SoundCloud Role in the Evolving Music Industry and Trends for 2025
Published on 15.04.2025 by TF
SoundCloud is the platform where music has no borders and it’s universal, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that everyone from the underground to the high-end are paying attention to how they can implement it better in 2025!
Since its inception, SoundCloud allowed artists to break free from the strictures of the music industry, creating an environment conducive to unfiltered creativity. A lot of your competition is working on mainstream streaming services based on data. SoundCloud is focused on community engagement, real-time feedback loops, genre experimentation, and underground sounds reaching an audience on a global stage.
And in 2025, the music industry is changing like never before, as technology, consumption preferences, and artist strategies reshape what success looks like.
These changes have been brought forth in no small part by one of the most useful platforms available to creators— SoundCloud—and have been pioneered by offering things like fan-powered royalties, AI-powered music discovery, as well as direct monetization tools for creators. So what does the future hold for SoundCloud, and what trends might artists and listeners look out for?
Let’s look at the major ways in which SoundCloud is shaping the future of music and the trends that will be big in 2025.
How Fan-Powered Royalties Are Changing The Way Artists Monetize
For years, independent musicians have faced the inequitable payout structures of traditional streaming platforms, where earnings are pooled and paid out based on the total platform streams.
This model tends to favor top-charting artists and leaves smaller creators with little to no earnings. SoundCloud upended this model by introducing fan-powered royalties (FPR), which allow artists to collect revenue directly from their biggest fans.
But 2025 is an even more pivotal year for FPR, with creators looking for more equitable and transparent revenue generation channels. This strategy creates incentives for fans to engage with the content on a deeper level, and gives fans a chance to support their favorite artists through reposts, shares, and premium subscriptions.
Shifting to the SoundCloud model enables musicians to finally be paid what they deserve from the get-go, and it means artists have a financial incentive to sign up lots of fans, which could eventually lead to the traditional streaming giants being forced to change how they treat artists, with fan-powered royalties becoming the industry standard.
For artists, this signals that building a core audience is more vital than before. Musicians would be better off cultivating solid relationships with their core audience rather than shooting for viral success, as those few hardcore fans will be responsible for the majority of their revenues.
Bridging the Gap between Artists and Fans – The Future of AI-Powered Music Discovery
As millions of songs are uploaded daily, the difficulty of cutting through the noise and getting noticed is among the biggest challenges new artists face!
Traditionally, streaming services use curated playlists and algorithm-based recommendations, but they tend to favor popular artists and trending sounds.
In response to the challenges facing the industry, SoundCloud is betting big on AI-powered music discovery, offering a more natural and customized approach for fans to explore new sounds. With machine learning in the mix, SoundCloud’s algorithm is able to evaluate a listener’s behavior, favorite genres, and engagement in order to recommend highly relevant tracks—even from up-and-coming artists.
By the end of 2025, AI-driven discovery will be unprecedented, allowing underground musicians to gain traction without the need for huge-label backing. The way the platform already emphasizes community engagement, repost culture, and direct fan interactions help with organic discovery, for an artist to find their proper audience more quickly and easily.
For musicians, it means optimizing their metadata and engaging with fans while consistently releasing new music to remain relevant in the ever-changing discovery ecosystem.
A New Era for Independent Artists
No longer do musicians have to rely on album sales and live performance to put food on the table. In an age of digital movement, artists need to pull in revenue from multiple streams, and SoundCloud is making that easier with its direct-to-fan monetization tools.
Now SoundCloud Premier, fan subscriptions, and exclusive stuff are the game changers for indie musicians. In contrast to conventional record deals that restrict creative control and consume a sizable portion of revenue, these tools give artists the tools they need to monetize their music on their own terms.
By the end of 2025, we will hear from a growing number of independent musicians who turn to SoundCloud as their main source of income, rather than signing restrictive record contracts.
This is already happening, as more artists know that fan-supported revenue is greater than label-controlled profits.
For musicians, this means investing in building a loyal fanbase and providing unique content and membership models to supplement sustainable income. SoundCloud has long been celebrated for its potential of being this landing spot where artists can make a living without the industry pressures.
Short-Form Music is Not a Fad, and SoundCloud is its Engine of Virality
With a climate shift into short form content, the music consumption style is also adapting. Spotifying on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have redefined how songs go viral, rewarding snippets, hooks, and catchy beats over the full-length workout.
SoundCloud has responded to this change of pace by enabling artists to publish shorter songs, remixes, and teaser clips, to ride the wave of viral success. Here, musicians can present their work to a larger audience through its social network integrations, increasing the likelihood of getting discovered.
