Apple Music’s competition in the music streaming battle just got a little fiercer today with the introduction of a new subscription service by SoundCloud.
The new SoundCloud Go service costs $10 per month, giving you unlimited access to the YouTube of Audio’s vast trove of indie content without ads. You can also save files to listen to offline, but that might not be enough to take on Apple Music and Spotify.
On top of SoundCloud’s user-generated content, the company has signed a deal with music labels like Sony, UMG, and Warner to give users access to over 125 million tracks that includes “premium licensed content” in case you don’t want to only listen to DJ mixtapes and demo tapes.
For now the service is only available in the U.S. It will cost you $12.99 per month if you buy your subscription through the SoundCloud app, so buy it through your web browser to get the $9.99 price. The service is offering a free 30-day trial to get you hooked.
SoundCloud CEO Alexander Ljung says the more paid services will be rolled out in the future. Ljung told TechCrunch that the company already plans to add a tier for creators that will allow them to mix in licensed music with their content.
“We’ve gone the long route of aligning with the music industry. In the future you will start to see more things. We think this will lead to brand new revenue streams in the industry.”
Generating new revenue streams will be crucial for SoundCloud to survive, but with Spotify already passing 30 million subscribers while Apple Music quickly jumped past 10 million, it seems hard to believe tens of millions of customers will also fork over $10 for a SoundCloud subscription too.
