In March, Sound Cloud announced the launch of SoundCloud Go, a music streaming service that charges users $9.99 a month for premium tracks, along with offline listening, and no ads. SoundCloud, often referred to as the YouTube of audio owing to its immense music catalogue had been signing deals with record labels in a bid to launch the paid streaming service model.
The service has 175 Million unique monthly users across the globe with 40 million registered users. In addition, it has 12 million content creators who upload their content on the site. Billed as a platform for creators, SoundCloud charges them $7 and $15 per month for the ability to upload more than the standard 12 hours of audio, plus analytics and more content controls. Amidst intense competition from other services such as Tidal, Spotify and Apple Music, the service has been looking to reinvent itself.
Sound Cloud has now announced new developments, which will bring more ads to the service according to Forbes. The video ads will roll out on mobile but with a unique twist. Instead of merely having ads at every intersection, SoundCloud will serve these ads when the user is actively engaged with the app. The ads will not stream in the background or when the user’s screen is off. This will, of course, attract more ad dollars for SoundCloud, as it offers the guarantee to advertisers that users will indeed interact with their ads.
