SoundCloud has become one of the most popular services for sharing audio over the past few years, but the company has been struggling to find a profitable business model… and apparently the latest approach is pretty much the same one taken by Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, and others.
SoundCloud Go is a new subscription-based streaming music service that runs $9.99 per month (although it’s $12.99 per month if you sign up through the company’s iOS app).
You can try the service for free for the first 30 days, and if you’ve already got a SoundCloud Pro Unlimited account, you can sign up for SoundCloud Go for $4.99 per month for the first 6 months.
The new service includes “more tracks” from major labels as well as songs, podcasts, and other content shared from other users. That’s in addition to the more than 125 million tracks you can already listen to for free. Most of those songs come from independent artists. What’s new is the addition of music from at least some major label artists… although the selection is reportedly somewhat limited.
The key selling points for SoundCloud Go are that it offers an ad-free listening experience and allows you to download tracks so you can listen without an internet connection.
Honestly, SoundCloud Go doesn’t sound much different from other music streaming services… but if you’re already a heavy SoundCloud user, I suppose it’s nice to have everything in one app.