Our portfolio company SoundCloud introduced a new subscription offering yesterday called SoundCloud Go which complements its existing subscription offering called Go+. Combined with the longstanding free service, SoundCloud now has an elegant set of offerings for its users:
SoundCloud is fundamentally different than other streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Tidal, Napster and Deezer because it has always allowed anyone to upload their music to its platform (UGC content). About this time last year, SoundCloud added all of the music that these other streaming services have and launched its premium offering (Go+).
You can see the numbers in the above chart. The premium content that Spotify, Apple Music, etc offer is about 30mm tracks. The UGC content that is only available on SoundCloud is another ~120mm tracks.
The UGC content on SoundCloud is not just your daughter’s high school friends making music in their bedroom (which is how many of the current top artists started out). It is DJ mixes, mixtapes, remixes, top artists like Kanye dropping music quickly and easily (which he did yesterday), emerging artists like Chance who are unsigned and have chosen to stay independent, podcasts, and a lot more. It is the most eclectic, interesting, and vibrant streaming music service in the world.
And so if you have always loved SoundCloud for the UGC content, but want it with no ads and offline sync, get SoundCloud Go. Its available here.
And here’s some “UGC” content to start your morning off with, courtesy of Lil Uzi Vert:
