Mixcloud, the London-born streaming startup, has now a milestone deal: a direct licensing agreement with Warner Music, enabling it to start building new subscription products.
SoundCloud rival Mixcloud attracts around 17m monthly users. It hosts 12m radio shows, podcasts and DJ sets which have been uploaded by more than a million ‘curators’ – including the likes of Carl Cox, Moby, Erykah Badu and David Byrne.
The service, which was founded in 2008, now says it is negotiating with Universal and Sony in a bid to tie up licensing deals with all three majors. It has previously relied on statutory radio licenses for its music usage.
The expectation is that direct deals like the one struck with Warner will allow Mixcloud to offer more on-demand services to listeners – and charge for them.
MixCloud co-founder Nico Perez told the “Financial Times”: “We don’t want to do the $9.99 a month. That’s done. That market is served. What we’re building is going to be very customised”.