The word “entrepreneur” used to imply homelessness or a misplaced desire to pick up chicks in between excessive Call of Duty marathons, but with the advent of the Internet, it’s actually easier than ever for people to legitimately make money doing all sorts of independent and frequently creative things. Certainly musicians can self-promote to a degree that fades the necessity of traditional record labels; and with the new SoundCloud ability to distribute your music across popular streaming services, suddenly one wonders if budding artists of all musical stripes will get lonely having nobody with whom to haggle contract stipulations. The new feature was just announced for SoundCloud Premier, which is the non-gratis area of the service that “empowers independent creators to take the next step in their careers.” Surely this new feature’ll help, yes?
SoundCloud users of the Pro or Pro Unlimited persuasion (who also meet a handful of other criterion) can now upload their music and immediately distribute it to popular streaming services like Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Music. SoundCloud won’t collect royalties from any money made secondarily via those services, however. And also, depending on which “Pro” account you have — one of which obviously costs more money — your ability to distribute crazily may or may not be hindered: Pro users can only distribute one release, according to The Verge, while Pro Unlimited users can distribute until their clicking finger disintegrates. Songs gotta be non-proprietary lossless, and artists naturally have to categorize and formally identify their music before it transfers.
Additionally, it’s worth pointing out that services like DistroKid and CD Baby have been offering the ability to digitally distribute music for several years now, but for people who have been residing on the upload-centric SoundCloud, why hassle with another subscription? Seems like an obvious move on SoundCloud’s part, especially since the store aspect of their game has yet to really enthrall.
In conclusion:
1) this news isn’t messy or confusing AT ALL!
2) I feel like this is an appropriate way to celebrate: