Soundcloud is helping out smaller artists by changing the way they're paying royalties. The new method they're calling "fan-powered royalties" relies more on what fans are listening to rather than pooling all the money and distributing it to artists. As Soundcloud puts it, "each listener’s subscription or advertising revenue is distributed among the artists that they listen to, rather than their plays being pooled."
"Many in the industry have wanted this for years. We are excited to be the ones to bring this to market to better support independent artists. SoundCloud is uniquely positioned to offer this transformative new model due to the powerful connection between artists and fans that takes place on our platform," said Michael Weissman, Chief Executive Officer, SoundCloud.
"As the only direct-to-consumer music streaming platform and next generation artist services company, the launch of fan-powered royalties represents a significant move in SoundCloud’s strategic direction to elevate, grow and create new opportunities directly with independent artists."
Basically this is just a good way for smaller artists to make money. Soundcloud is one of the most popular platforms for streaming music. To attract more listeners and boost followers you can try on to buy Soundcloud plays. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out for Soundcloud and if it gets adopted at all across the bigger streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.
Soundcloud also launched an explainer site regarding their new method, available here.
