After The Verge published an article questioning the new terms of service (TOS) as being unfair to artists/djs for the new Soundcloud Premier program, Soundcloud has revised the terms to be more favorable to artists using the platform. The new unfriendly terms included unclear payment dates, payout rates that can change at any time and a mandatory arbitration clause instead of allowing artists to sue.
This included the following clause that artists:
“forever discharge us and our related parties from all claims … including any and all actual or alleged acts of copyright infringement.”
The upshot is that if an artist found Soundcloud did not take action on copyright infringement, the artist cannot sue. This also would prevent an artist from suing if they believe they were shortchanged on revenue owed.
In some good news, SoundCloud announced new partnerships with Native Instruments, Serato, Hercules, Mixvibes and DEX3 which allow you to stream tracks found on SoundCloud’s right into DJ software. For those with a SoundCloud Go+ account, one can stream songs in its newly added AAC 256kbps song quality option. All of the integrations other than Serato are planned for 2019 while Serato is expected in 2020.
“Until recently, digital workflows for DJs were limited to downloads and physical media, but streaming workflows are the future,” said Kerry Trainor, Chief Executive Officer, SoundCloud.
Of course djing in this manner requires a stable wifi connection, something that cannot be guaranteed at all venues.
In the final bit of Soundcloud news and big for djs who have uploaded mixtapes and run afoul of the 3 strike copyright system, the streaming service has partnered with Dubset to allow for the proper attribution of song plays to artists which have uploaded their tracks to Dubset. Dubset CEO Stephen White said in a statement:
“SoundCloud is where content creators live. It is the most important platform on the planet for creators and the ultimate partner for Dubset. Mixes and remixes not only establish incremental new revenue for artists and composers, they have proven over and over to be powerful music discovery growth tools, consistently driving growth in plays of the original track as well. We are very excited to bring Dubset’s clearance capabilities to SoundCloud’s users.”
At this time this will be a beta-only release for select remixes.