Just as video disrupted how music is consumed online, short-form music has the same trajectory looking forward. Moreover, SoundCloud’s ability to cater to loopable tracks, mash-ups, and experiments in soundbites will solidify its influence as an incubator for viral trends in music.
How SoundCloud Fosters Collaborative Remixing in the Generative Era
Music has always thrived on collaboration, but SoundCloud takes it to a new level with remix culture, repost features, and collaborative projects.
In contrast to the mainstream platforms, where music is more polished and finalized, SoundCloud is filled with more experimentation, demo sharing, and free remixing from others.
In 2025, even more SoundCloud artists are transforming their nontraditional works into creative partnerships. Aspects such as commenting on waveforms, sharing tracks, and direct messages allow artists to easily connect, share ideas, and create a global community around their tracks. Thus, the diversity between genres will lead to more cross-genre collaborations and remixes, creating different and new pushes in cultural boundaries through music.
For artists, this trend means engaging with other artists, collaborating on remix challenges, and using SoundCloud’s collaborative features to extend their reach. The more any artist is interactive and open, the more opportunities they will have to grow their audience.
The Role of Independent Labels and SoundCloud in the New Music Business Model
The traditional record label model is losing its way and new artists are taking control via new avenues of release and distribution. This change is being driven by SoundCloud, which is enabling more independent labels and self-releasing artists.
Instead of using traditional major record labels that require creative control and a small percentage of their profits, many artists are using SoundCloud to release their music independently. Data analytics, audience insights, and direct contact with fans are among the platform’s features, and artists can form a self-sustaining career without intermediaries.
In 2025, independent labels are flourishing through SoundCloud, using its features to hear/find talent, help promote music, and manage digital distribution. This is great news for artists, for whom there are more opportunities than ever to build a music career on their own terms, focused on authenticity, creative freedom, and community-driven growth.
NFTs and Blockchain in SoundCloud’s Road Ahead
As digital ownership becomes a larger conversation within the music industry, blockchain technology and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are revolutionizing how artists distribute and monetize their work. SoundCloud doesn’t fully support NFTs yet, but its independent-first platform is a natural home for decentralized music ownership.
NFTs enable artists to sell unique digital assets connected to the music they release, giving fans access to exclusive tracks, art, and behind-the-scenes content. It’s a trend that is gaining traction, with other artists exploring new, uncharted territory on the path to connect with their audience while maintaining 100% control of their work.
By the end of 2025, we will see SoundCloud continuing this exploration and tapping into deeper layer blockchain integrations that will allow artists to bring fans closer and monetize their relationships with exclusive rights and content delivered in unique and meaningful ways. When Web3 technology grows, SoundCloud might become a pioneer in decentralized music distribution, even enabling independent creators.
What’s Next for SoundCloud?
SoundCloud is focused on evolving as a platform, and in the coming future, will see even more artist empowerment, genre-blurring, and community-driven trends, as it continues to shape the next era of the music industry.
As a result, we should see more AI-powered, personalized music suggestions, even tighter integrations with social platforms, and improved monetization capabilities to support independent artists making a living.
Continuing innovation such as new interactive fan experiences, more advanced analytics, and even blockchain-based models for ownership and rights will revolutionize how artists interact with their fans and listeners. With creativity, collaboration, and artist control at the center of the platform’s evolution, the commitment to independent musicians is clear and unwavering.
SoundCloud’s future holds a more vibrant, varied, and opportunity-filled ecosystem for artists and fans alike. Those embracing the latest trends, connecting with audiences, or trying out the latest formats will be the ones that push music ahead into the next wave.
Conclusion – The Future of Music Powered by SoundCloud
SoundCloud has always innovated through the music industry. Be it the emergence of AI music discovery, short-form algorithm-driven viral tracks, enhanced collaboration tools, or blockchain-based monetization, the platform is evolving to keep pace with this changing paradigm of music consumption.
SoundCloud is still the most powerful launchpad for independent artists, with unparalleled tools for growth, networking, and creative expression.
For an artist looking to develop their identity, or someone looking for the next sound out of the world, SoundCloud remains a throbbing hub for both creativity and exploration.
The key to sounding off on SoundCloud is to stay on the cutting edge of trends, reach your fans, and explore new ways to get your music out there. From rediscovering the hidden gems of the past to paving the way for the industry of the future: 2025 is here and the time has come to step out and grow on SoundCloud!