The eight-year-old free music streaming company on Tuesday announced its first paid offering, a $9.99 a month SoundCloud Go subscription that will feature an expanded, ad-free music catalog of 125 million tracks from 12 million artists. The service, which is available in the U.S. and will roll out in other countries later this year, will also offer offline listening.
SoundCloud Go is available through SoundCloud's existing mobile apps. The service costs $9.99 on Android and $12.99 on iOS. The company is also offering a free 30-day trial.
Founded by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss in 2008, SoundCloud has become popular with emerging artists and DJs as a place to distribute their tracks to fans. But, until recently, the service ruffled feathers with the major labels for operating as a free unlicensed platform.
The Berlin-based company made steps toward monetization in 2014 with the launch of its advertising program that shared revenue with musicians. And last year it began slowly signing deals with the major record labels as it prepped its subscription service. Sony was the last holdout, pulling original songs from Adele, Kelly Clarkson and other artists last year during a breakdown in negotiations. The deal finally was completed earlier this month, paving the way for the launch of SoundCloud Go.
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