Independent label organization Merlin, which represents over 20,000 independent labels, has signed a contract with SoundCloud to join the company’s On SoundCloud program, the London-based organization announced today.
The deal will allow Merlin’s members, including Beggars Group (including Matador, 4AD, XL), Domino, Secretly Group (Numero, Jagjaguwar) and many, many others to monetize the revenue from uploads to the service through advertisements (though these have been slow to appear on the service). It will also provide those members access to a richer set of data analytics, as well as the ability to remove infringing content from the service.
SoundCloud’s broader goal is to legitimize all user-uploaded content, a large portion of which is the service’s innumerable DJ mixes and remixes, most of which contain the work of other artists. “”We’re getting closer to being able to monetize user-generated content, with this deal,” Ljung says.
Via Billboard
