We’re living in unprecedented and scary times. COVID-19 is a crisis for music and all of us who live, love and work with it.
Please read on to learn how Mixcloud is trying to help in the collective effort.
For many artists, DJs, nightclubs and festivals, live events are often the majority of their income, if not the entirety. As we enter a new reality with events cancelled, many creators and institutions we love face an extremely challenging financial future.
After consulting with our partners, friends and creative community of agents, bookers, artists and creators around the world, it’s clear to us there’s no silver bullet. For as long as it lasts, COVID-19 will demand the creation of new systems and business models. At Mixcloud, we want to do something purposeful in the collective worldwide effort to help the creative community keep their heads above water.
Last year we launched Mixcloud SELECT as a platform for fans to support creators they love. The goal is simple: to help creators find new sustainable economic models within music and audio.
Today we are taking three concrete actions.
1. We are immediately waiving our SELECT revenue share for the next 3 calendar months, giving SELECT channel creators 100% of the income after the underlying artists & songwriters played in the shows have been paid. This will also be a challenging time for Mixcloud financially, but we believe it’s the right thing to do for the holistic health of the community.
UPDATE MAY 15th 2020: All Mixcloud’s waived fees for Q2 2020 (the months of April, May and Jun) will be calculated in July 2020, and added to your channel account total in our accounting system. In the first month when a channel has generated more than $50 from their revenue share, Mixcloud will include the payout of the Q2 waived fees.
2. We are offering new joiners extended 3 months trials of PRO account upgrades which enable you to turn on SELECT for your channel. If you wish to cancel your membership at anytime, SELECT will remain active on your channel as long as you have supporters subscribing.
3. We will keep working with, and for, creators. This crisis requires a collective response, so we are accelerating our dialogue with as many people within the industry as we can manage, to figure out what we should all do next. We don’t believe there will be one single solution or answer. If anyone would like to talk more about collaborations and a collective response, please email us at support@mixcloud.com.
If you are an artist releasing single tracks and interested in SELECT, please sign up for more info here.
Thank you for being part of the Mixcloud community. Over the coming weeks and months that follow, we will be focused on making further steps in this area.
Let’s keep talking,
From all of us here at Mixcloud.