After Spotify’s cash-for-promotion ad launch, now SoundCloud artists can pay to boost their tracks

When SoundCloud became a distributor in February with the launch of its Premier monetization program, it promised that it would be adding more functionality in the coming months.

Starting today (November 12), SoundCloud is introducing a new self-service promotional tool for SoundCloud Premier creators called, Promote.

The new tool will allow creators to pay to boost their original tracks to the top of listeners’ feeds and mobile homepages.

Creators can set their own budget and choose from a variety of advanced targeting options to help drive track plays and reach more listeners.

The move comes a couple of weeks after Spotify announced that, for the first time, record companies (and other industry players) will soon be able to pay to have their artists promoted to targeted fans within the Spotify ecosystem via a ‘Brand New Music For You’ pop-up visual ad.


SoundCloud’s Premier monetization, distribution and promotion program enables artists to distribute their music to rival streaming services like Amazon Music, Apple Music, Instagram, Spotify, Tencent and YouTube Music.

The program is accessible by SoundCloud Pro and Pro Unlimited subscribers for no extra cost and creators keep 100% of their rights.

SoundCloud’s music catalog includes over 200 million tracks from 20m creators heard in 190 countries.

“[Premier] now offers independent creators full-stack capabilities to share and promote tracks directly to fans on SoundCloud in real-time, distribute releases to their audience across all major music services worldwide, and get paid for plays both on SoundCloud and on other services, all from their SoundCloud account,” said the company in a press release announcing the new feature today.

“Creators can now spend less time and money jumping between different tools, and more time making music, connecting with fans and growing their careers first on SoundCloud.”

Kerry Trainor, SoundCloud (speaking in February)

“Only SoundCloud empowers creators with a unified platform to instantly upload and share, connect with fans in real-time and get paid for their work everywhere – both on SoundCloud and across other leading music services,” said Kerry Trainor, Chief Executive Officer, SoundCloud, speaking in February.

“Creators can now spend less time and money jumping between different tools, and more time making music, connecting with fans and growing their careers first on SoundCloud.”

 Music Business Worldwide

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