As Entertainment Weekly reports, SoundCloud the world's largest music streaming service has struck a licensing deal with the music industry giant Universal Music Group, home to Kanye West, The Weeknd, and Rihanna, and just about anyone else you'll hear on pop radio. That's now two (the other being the Warner Music Group) of the "big three" music holding companies that Soundcloud has signed on with.What does this mean for us little people? It means users can now share tracks from these artists without having their stream taken down and their account suspended, which has become an increasing complaint among Soundcloud users sharing remixes or putting up a mix. Artists will receive royalties for streams, which users can now share."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," UMG CEO Lucian Grainge said in a statement. "We look forward to working with SoundCloud and supporting the company's evolution into a successful commercial service."That leaves only Sony Music Entertainment, who pulled their artists from SoundCloud's site last summer, to strike a deal with the Berlin-based company.
Advertisement