Even with the positive news that Soundcloud had made headway into fingerprinting and identifying music thanks to a partnership with Zefr (the guys that Youtube work with) comes a huge blow.

Following Universals lead on stopping new uploads from their most notable artists comes Sony and Columbia who have also begun pulling music from a raft of muso’s including Adele, Miguel, Passion Pit and MS MR.

An executive close to the negotiations between Sony and Soundcloud has stated that “a lack of monetization opportunities” on the platform has led them down this path.

On the flip, Warner have signed a formal agreement as have the National Music Publishers’ Association who look to secure the rights of their independent artists revenue according to NMPA CEO David Israelite who stated;

“When SoundCloud succeeds financially, so do the songwriters whose content draws so many users to their site. I am thrilled that we could agree on terms that will benefit both creators and the SoundCloud platform that has brought online music access and creativity to a new level.” 

It’s strange to think that Major Labels are pulling music from the streaming platform that probably helped push their artists’ music to the forefront of this generation.

With no real alternatives aside from Youtube and other streaming services such as Spotify and TIDAL who only pay out cents per stream it’s a shame that there isn’t more backing for the Soundcloud platform.

It’ll be an interesting 12 to 24 months for the service. What do you think will happen?

source: Billboard