals were signed on the condition that SoundCloud would launch the paid service.

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