Universal Music Group and SoundCloud Have Reached A "Landmark" Deal

It has been announced that this morning that music streaming platform SoundCloud and music corporation Universal Music Group have reached a new deal, reports Music Week.

The agreement allows UMG artists and Universal Music Publishing Group songwriters to use SoundCloud's data, analytics, and promotional tools, while in exchange SoundCloud will be able to benefit from UMG and UMPG's combined rosters. The deal is connected to SoundCloud's plans for new monetization programs, including advertising and new subscription services to be introduced later this year.

SoundCloud's chief content officer Stephen Bryan told Music Week that the deal will allow the "expression which has always been at the core to of SoundCloud to continue to thrive in a way that is at massive scale and in a way that allows revenue to be generated from that content." He also added that he expects a "significant increase in the amount and diversity of content on the platform."

The chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, Lucian Grainge, also commented: "With this partnership, we're ensuring recording artists, songwriters and labels benefit, both creatively and commercially, from the exciting new forms of music community engagement on SoundCloud. We look forward to working with SoundCloud and supporting the company's evolution into a successful commercial service."

Alexander Ljung, SoundCloud Founder & CEO, offered: "With this partnership with UMG we will further strengthen and grow the unique community we've built over the past seven years, where multiple forms of expression can live and where artists at every stage of their careers come to create and share their work." Furthermore, he said, "With the majority of the music industry partnering with us, and adding to the more than 100 million tracks already available to discover on the platform, we are able to offer a service to both creators and listeners that is unrivalled in the music streaming space today."

Read the original article at Music Week here.

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