There are three ways to generate revenue from your music on SoundCloud. How you monetize depends on whether you manage your own rights or work with a distributor or label.
1. Directly via SoundCloud for Artists
If you are an independent artist with a Next Pro subscription, you can monetize tracks you upload manually.
How it works: You manage the metadata, rights, and payouts directly through your SoundCloud for Artists dashboard.
Requirements: You must own 100% of the rights to the music or have explicit permission to monetize.
Action: Go to your Track manager, select a track, and enable monetization in the Monetization tab.
2. Through the supply chain (Distributors)
This applies to "ingested content"—music delivered to SoundCloud by a third-party distributor or record label.
How it works: Your distributor delivers the audio and metadata to us. These tracks are managed by the rightsholder, not the artist directly.
Key detail: You cannot manually edit or delete these tracks on SoundCloud. Any changes to audio or metadata must be made through your distributor.
Availability: These tracks monetize automatically in territories where SoundCloud monetization is live. If a track is greyed out, it is likely because it's being accessed from a territory where monetization isn't yet available.
3. Manual uploads managed by a rightsholder
Sometimes an artist manually uploads a track, but a label or distributor "claims" it to manage the monetization.
How it works: Your profile must be linked to a rightsholder’s network. Once linked, you can assign the rights of a manual upload to them.
Action: 1. Go to the Monetization tab of the track. 2. Select the Rightsholder from the dropdown menu. 3. Define the territories and select Enable monetization.
Note: If you don't see your rightsholder in the list, contact them to ensure your profile is correctly allowlisted in their network.