Sony Pulls Adele, Miguel, Passion Pit, & More From SoundCloud Due To “A Lack Of Monetization Opportunities”
SoundCloud doesn’t waste enough of your time with unskippable ads. That seems the be the thinking at Sony, anyway. Billboard reports that the media giant has pulled the music of many of its acts from SoundCloud. Given that Sony controls an insane number of record labels, that’s a big hit against SoundCloud, which, for people like us who put music on blogs, is basically the most convenient single-song streaming platform in existence. Tracks from artists like Adele, Passion Pit, Miguel, Hozier, and MS MR are no longer available on SoundCloud. And while Sony representatives haven’t commented, negotiations between the two parties appear to have broken down because of money concerns. A source claims that SoundCloud offers, from Sony’s perspective, “a lack of monetization opportunities.”
Basically, Sony is worried that SoundCloud won’t make enough money for them. Even though SoundCloud claims that it’s paid more than $2 million in advertising revenue to streaming partners, it’s apparently not enough. Negotiations are ongoing, and a spokesperson for SoundCloud tells Billboard, “We are in ongoing conversations with major and independent labels and will continue to add partners to the program. We’ve always put control in the hands of creators, and anyone who makes music and audio can decide when and how they want to share it with fans, allowing artists to essentially broadcast out to the world the availability of new content.”