SoundCloud Lets Artists Sell Downloads Directly — and Takes Zero Commission
SoundCloud launched a beta for direct music purchases on Wednesday, August 26, letting artists sell downloadable tracks straight from their profiles — and the platform says it is taking no commission on each sale.
The beta opened to roughly 200 US-based creators subscribed to SoundCloud's Artist Pro tier who have already enabled Fan Support, the platform's tipping-style feature that lets fans contribute directly to artists at 0% commission. Participating creators set their own prices on eligible tracks, make streamed music available for purchase, and track sales through Artist Studio and the Fan Support Dashboard. Fans buy and download tracks without leaving SoundCloud, receiving files in whatever format the artist supplies, such as MP3 or WAV. According to Music Business Worldwide, artists receive the proceeds from each sale less applicable fees and taxes.
SoundCloud, led by CEO Eliah Seton, says access to the direct-purchase beta will widen through the testing period before reaching all eligible creators later this autumn.
The company's own data makes a case for the feature. SoundCloud says more than 250,000 artists have linked over 2.4 million tracks to external music platforms, and that it sends more than half a million users a year to outside parties to buy music. In the company's research, 28% of surveyed artists either already sell downloadable music or want to, split evenly at 14% each. SoundCloud also says its research shows superfans can spend up to five times more on music and artists than casual listeners — the kind of listener the direct-purchase feature is designed to capture inside the app rather than hand off to another storefront.
This is the second commission cut SoundCloud has made for artists in under a year. In November 2025, the platform scrapped the revenue share on its distribution service, letting subscribing artists keep 100% of royalties from distribution to platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and TikTok. SoundCloud's Artist plan starts at $39 per year; the Artist Pro plan, which the direct-purchase beta requires, costs $99 per year. The platform charges a small payout fee starting as low as $0.50 per payment, according to SoundCloud's own help pages.
For fans, the change is straightforward: if an artist on SoundCloud has enabled purchases, a track that used to be stream-only can now be bought and downloaded in a couple of taps, with the money going to the artist minus taxes and processing fees rather than a platform cut. For artists already paying for SoundCloud's higher tier, it turns a streaming and discovery platform into a direct sales channel — one where the checkout never leaves the page where a listener first heard the song.
