SoundCloud Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Alex Rivera | Last updated: October 1, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
Axis Intelligence Research audited the 12 SoundCloud figures most often repeated online and found that 5 of them (41.7%) have no primary source we could locate or are contradicted by one. SoundCloud’s own verified numbers tell a different story: 400+ million tracks, 40+ million artists, and 85% of listening on user-generated audio.
Quick Answer
SoundCloud hosts 400+ million tracks from 40+ million artists in 193 countries, and 85% of listening time goes to user-generated content, according to CEO Eliah Seton (Music Business Worldwide, November 18, 2025). SoundCloud does not publish monthly active users. Axis Intelligence Research’s Stat Verifiability Score (SVS) for the platform’s circulating statistics reads 54.2 out of 100.
Key Findings
- Axis Intelligence Research finds that 5 of the 12 most-circulated SoundCloud statistics (41.7%) are either untraceable to any live primary source or contradicted by one, as of September 30, 2026.
- Axis Intelligence Research’s Stat Verifiability Score (SVS) for SoundCloud statistics is 54.2 out of 100 as of September 30, 2026, the baseline reading.
- Axis Intelligence Research calculates a Discovery Premium Ratio (DPR) of 1.79 for SoundCloud in the US: listeners devote 43% of listening to current music versus roughly 24% industry-wide (SoundCloud Music Intelligence Report 2026).
- The most recent SoundCloud revenue figure with a traceable company source is €288 million in 2023 guidance, now 33 months old, per Music Business Worldwide (December 13, 2023).
- SoundCloud’s Fan-Powered Royalties pay $0.0025 to $0.004 per qualifying stream, which Axis Intelligence Research converts to $2,500–$4,000 per million streams (SoundCloud, 2026).
How Many Users Does SoundCloud Have in 2026?
SoundCloud does not publish a monthly active user (MAU) figure. Music Business Worldwide reported in November 2025 that the company declines to disclose MAU and says only that it posted “record” MAU, fan, and creator subscriber growth in 2025.
That matters because three user counts dominate search results — 76 million monthly active users, 175 million monthly reach, 140 million registered users — and none of them appears in any current SoundCloud document we could open. SoundCloud’s live advertiser page, the place a platform normally states its audience size, lists audience composition only.
SoundCloud audience demographics
| Audience attribute | Share | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Gen Z users | 54% | SoundCloud Advertise page (retrieved Sep 30, 2026) |
| Users under 35 | 80% | SoundCloud Advertise page |
| Stream via mobile | 95% | SoundCloud Advertise page |
| Logged in and ad-addressable | 91% | SoundCloud Advertise page |
| Multicultural | 58% | SoundCloud Advertise page |
Alex Rivera’s read: A platform that tells advertisers 91% of its users are logged in clearly knows its user count. Not publishing it is a choice, and the practical consequence is that every “SoundCloud has X users” sentence you’ve read in 2026 is at least five years stale or has no origin. Quote the composition, not a headcount.
How Big Is SoundCloud’s Catalog?
SoundCloud carries 400+ million tracks from 40+ million artists across 193 countries, per CEO Eliah Seton in Music Business Worldwide (Nov 18, 2025). The same interview puts user-generated content ahead of traditional label supply four to one. SoundCloud’s About page describes the catalog as over 4x that of any major platform and names 40M+ creators.
SoundCloud catalog and creator statistics
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tracks on platform | 400+ million | Nov 2025 | SoundCloud CEO via MBW |
| Artists | 40+ million | Nov 2025 | SoundCloud CEO via MBW |
| Countries | 193 | Nov 2025 | SoundCloud CEO via MBW |
| UGC : traditional content | 4 : 1 | Nov 2025 | SoundCloud CEO via MBW |
| Electronic share of uploads | ~1 in 4 (2020) → over 1 in 3 (2025) | 2025 | SoundCloud MIR 2026 |
| Uploads tagged #DJset | +39% YoY | 2025 | SoundCloud MIR 2026 |
What Do People Actually Listen to on SoundCloud?
85% of listening time on SoundCloud goes to user-generated content — DJ sets, remixes, live recordings, demos — and more than 50% goes to new music, the CEO told MBW. He also said more than half of fans arriving on the platform qualify as superfans, spending over six times the time and money on music of a typical fan.
The Discovery Premium Ratio (DPR): how much more new music SoundCloud listeners play
The Discovery Premium Ratio (DPR) is an Axis Intelligence Research metric: a platform’s share of listening devoted to current music, divided by the industry’s share.
