Mixcloud

Mixcloud is a streaming platform for user uploaded, long-form audio content – such as radio shows, podcasts and DJ mixes.

Mixcloud is licensed with various collecting societies around the world as a radio station and the majority of content available on their service is licensed under these blanket arrangements. This type of license prevents Mixcloud from offering certain features – such as making mixes available for download – but avoids the need for them to license directly from labels and other rights-holders.

Their recently-launched subscription service Select is a departure from their traditional model. It allows users to pay for subscriptions to their favourite channels – unlocking premium features such as offline playback and exclusive content.

As these features are not covered by their traditional “radio” licenses, Mixcloud have signed separate deals with rights-holders for the subscription service. Mixcloud uses combination of reference data supplied directly from Kudos and Gracenote’s audio recognition technology to identify tracks. Subscription revenue is then split with the rights-holders when their tracks are included in a mix.

Select uses a fair revenue share model. Artists, labels and publishers involved in creating the music played in shows receive royalty revenue. After such rightsholders are paid, the Select creator receives the majority share cut of the gross profit. This is possible because the Mixcloud platform is licensed with all major rightsholders, which allows revenue to flow in all the right directions.

https://www.mixcloud.com/select/creators/