SoundCloud's long-rumored streaming music subscription service has finally arrived. Dubbed SoundCloud Go, the new service comes hot on the heels of licensing agreements with the "big three" major record labels but don't worry, the company isn't abandoning its roots.
SoundCloud Go offers listeners an ad-free experience without interruptions as well as the ability to listen offline, even without a cellular or Wi-Fi connection.
In a blog post on the matter, SoundCloud said its new service will initially be available to listeners in the US. The company reassured fans that the indie music scene that has thrived on SoundCloud won't be going away; instead, it'll simply be augmented by catalogs from Merlin, Sony, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.
As The Verge correctly highlights, SoundCloud is advertising a colossal catalog of 125 million songs - far more than the 30 million or so boasted by competitors like Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal. The catch, however, is that at least 110 million of those tracks are user-uploaded tracks that are already free to access.
Some quick math tells us that SoundCloud is missing around 15 million "mainstream" tracks. The publication said SoundCloud was still adding tracks but as of today, there are several huge artists missing including Katy Perry, The Beatles, One Direction, Arcade Fire, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, just to name a few.
SoundCloud is offering a free 30-day trial of SoundCloud Go. After that, expect to pay $9.99 per month for continued access (or $12.99 monthly if you sign up through the Apple app store). Subscribers are free to cancel at any time.