Holy shit, 20,000 agreements?! Can you imagine the strain that would put on a person’s wrist? I bet by the time SoundCloud CEO Alexander Ljung gets to the final contract, his signature won’t even come close to legibility. Wait, that’s not even a contract — drop the pen and step away from that lady’s calf muscle, Alex! Clearly, fatigue and the imminent prospect of giving up more royalties have led to a hallucinatory confusion between paper and human skin.
Though, in actuality, the deal that was announced yesterday (and that was initially reported on by The New York Times) concluded a bit more easily. Opposite SoundCloud was Merlin, a “a global digital rights agency for the world’s independent sector,” who conform to that self-description by representing more than 20,000 independent labels worldwide, including Warp, Domino, and the Secretly Group family of labels. The deal allows these labels to receive a percentage of the ad revenue earned by SoundCloud when artists upload music of their own or when licensed music is uploaded by somebody else. I assume SoundCloud has their bases covered, because “gaming the system” seems unusually possible given my (perhaps simplistic?) description.
SoundCloud first started the royalty-doling-out thing last year. Among the major labels, Sony wants to kick them in their German balls for their financial reticence, while talks with Universal have reportedly been “slow-going.” It’s strange territory for the niche and collaboratively-minded streaming service. I’d personally think twice about those separate plans to enter the bona fide fray of streaming sith lords.
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com