Recruiting & Operations Manager

You can now buy music on SoundCloud. Wednesday, 26 August 2026 SoundCloud has launched a new beta feature that allows artists on the audio streaming platform to sell music directly from their profiles, instead of diverting fans to purchase from third-party services like Bandcamp and Beatport. The feature aims to give listeners a better way to support the musicians behind their favorite songs, because SoundCloud isn't taking any commission from these sales - meaning everything goes directly to the artists. By comparison, Bandcamp takes a cut of between 10-15 percent for sales, and artists on Beatport receive roughly 50-65 percent of their sale price. More than 250,000 artists have linked over 2.4 million tracks to external music platforms, according to SoundCloud, and the platform says it sends more than half a million users to external parties to purchase music each year. The ability to sell music will only be available to 200 Artist Pro SoundCloud creators in the US to start, with plans to expand access to all eligible creators later this fall. Fans can purchase music "in the format provided by the artist," according to SoundCloud, such as MP3 or WAV files. This new beta feature follows SoundCloud launching its All-in-One artists subscription in November last year, which gives creators 100 percent of their distribution royalties. The introduction of music sales is also part of SoundCloud's plan to evolve into something more than a service for streaming and discovering music, allowing its creators to "get heard, connect with fans, and earn-all in one place." (Originally posted by Jess Weatherbed) When you subscribe to the blog, Mgicomputers will send you an e-mail when there are new updates on the site so you wouldn't miss them.

PRG appoints new leadership roles. Published 26 August 2026 [USA] PRG (Production Resource Group), global provider of entertainment and live event technology solutions, has appointed Jennifer Caserta as chief people officer and Joe Simon as chief technology & information officer. Both will report directly to Lawrence Burian, CEO of PRG. These two appointments are part of the broader global strategy Burian laid out upon joining PRG as CEO this past April: strengthen the executive team, further align the company's global operations, and invest in people, technology and long-term growth. Caserta will oversee PRG's new People & Culture division, while Simon will lead the company's enterprise technology, systems and data strategy. They join PRG's C-suite alongside chief commercial officer Darren Pfeffer, who also joined in April. Caserta joins PRG from SoundCloud, where she served as the company's first CPO, building and leading its global People functions. As a key member of the C-suite, she elevated the company's approach to talent acquisition, organisational design, total rewards, leadership development, and people analytics, while helping drive a broader transformation of the company's culture to support business performance and growth. Before joining SoundCloud, Caserta held numerous leadership roles at AMC Networks and completed her tenure there as chief transformation and people officer. Her executive leadership experience also includes six years as President of IFC TV. Simon has more than 25 years of experience leading technology and operational transformation across media, entertainment and live events. Most recently, he advised leading media and entertainment companies on technology modernization and AI strategy. Previously, he served as chief information & technology officer at Entain, leading enterprise technology across more than 30 international markets, and COO of Encompass Digital Media, overseeing worldwide operations and engineering for the company's live events business. His career also includes roles as CIO/CTO at VICE Media, Univision, Condé Nast, and Viacom. Weekly news headlines. Get weekly headlines straight to your inbox!

SoundCloud launches The Upload to bring human curation back to music discovery. By Tom Marshall August 4, 2026 12 mins read SoundCloud's new The Upload music discovery show combines emerging tracks with commentary from its editorial team, offering artists another route to discovery beyond algorithms. If music discovery is starting to feel a little too predictable, SoundCloud has a new idea. The platform has launched The Upload, a weekly music discovery show designed to bring a human voice back into the process of finding new music. Described by SoundCloud as a weekly "TL;DR for music discovery", The Upload combines new and emerging tracks with commentary from members of SoundCloud's music discovery team. Rather than simply pressing play on another algorithmically generated playlist, listeners get a little context about what they're hearing and why it caught the team's attention. It's a small change to the way streaming discovery works, as SoundCloud is looking to expose listeners to music outside of their usual algorithmic recommendations. What is SoundCloud's The Upload? The Upload is a weekly playlist and music discovery show curated and hosted by SoundCloud's editorial team. A new episode arrives every Friday, with the team selecting tracks they believe listeners should hear and adding spoken commentary about the music and artists behind it. The playlists are free to listen to and ad-supported. SoundCloud describes the format as a way of showcasing both the tracks and "the untold stories" behind emerging artists. As Music Ally points out, the first episode features a mix of established and rising names, including Maribou State, Lightleak and Mary Droppinz. Meanwhile, the episode moves across genres while using short introductions from SoundCloud's team to give the selections a little more personality and context. As a result, The Upload feels less like another static playlist and more like a recommendation from someone who is genuinely excited about what they've just heard. SoundCloud wants to combat algorithmic fatigue. SoundCloud says The Upload is designed to "combat algorithmic fatigue" and "put human curation back into music discovery." Streaming platforms have become incredibly good at predicting what RouteNote Ltd might enjoy. Personalised playlists can analyse listening habits and recommend tracks based on everything from its favourite artists to the genres and songs RouteNote Ltd regularly play. While there are obvious upsides of that, the downside is that discovery can sometimes become a little circular. That's useful when you want more of the same, but it's less useful when you want to stumble across something completely different. This is where human curation can offer something different. A person can decide that a slightly different, left-field track is worth hearing even if the data doesn't immediately suggest it should be. What does The Upload mean for independent artists? For independent artists, the most interesting part of The Upload is the potential for editorial discovery. Getting your music in front of new listeners has never simply been about releasing a song and hoping an algorithm does the rest. Artists have to build their own momentum through social media, communities, playlists, live performances, collaborations and direct fan engagement. Editorial curation adds another layer to that ecosystem. SoundCloud has long had a close relationship with emerging music, while features such as its Buzzing playlists and charts have helped surface new and rising artists. The Upload feels like a natural extension of that philosophy. It also reinforces something worth remembering when promoting a new release: discovery is not one-size-fits-all. One listener might find your song through a personalised algorithmic playlist. Another might see it in a social video. Someone else might hear it from a DJ, discover it through a playlist curator or stumble across it while browsing SoundCloud. The more places your music can be discovered, the more opportunities you create for that first listen. How artists can make their music easier to discover. Instead, think about the fundamentals that make a release easier for curators, tastemakers and listeners to engage with. * Release consistently: Give people something new to discover while maintaining a recognisable identity. * Make your artist profile count: Your music might be what attracts a new listener, but your profile is what can turn that listener into a fan. * Build genuine momentum: Encourage your existing audience to listen, save, share and talk about your music rather than relying entirely on paid promotion. * Think beyond one platform: Your SoundCloud presence can sit alongside your Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok and other channels as part of a wider release strategy. And, importantly, make sure your music is available wherever your potential listeners are. RouteNote can help independent artists and labels distribute releases to major streaming services and platforms including SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Music and more for free. The bigger picture for music discovery. The Upload is interesting because it isn't really about algorithms versus humans. Algorithms are incredibly useful for navigating enormous catalogues of music. But human curation offers something algorithms struggle to replicate: taste, context and personality. A recommendation from a person can tell you that a track is exciting, weird, influential, underrated or simply worth hearing. It can introduce you to an artist without requiring you to already have a listening history that points in their direction. That matters for independent artists, especially at a time when the music industry has never had more music available to listeners, making attention increasingly difficult to win. SoundCloud's The Upload human curation helps tackle that thanks to human curation telling you why something is worth your time. Whether it becomes a genuine alternative to traditional new music radio remains to be seen. But when music discovery can sometimes feel like an endless stream of recommendations generated from what you already know, there is something refreshing about someone simply telling you to give something a listen. And for independent artists, that human element could be just as valuable as ever.