Hey everyone,
We get a lot of questions about the On SoundCloud Premier partner program. So, today I’m going to cover how the program works, the strategy behind it, and how, by joining the Repost Network, you can take full advantage of it.
Why On SoundCloud Premier?
In SoundCloud CEO Alexander Ljung’s own words1,
People need to recognize two things: One is that music is important for almost everyone on the planet, meaning there are potentially billions of customers, and also that it’s going to be a real struggle to get billions of people into a subscription service. So if you want to monetize billions of people, you need both ad-supported and subscription [models] to work. The question is, how can you make that work without giving everything away for free? For us, it’s about giving creators multiple tools for monetization.
We interpret this to mean that the On SoundCloud Premier program is the first step in Ljung’s plan to give creators the tools they need to monetize their music on the platform.
How Does It Work?
Currently, there are three usage tiers on SoundCloud2:
- Partner - Free plan, open to everyone
- Pro - Pro and Pro Unlimited plans, open to everyone with a small monthly or annual fee
- Premier - Premier Partners, currently invite-only
Of the usage tiers, the premier tier is the newest. In fact, as of September 2015, the program is just over a year old3. Since its launch, SoundCloud has brought on over 1000 channels to the premier tier.
Premier users gain access to all of the features of the pro unlimited tier (e.g. unlimited uploads, spotlight promotional tool, quiet mode), plus more comprehensive stats, geographic control, promoted tracks and profiles, and most importantly, revenue sharing. Read more here.
How Does Repost Fit In?
Here at Repost, we love the On SoundCloud Premier program. We see it as the perfect solution to the problem that Ljung talks about above. As both a dedicated partner with SoundCloud and an aggregator, it is our mission to not only help bring the SoundCloud premier program to as many people as possible, but to help them make the most of it.
We do this in a number of ways:
- Dashboard - Our industry-leading dashboard makes lives easier. Properly monetizing a track (i.e. clearing publishing) can be a difficult process. However, through our intuitive monetization app, we have managed to make it as simple and easy to understand as possible. In addition, with a few simple clicks, you can transparently view how much money you’re making, as well as manage your promotional profile features (e.g. track art, featured profiles, banner click-through, etc.).
- Dedicated Support - When you join Repost, you will gain access to our support system through Intercom. We are fanatical about support and we have multiple people on hand throughout the week to help push your releases to SoundCloud, make sure monetization is enabled, and help fix any metadata issues that might arise during the process.
- Marketing Tools - We have a suite of promotional marketing tools to make sure your content is heard by as many people as possible.
- Career Opportunities - Our team is always on the prowl for interesting ways to help out our partners (e.g. exclusive remix opportunities).
- Content Protection Strategy - If content theft is a legitimate issue for your channel, we can work with you to help figure what third-party content should be allowed to live on SoundCloud and which content should be taken down.
- Community - When you join Repost, you don’t just get us, you get our entire community. If there’s someone within the network that you want to work with, we can help to make that happen.
Essentially, Repost is working to be the perfect complement to SoundCloud’s rock-solid On SoundCloud Premier program. We’re happy to be here to shepherd you through the On SoundCloud Premier program so that you can make the most of it.
Sources
1 http://help.soundcloud.com/customer/portal/articles/1659059-how-can-i-become-an-on-soundcloud-premier-partner-
2 http://help.soundcloud.com/customer/portal/articles/1659059-how-can-i-become-an-on-soundcloud-premier-partner-
3 https://blog.soundcloud.com/2014/08/21/introducing-on-soundcloud/