Universal Music and Soundcloud have struck a deal, allowing signed artists to utilise the popular music streaming service.

Despite disregarding the free streaming service until now, Universal have finally caved, with hopes that licensing their music to the Soundcloud will in turn create revenue after Soundcloud promised to launch a paid subscription as well as the free site.

However it isn’t that simple, in signing this deal with Soundcloud, Universal will still have full control of what music it makes available, as well the ability to adjust the lengths of the snippets of songs available for users to share on social media.

Universal have also stated their labels and publishing company will gain access to SoundCloud’s “promotional tools, analysis and data to provide recording artists and songwriters with new opportunities to generate revenue and to strengthen their connections with fans.”

News of this deal comes just over a year after a similar agreement was conceived between Warner Music Group and Soundcloud; after recognising the clear benefits in using the German streaming service as a marketing tool despite the lack of income Soundcloud would generate in comparison to paid music streaming services.

It also seems that Sony – who removed a lot of music from Soundcloud in 2014 – are currently in licensing talks with Soundcloud in hopes to reach a similar agreement, however they’re yet to come to a conclusion.

Despite the obvious issues major labels see with this free streaming service, they simply cannot deny that using Soundcloud as a marketing tool is too important to ignore, with Soundcloud reeling in over twice the amount of monthly users as Pandora and Spotify.

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Source: Wall Street Journal