SoundCloud Reportedly Close to Striking Deals with Major Labels

The Berlin-based streaming site will cut deals with Sony, Universal and Warner Bros.

July 11, 2014


Popular streaming service SoundCloud could soon be partnering with major record labels like Sony, Universal and Warner, according to a report on Bloomberg. The deal would approximate the website's value at $500 to $600 million, and would grant each of the big three labels a stake of roughly three to five percent. Additionally, the labels would receive royalties based on play counts until they cross a certain threshold. The deal arose due to frequent copyright issues and would allow for the site to continue cultivating its swelling user base without fear of being slammed with a lawsuit. This isn't the first time that major record labels have swooped in to limit the damage of streaming services: Universal Music owned a 14 percent share of Beats Electronics LLC before it was bought out by Apple, and still touts a five percent stake in Spotify and a 47 percent stake in Vevo. In other SoundCloud news, it was announced on Thursday that they'd become an official partner of Sonos. According to a blog post on Sonos' site, SoundCloud users upload approximately 12 hours of audio every—single—minute. Damn.

SoundCloud Reportedly Close to Striking Deals with Major Labels