ICE and SoundCloud are pleased to announce that they have reached an agreement for a new multi-territory licence.
This follows the previous agreement reached between SoundCloud and PRS for Music which covered the use of its repertoire since SoundCloud’s launch.
In 2015, the launch of the ICE processing and licensing hub brought together online rights for the combined repertoires of GEMA (Germany), STIM (Sweden) and PRS for Music (UK) under one company.
This new ICE agreement covers SoundCloud services available across Europe including the recently launched SoundCloud Go subscription and ad-supported offerings available in the UK, Ireland and France. The agreement also brings together the combined repertories of the ICE partners with state of the art processing and matching capabilities and the most comprehensive copyright database in Europe which will, for the first time, allow ICE partners to receive royalties when their combined 250,000 songwriter, composer and publisher members’ works are used by SoundCloud.
The rights covered under this new agreement will help accelerate SoundCloud’s continued development and further launch of its subscription and ad funded services across more territories in Europe to the benefit of all creators.
Working in partnership with ICE, SoundCloud continues to make significant strides towards improving the quality of data delivered to rightsholders. It now offers its users the functionality to add a wide range of industry recognised metadata to uploaded content, thus driving accuracy and enabling the ICE processing hub to maximize the royalties it passes back to PRS for Music, GEMA, STIM, and their members.
Ben McEwen, ICE Licensing Commercial Director, said: “The deal with SoundCloud marks another significant step forward as ICE continues to work to simplify multi-territory licensing for the benefit of rightsholders and digital music service providers alike; we are delighted to welcome SoundCloud as a licensee”
Donagh O’Malley, Vice President, Content Partnerships, SoundCloud, said: “We’re pleased to have reached yet another agreement that enables us to continue to build a place for voracious lovers of music and all forms of creative audio content, whilst ensuring rights holders’ work is rewarded and respected. The agreement with ICE adds to the growing number of deals that expand our already expansive catalogue of unique content, and strengthen our connected community of creators, listeners and curators who are fuelled by their genuine passion for music and creativity.”