LIL PUMP WAS WEIGHING HIS OPTIONS.
It was summer 2021, and the 21-year-old rapper — who broke out of the SoundCloud rap bubble with his 2017 hit “Gucci Gang” and has since landed two top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 — was at the end of his Warner Music deal and deciding what to do next.
“We had a couple opportunities, and [one was] to go back and sign again with Warner,” says Dooney Battle, founder/CEO of Tha Lights Global, who helped put the SoundCloud deal together for Pump. “We ended up taking a meeting with SoundCloud, and we thought they were the best opportunity for what we were trying to do as an independent artist — that they’re going to help us optimize and take us to the next level.”
In 2022, Pump will be among the first artists participating in what SoundCloud has identified as the top of that pyramid of support Seton drew: its roster. The initial slate of eight artists — ranging from rookies to more established names — also includes Nigerian singer-songwriter Tekno and Atlanta-based MC MadeinTYO, artists who, like Pump, had some experience in the major-label system but wanted to chart a new course by going back to their roots on SoundCloud.
“Our definition of ‘roster’ is not what a traditional label would think of,” Seton says. “It’s about bringing the all-star team to make the best possible solution for an artist at that point in their career.” Artists are signed to various types of deals: some exclusive, most not; some in partnership with other labels and distributors, others joint ventures; and some with advances and marketing budgets from SoundCloud itself. But each is structured as a license, with artists maintaining control of their masters and creativity, and SoundCloud backing them, both creatively and financially.
To a burgeoning act, such deals have an inherent appeal: Rather than leave the SoundCloud nest, they can expand their brand while continuing on the path that got them where they are. “We’ve been using SoundCloud for years, from when we were making music for fun and for the love of it,” says Mario Onoh, founder/CEO of PWRS and Tekno’s manager. “With this, it’s like, ‘All right, we’ve already been using your platform — now you just want us to keep doing it and you’re going to give us money?’ It’s kind of a no-brainer.”
SoundCloud is not the first DSP to venture into label-like waters. In 2018, Spotify rolled out a program allowing independent artists to directly upload their music, bypassing labels and distributors, and began offering six-figure advances and improved royalty payouts to managers to license their artists’ work directly to the platform. The move was met with immediate backlash from labels — which saw it as an affront to their core business — and the program was shuttered in under a year.
SoundCloud is in a different boat than Spotify, which makes up more than a quarter of major labels’ revenue, according to one person familiar with the figures. It is much smaller, and accounts for a small fraction of revenue, making it much less of a threat from an economic standpoint; it has also never positioned itself as a service that can allow artists to bypass the label system. Instead, Seton and Wirtzer-Seawood have emphasized a more collaborative, open approach in moving toward these more “high-touch” relationships, stressing partnerships with other label-services and distribution companies and an open dialogue with the label community to avoid the friction and mistrust that characterized Spotify’s forays, which had caught the labels by surprise.
“We’re a major A&R source for what’s next in music, and there’s a major opportunity for partnering with the majors and other independent distributors and services companies,” says Seton. “We’re working with an EMPIRE, with a Capitol, with a Warner, trying to take a much more flexible approach that is centered around having a bespoke solution to that particular artist relationship. So I don’t think we would be seen as trying to replace Atlantic Records.”
“SoundCloud’s vision for forging artist partnerships and collaboration is truly exciting and fully aligned with CMG’s approach to finding and developing new talent, as well as enhancing the careers of established and superstar artists,” Capitol Music Group chair/CEO Michelle Jubelirer told Billboard. “We are always exploring new ways to amplify the voices of our artists and deepening their connections with fans, and SoundCloud is a crucial partner in helping us to achieve those aims.”
The company will also have to balance prioritizing releases on SoundCloud — where it is still trying to grow its fledgling subscription service, SoundCloud Go+ — with marketing on major platforms like Apple, Spotify and Amazon, where the majority of commercial activity for its acts will naturally occur. “We have to do our job for our roster business of making sure that we can market to the universe of fans wherever they may be,” says Wirtzer-Seawood. “But what we know is that we can do that in ways that have never been done before on SoundCloud as well.”
The real dream is to see an artist bubble up from the bottom of the pyramid to its apex — one that emerges from the sandbox of SoundCloud’s free streaming service, builds a following using some of its creator tools through Repost, grows through its distribution division and graduates to a roster deal.
“If you started a new industry, took a clean sheet of paper and wrote down how music works in the best interests of artists and fans, this is the model you would build,” says Seton. “So I think it’s not just about what’s next for fans. It’s about what’s next for music.”