Mixcloud announced that they have a direct licensing agreement with Warner Music Group. This is Mixcloud’s first direct deal with a major record label.

This new recorded music licensing agreement with Warner Music Group will usher in a direct relationship and a new phase for Mixcloud. The deal will enable an innovative subscription offering that allows fans to subscribe to individual creator channels for a more interactive listening experience. This approach will help audio creators on the platform monetize their content by developing a new marketplace for audio subscriptions.

The Mixcloud platform offers a diverse collection of serialized, long-form, and exclusive audio content – over 12 million radio shows, DJ sets, and Podcasts. Their platform’s proprietary Content ID system is capable of identifying individual tracks within long-form user generated audio, tracks usage data, and currently pays out royalties to local collecting societies such as SoundExchange and the performing rights societies in the U.S.

Music Business Worldwide reported that the licensing deal between Mixcloud and Warner Music Group will enable Mixcloud to start building new subscription products. The expectation is that direct deals like the one struck with Warner Music Group will allow Mixcloud to offer more on-demand services – and to charge for them.

Mixcloud is a streaming audio platform that focuses on DJ mixes, radio shows, and podcasts. Last month, Mixcloud gave users the ability to cast their track to Apple TV. Now, Mixcloud is rolling out support for Chromecast and Sonos devices. This will enable podcasters to stream their shows via Chromecast and Sonos.

The purpose of adding support for Chromecast and Sonos seems to be in the hopes that it will prevent users from defecting to other services that already support the devices. It is also to make Mixcloud seem more attractive to prospective users so people will choose Mixcloud over its competitors.

On the Mixcloud website, it states that users get unlimited uploads. They are free to upload as much content as they would like to. They can also listen to as much content as they would like.

Doing so is encouraged. Their Terms of Service state that users need to log in and listen to or upload a piece of audio content at least every six months. Those that fail to do so may have their account permanently disabled due to prolonged inactivity.

Podcasters that are using music, or other audio, that they did not create themselves should be aware that Mixcloud respects the intellectual property rights of others. You are allowed to upload “a collection of sound recordings that have been released to the public under the authority of the copyright owners of the sound recordings.”