Influential British band Portishead have released their cover of ABBA’s SOS exclusively on SoundCloud.
The exclusive release marks the first time the track will be commercially available on a major streaming platform (apart from YouTube, where the video has over 3.2m views).
Streams from the track, which was originally created for the 2015 film High-Rise starring Tom Hiddleston and Sienna Miller, will earn revenue through SoundCloud’s fan-powered royalties system, with the band citing the payout model as the reason behind their decision to release exclusively on SoundCloud.
As part of the release of ‘SOS’, SoundCloud and Portishead will make a contribution to Mind, a U.K. charity focused on mental health.
Fan-powered royalties, SoundCloud’s own branding of the user-centric model, sees royalties from each listener’s subscription or advertising revenue distributed among the artists they listen to, rather than their plays being pooled, which SoundCloud says benefits independent artists with “loyal fans”.
Launched in April, SoundCloud previously cited two independent artists as case studies for the system, Chevy and Vincent, who by switching these to a “fan powered” model and away from ‘pro rata’, based on their playcounts at the time, the service estimated that Chevy’s monthly royalties would grow 217%, while Vincent’s would multiply by five, up from $120 to $600.
“When we heard that SoundCloud switched to a fairer user-centric payment system of streaming music, we were happy to make it the only place to stream our unreleased version of ABBA’s SOS.”
Geoff Barrow, Portishead
“When we heard that SoundCloud switched to a fairer user-centric payment system of streaming music, we were happy to make it the only place to stream our unreleased version of ABBA’s SOS, said Geoff Barrow of Portishead.
“After recording it years ago for Ben Wheatley’s film HighRise, we are excited to finally share it with the world, and we are even more excited that all streaming profits are going to a great cause.”
“We are honored Portishead chose SoundCloud, the only platform where the artist to fan connection is directly rewarded, as the first place to exclusively release their cover of this iconic song.”
Michael Pelczynski, SoundCloud
Michael Pelczynski, Head of Content & Rightsholder Strategy at SoundCloud, added: “Portishead’s timeless sound has inspired countless artists and given rise to many emerging genres on SoundCloud.
“We are honored Portishead chose SoundCloud, the only platform where the artist to fan connection is directly rewarded, as the first place to exclusively release their cover of this iconic song.”Music Business Worldwide