In the wake of SoundCloud’s launch of its Premier platform earlier this month, the company came under criticism in an article published on the Verge Friday, which pointed out several restrictive elements in the contract around its payment dates and percentages, and particularly in that artists are asked to sign away their rights to sue SoundCloud. In a blog post titled “Clarifying the SoundCloud Premier agreement” published Monday, the company noted some updates to the contract.
“As we’ve grown, we’ve also seen feedback that some language in the original program agreement was too broad, and we want to avoid any doubt around your rights and how we run the program,” the post reads in part. “Our team reviewed the agreement, and we’ve clarified or removed elements that may be unclear or not relevant to the open service we have now — this includes the removal of the outdated covenant not to sue language that was part of our previous invite-only agreement.”
Also, along with stating a regular accounting period and a commitment to notify artists of any changes to the contract, the company has extended the artists’ right to challenge from six months to two years. The new contract passed the Verge’s sniff test as well.
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The post goes on to state that “this updated agreement does not change the way we already operate SoundCloud Premier today:
• You retain all of the rights to your content
• You receive a pro rata share of 55% of net revenue
• You are paid for each calendar month within 45 days of the end of that month, regardless of how much you earn
• You have the freedom to exit the program whenever you wish, and can always use any other platform alongside SoundCloud
• As with any change to SoundCloud Terms of Use, you will be notified two weeks before we make any changes to this agreement so you can review the changes and agree to them.
“SoundCloud is and will always be a creator-first platform,” the post concludes. “We’re committed to building industry-leading products and services for you to share, connect and grow your career. As part of that commitment, we’ll always take feedback and respond as quickly as we can to keep improving the platform for you.”