With Wednesday's announcement that SoundCloud was now aggressively pursuing monetization opportunities, via an article from AdWeek, more information has been made available as to just how the digital audio portal will attempt to roll out its commercialization.
Insofar as regarding Soundcloud's new "On Soundcloud" feature, users with SoundCloud's "Premier" partner accounts will now feature ads from Red Bull, Squarespace, Jaguar, Sonos, and Comedy Central on both web and mobile platforms. Monies earned from the ad spend will be received not only by SoundCloud, but as royalty revenue to premier partners, too. As stated in our early analysis of SoundCloud's announcement, SoundCloud's Pro Partner accounts have been invite-only and in beta for more than a year, and feature customized graphics and much more fleshed out layouts that would likely make them more advantageous for brands looking to make a sizable enough advertising spend that not only just SoundCloud, but the partners themselves could benefit, too.
Of course, the larger earning potential comes from what SoundCloud's Chief Business Officer Jeff Toig describes as a forthcoming "subscription offering that allows people to remove ads if they want to remove ads, and it will have other features." Obviously, the idea would be that the quietly rolled out "Pro Partner" accounts that allow for SoundCloud to become a revenue earner would be included in this subscription service, as well as lesser levels of subscription that could feature either more or less advertising being aired to those who access the content on said pages. Overall, this is a game-changing move and one clearly at the crux of where mainstream music and digital culture's evolution of the music industry can finally achieve unity.
The advertising will be delivered in a few unique formats:
Promoted Tracks: Ideally will work like Twitter's promoted tweets, and will push tracks recommended by advertised brands to the top of searches and music streams.
Audio Marketing: Similar to YouTube, audio commercials will play before some tracks, with the ads being skippable after the first 15 seconds.
Mobile Advertising: Interstitial ads (as in those that only are active when a user is actively engaged with the screen) will become more prevalent
Visual Advertising: Brands can place ad visuals on top of music streams, allowing ads to play in a manner similar to a slideshow on a brand-promoted track.
Brand Marketing Offers: Squarespace’s initial ad campaign will offer 10 percent off its web development services
Brand SoundCloud Profiles: These will be pages that marketers can set up as branded content hubs
As well, plans are also in the offing for sponsorships and contests to extend brand reach to artists and bands. More information has not yet been made available regarding those plans.
