Music streaming faces a dual crisis, according to SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton - and it's creating what he calls "a very ripe dynamic" for his platform.

"Streaming is not enough for artists," Seton says. "The vast majority of artists don't earn a living wage. 80 million tracks making less than five bucks, 46 million tracks making nothing. Those numbers have only grown in a generative AI world."

But the problem extends beyond artist economics.

"Streaming is also not enough for fans," Seton argues. "Fans want to express their support for artists and music that they love, and the streaming environment has not really facilitated that in a way that scratches their itch."

It's a diagnosis Seton has been making for some time.

In a previous interview with MBW, he argued that "streaming hasn't killed the superfan, but it has certainly suppressed fandom" - and that SoundCloud was uniquely positioned to unlock it with its "two-sided marketplace" - with fans on the one side, and artists on the other.

In the months since, he notes, "a lot of ink has been spilled" on the concept that fan monetization - not streaming optimization - is what's coming next in music. The industry's growing focus on superfans and direct artist-fan relationships, combined with streaming's failure to serve either artists or fans adequately, creates an opening for platforms built around direct connection.

"This is a very ripe dynamic for us," Seton says. "We are built to bring artists and fans together directly - no intermediary, nobody separating artists and fans. The founding vision of the platform 18 years ago was to empower artists and fans to share and connect directly through music."

SoundCloud recently capitalized on that dynamic with what it's calling an "All-in-One Artist Subscription".

The headline feature: SoundCloud will eliminate its distribution revenue share at the end of November 2025, meaning artists will keep 100% of their royalties from distribution to platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, TikTok, and 50+ other services - as well as 100% of their earnings on SoundCloud itself.

Under SoundCloud's previous model, the company took a 20% share of distribution royalties. The move to 100% applies automatically to all existing Artist and Artist Pro subscribers, with no price increase.

"Distribution has a commoditized nature to it," Seton argues. "Getting music out to services costs very little. The marginal cost is zero. So frankly, to an artist, that cost should be zero."

Beyond distribution to other platforms, the numbers behind SoundCloud's "two-sided marketplace" tell their own story.

With 400+ million tracks from 40+ million artists across 193 countries, the platform's user-generated content dwarfs traditional supply chain content by a factor of four to one. Some 85% of global listening time on the platform is against UGC content, with more than 50% of listening time devoted to new music.

More than 50% of the fans who come to the platform, says Seton, are what "the industry calls superfans" - listeners who "spend more than six times the amount of time and money on music as a typical fan."

SoundCloud doesn't publish its monthly active user metrics, but tells us that it achieved "record" MAU, fan, and creator subscriber growth in 2025.

"Distribution has a commoditized nature to it. Getting music out to services costs very little. The marginal cost is zero. So frankly, to an artist, that cost should be zero."

Eliah Seton

SoundCloud's response to streaming's limitations is to build what Seton calls "the next major revenue format" in music - fan-driven income streams that sit alongside traditional streaming royalties.

Building on its Fan-Powered Royalties system (the first to tie royalties directly to listener engagement rather than pro-rata distribution), the company is now adding direct fan support with zero commission, integrated merch sales, on-demand vinyl, and artist storefronts.

"We're the only creator platform exclusive to music with direct access to fans," Seton says. "That is fully differentiated today, and it is more at the center of gravity of music today than ever before."

As Seton tells MBW, "each of these launches are more beginnings than they are anything else" - suggesting this is the early stages of a longer-term strategy to fundamentally reshape how artists monetize their work and how fans express their support.

We sat down with Seton to discuss SoundCloud's strategy, the future of fan monetization, and the platform's role in the music industry in 2025.

Under our previous model, we took a 20% share to offer bespoke artist services for a smaller group of artists. This shift marks our move toward supporting creators at scale, with distribution as one of several tools that empower artists to grow, reach audiences, and earn more.

Distribution has a commoditized nature to it. Getting music out to services costs very little. Providing it as a component of a broader suite of tools where artists can find an all-in-one, one-stop shop was really the approach.

What we found is even despite having the ability and the pipes to distribute historically, artists would get traction on SoundCloud in the ecosystem, and they would have to go outside the ecosystem to another platform, pay another subscription, and distribute to other services from that other platform, where they don't have direct access to audience and fans.

"ARTISTS WOULD GET TRACTION ON SOUNDCLOUD, THEN HAVE TO GO OUTSIDE THE ECOSYSTEM TO ANOTHER PLATFORM WHERE THEY DON'T HAVE DIRECT ACCESS TO FANS."

The unlock for us was to be able to be the home for creators and to be a one-stop shop that allows an artist to come to the platform, post their music for the first time, find that fan base, and when they want to, distribute to all the other services directly from SoundCloud and retain 100% of the economics.

For us, it's about being able to be that all-in-one Creator subscription. It's less about the individual distribution relationship.

We know that the thing artists need the most is to find their fans and get heard and build real engagement with a fan base, so that fan base doesn't move on to the next [artist] as quickly as they arrived. And then once an artist has been able to build that fan base, start to monetize that fan base.

That whole strategy - get heard, get fans, get paid - is a critical lens for us that determines the tools that we give artists. Artists who come to the platform can find their fans directly on SoundCloud, and now, with fan support and other fan monetization opportunities, they can put new pies on the table and create new dollar opportunities.

