Blog News

New restrictions on Mixcloud and new premium subscription

Mixcloud has always offered a service for creators to upload for free, and for anyone to listen for free. It’s crucial to us that these options continue to exist.

In the coming months, this free playback streaming experience on Mixcloud will become slightly more limited. 

The short answer is: to keep up with the costs of running a streaming service that puts artists and creators at its core, Mixcloud can build a sustainable platform that will be here for you in the long term.

What’s changing?

A free listener will still be able to access Mixcloud’s unique catalog of over 15 million shows. However, they may run into some limits, in line with our licensing agreements:

  • Free listeners will only be able to seek forwards (not backward) while listening to a show.
  • Free listeners will be able to listen to the same show maximum 3 times in a rolling two-week window.
  • Free listeners will not be able to listen to shows that feature more than 4 tracks by the same artist or more than 3 tracks from an album (If you are not a rights holder).

Re-designed subscription plans so that you can lift these limitations, whatever type of listener you may be:

  • For the loyalist fan who keeps coming back to specific creators: 
    By subscribing directly to an individual creator with Mixcloud Select,for a flexible monthly price set by the creator from $2.99a listener can directly support the creator, listen to their channel without limits and receive exclusive rewards in exchange.
  • For the generalist listener who listens to a bit of everything: 
    By upgrading to a Mixcloud Premiumour new $7.99 monthly subscription, a listener can access all public shows across the platform without limits.

Does This Impact You?

It depends if you are an avid user. If you use Mixcloud a lot and have a series of mixes you depend on, then maybe. It could also force avid users to explore a little bit around the site. 

They also have a nifty infographic about the money splits between them and artists, which are much better than most streaming services. Spotify is inching towards 50/50% artist enterprise and company.