SoundCloud Introduces New Pro Offering
SoundCloud, the world’s leading audio platform, announced today a powerful new way for music & audio creators to build their presence on the platform by simplifying its subscription plans and introducing a new beta program, Pro Partner, for content and brand partners.
The first Pro Partners have been selected from across the audio spectrum - brands including Red Bull Sound Select, artist and producer Snoop Lion, audio partners including Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist, not-for-profit organization The Recording Academy® producers of The GRAMMY®s, musician The-Dream, Kevin Smith’s SModcast, The Guardian, Blue Mic, KQED, and Blue Bottle Coffee.
Pro Partners gain access to a more visual profile, including the option of a ‘Moving Sound’, which enhances a particular piece of sound with a series of images. Moving sounds can be reposted to appear and expand in the Streams of those people who choose to view them. Pro Partners will also have the unique ability to promote their profile via the new ‘Promoted Profile’ feature, which highlights their profilewithin the ‘Who to Follow’ section of users’ Stream pages. The new features maximize the exposure of Pro Partners to the millions of people who visit the web app each month.
Red Bull Sound Select and The GRAMMY®s are two key examples. Red Bull Sound Select debuts today its Pro Partner profile on SoundCloud, using the new features to highlight sounds from its Sound Select platform, powered by SoundCloud. A number of Sound Select artists will perform at SoundCloud’s SXSW venue before beginning Red Bull’s five days of music in Austin. The GRAMMY®s Pro Partner profile showcases winning submissions to its CenterStage powered by GRAMMY Amplifier program - an innovative program utilizing the SoundCloud platform and designed to provide professional mentoring and exposure for artists. On March 12th, the selected winners will be announced at SoundCloud’s Creator Clubhouse event in Austin.
Affirming SoundCloud’s commitment to music & audio creators everywhere, the new Pro and Pro Unlimited subscriptions replace the previously existing Lite, Solo, Pro and Pro Plus accounts, streamlining the most useful features, offering higher upload limits and more comprehensive analytics at lower monthly & yearly rates. In addition, valuable features from the experimental Pro Partner tier will quickly be added to the other Pro tiers, ensuring that all levels of music & audio creator benefit from new developments on the product. If users are currently on a yearly plan, they can continue to use it until it is due to expire, with all functionality available on Classic SoundCloud if you can’t find it on the new SoundCloud. If users currently have a monthly plan, they will switch to the new Pro options when their next due to renew.
Pro will be offered at the lower price of €3 monthly and €9 monthly for Pro Unlimited. The price for Pro Partner varies from partner to partner.
“We’re excited to be working with such a well-known group of partners to develop new ways to showcase their music & audio on the SoundCloud platform,” said founder & CTO Eric Wahlforss. “Over the coming months, we’ll be iterating on new features to see which ones resonate with our Community and making the best ones available to our Pro and Pro Unlimited subscribers. Our new Pro accounts make our best paid features more accessible, bring content and brand partners more visibly to the platform, and allow music & audio creators to be heard everywhere.”
The launch of Pro subscriptions coincides with other new features to further boost the discoverability of music & audio creators on SoundCloud, including an upgraded version of the ‘Who to Follow’ based on improved algorithms.
SoundCloud is hosting an event with select Pro Partners and members of its Community at SXSW on March 12 - 13th. Conference attendees are encouraged to stop by SoundCloud’s “Creator Clubhouse” located at: Waller Creek Boathouse (74 Trinity Street, Austin, Texas) or check out (http://clubhouse.soundcloud.com/) for more details.