"WE'RE THE ONLY CREATOR PLATFORM EXCLUSIVE TO MUSIC WITH DIRECT ACCESS TO FANS."

I think that really speaks to this differentiation. We're the only creator platform exclusive to music with direct access to fans.

We get the benefit of being both. That virtuous circle of fans come to find what's next - they want to have this tastemaking, crate-digging, cool kids in the playground experience, and that means finding a new artist and their new music and latching on to that artist and telling their friends about it, and sharing and reposting and supporting that artist.

And then the other side of it is the artist is coming to the platform to find exactly that fan.

In addition to more than 50% of music that's listened to on the platform being new music, more than 50% of the fans who come to the platform - the industry calls them superfans - spend more than six times the amount of time and money on music as a typical fan.

So, as a two-sided marketplace, we get to do both of these things.

We certainly don't feel that we would compete with major rightsholders or traditional artist services companies. Technology has created a ton of new opportunities and will continue to create a ton of new opportunities for artists.

Generative AI tools, under the right ethical and legal and commercial frameworks, will be the great democratizer vis-à-vis creation. We're going to have more and more artists with easier and easier access to tools that enable them to create music and become music creators and artists themselves.

"IF WE CAN FUEL FANDOM, THEN WE'RE FUELING THE CREATORS. IF WE CAN FUEL THE CREATORS, WE'LL FUEL FANDOM."

And then we become a platform that harnesses that - empowering those artists to access the tools they need to find a fan base, engage with that fan base, and provide tools for those fans to engage with the artists.

We view it this way: if we can fuel fandom, then we're fueling the creators and their experiences. And if we can fuel the creators and their experience and [the] tools they have, we'll fuel fandom in their effort to find those creators and build relationships with them and express their love for that new music. It's that virtuous circle again.

With other players in the distribution and artist services game, having direct access to fans and to the audience is a key point of differentiation. When you pay a subscription to or enter into a transaction with another platform that does not own direct access to fans, you very quickly run out of tools to take your journey, build traction, and get discovered.

We hold a pretty unique place in the music ecosystem as a result. I view it really as complementary to major labels, to independent labels, to artist services companies, where we're another choice for artists to find their fans, build their fan base, get discovered, and take their journey.

Part of our DNA is that fans come to the platform to stream a track, but they stay on the platform to engage in other ways. They comment on a track, DM an artist, share it, or repost it. They have these forms of engagement - social and otherwise - that keep them on the platform and allow them to engage more deeply with the track they came to stream.

What we've been doing is starting to monetize that engagement, allowing fans to express their fandom in a monetized fashion and enabling artists to collect new forms of income. [We're] starting to really crack that code that streaming is not enough for artists or fans.

As part of this launch, we are giving fans the opportunity to provide fan support. This is another key milestone in being a home for fandom, as well as the home for creators - allowing fans to pay money to artists that they love and want to support.

These are milestones on this journey to monetize fandom. So much of our roadmap is oriented toward building this next major revenue format, not just for us, but in music that solves the problem that streaming is not enough.

Last year, we soft-launched our merchandise store to fulfill orders on demand for independent artists at scale. You'll now see expansions to the merch capabilities as part of this launch, the launch of storefronts - real estate on the artist profile page that allows them to sell anything they want. Additionally, we launched the on-demand vinyl partnership over the summer, allowing independent artists to sell vinyl on demand for the first time.

"SO MUCH OF OUR ROADMAP IS ORIENTED TOWARD BUILDING THIS NEXT MAJOR REVENUE FORMAT IN MUSIC."

These are building blocks. Each of these launches are more beginnings than they are anything else. This is a network effect. We have fans who are coming in to find new music, discover what's next, find an artist they've never heard before. And we have artists who are coming to the platform to find engaged fans, build a fan base, engage with that fan base, build a fan community. That is a virtuous circle for us.

So much of what we're focused on is a product roadmap that scratches the itch for why fans come to begin with, and scratches the itch for why artists come to the platform to begin with.

For us, that meant rolling out a number of social discovery tools for the fan experience. For a platform where more than 50% of listening time is against new music, and so much of the fan experience is about finding what's next - being a crate digger, being a tastemaker, a cool kid in the playground - we're trying to orient that listener experience to exactly that.

We unveiled a "Hot for You" trending track. Every day, you get fed a track that's blowing up on the platform, really taking off. It's specific to your consumption patterns, and that allows you to take a [dive] into new scenes, new areas of the platform, new artists and music that are bubbling up before anybody else knows.

Also part of that social discovery launch were "Liked By" playlists. When you follow a friend or an artist on the platform, we will display playlists on your homepage in the app that are tailored to their listening preferences. If you follow J. Cole, Drake, or Ed Sheeran, you'll be able to see what they like on the platform. Similarly, if you follow your old flatmate or your cool cousin, you'll see what they're liking as well.

"WE'RE TRYING TO ORIENT THE LISTENER EXPERIENCE TOWARD MUSIC DISCOVERY AND BEING A TASTEMAKER."

We also unveiled a trending track wall - a music discovery feed oriented toward what scenes, sub-scenes, new artists, and new music are bubbling up and going viral in meaningful ways across the platform.

Much of what we do on the fan side of the business is oriented toward social discovery and engagement. It's not accidental that these launches are coming at the same time. The fan launch a couple of weeks ago, and the creator launch [on October 30], are really leaning into [that virtuous circle].Music Business Worldwide