DPR = 43% ÷ ~24% = 1.79 (US, 2025 listening)
Inputs come from SoundCloud’s Music Intelligence Report 2026 – Consumption Trends, which states US listeners spend 43% of listening on current music against roughly 24% industry-wide. Because the industry input is stated as approximate, the DPR is an estimate. A DPR above 1 means a platform over-indexes on new releases; 1.79 means SoundCloud listeners play current music at close to twice the industry rate.
Two company numbers look contradictory but aren’t: “43% current” (US, report definition) and “more than 50% new music” (global, CEO interview). They measure different geographies and likely different definitions of “new,” which is exactly why we compute DPR only from the report pair that shares one methodology.
Alex Rivera’s read: Spotify is where your listening habits go to settle down. SoundCloud’s numbers describe the opposite behavior — the people who hear a track before it has a Spotify canvas. For an artist deciding where to drop a demo first, DPR is the stat that matters more than any user count.
Fastest-growing genres on SoundCloud (2025)
| Genre / scene | Growth | Market | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK underground rap | streams up nearly 300% | Global | SoundCloud MIR 2026 |
| Dubstep (#dubstep-tagged) | streams +35% | US | SoundCloud MIR 2026 |
| Minimal / tech house | streams +19% | US | SoundCloud MIR 2026 |
| UK garage | streams +18% | US | SoundCloud MIR 2026 |
| Electronic (overall) | 7% more of all listening vs 2022 | US | SoundCloud MIR 2026 |
| Electronic (overall) | 6% greater share of streams vs 2022 | Global | SoundCloud MIR 2026 |
Hip-hop remains the most-streamed genre on SoundCloud in the US, while electronic is the fastest-growing for the third year running; in the UK, electronic is most-streamed (MIR 2026 – Top Growing Genres). Social discovery matters: listeners who find a track through “Liked By” playlists are over 3x more likely to engage with it (MIR 2026).
How Much Revenue Does SoundCloud Make?
The latest SoundCloud revenue figure traceable to the company is €288 million ($310 million) for 2023, up 7.5% (9% at constant currency), from internal guidance shared with Music Business Worldwide on December 13, 2023. It was guidance, not audited accounts. SoundCloud has not published a 2024 or 2025 group revenue figure that we could locate.
SoundCloud financials (company-reported)
| Metric | 2022 | 2023 (guidance) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | — | €288M ($310M) | MBW, Dec 13 2023 |
| EBITDA | −€29M | +€2M | MBW, Dec 13 2023 |
| Gross profit | €94M | €104M | MBW, Dec 13 2023 |
| Gross margin | — | 36.1% | MBW, Dec 13 2023 |
| Fan subscription + ad revenue growth | — | +30% | MBW, Dec 13 2023 |
| Creator business growth | — | +4% | MBW, Dec 13 2023 |
Axis Intelligence Research calculates the implied 2023 EBITDA margin at 0.69% (€2M ÷ €288M). SoundCloud had reached eight consecutive EBITDA-positive months by that point, after cutting 8% of headcount in May 2023.
Alex Rivera’s read: Profitable, yes — by less than one cent per euro. The growth came from listeners paying (+30%), not creators paying (+4%), which is why the 2025 pivot to giving artists 100% of distribution royalties makes sense: the creator tier was never the profit engine.
Is SoundCloud for sale?
SoundCloud’s majority owners, Raine Group and Temasek, explored a sale at a reported price above $1 billion in early 2024, with no deal completed, per MBW (July 22, 2026). The same report covers SoundCloud’s July 22, 2026 acquisition of Nina Protocol (terms undisclosed), its first announced acquisition since Musiio in 2022.
How Much Does SoundCloud Pay Artists Per Stream?
SoundCloud’s Fan-Powered Royalties pay $0.0025 to $0.004 per qualifying stream, according to SoundCloud’s own guide. Axis Intelligence Research converts that to $2,500–$4,000 per million qualifying streams ($0.0025 × 1,000,000; $0.004 × 1,000,000).
| Artist economics | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Per qualifying stream | $0.0025–$0.004 | SoundCloud |
| Per 1M qualifying streams | $2,500–$4,000 | Axis calculation |
| Artists earning more than under pro-rata | over 56% | MIDiA report cited by SoundCloud |
| Distribution royalties kept by artist | 100% (since Nov 2025; previously 80%) | SoundCloud Help Center |
| Payout processing fee | $0.50–$25 per payout | SoundCloud Help Center |
| Artist plan | $3.25/mo ($39/yr), 2 monetized tracks/mo | SoundCloud |
| Artist Pro | $8.25/mo ($99/yr) | SoundCloud |
The 100% royalty change is documented in SoundCloud’s Help Center: the distribution revenue share moved from 80% to 100% for artists in November 2025.
Alex Rivera’s read: The break-even math is short. At the low rate, Artist Pro’s $99 a year pays for itself at 39,600 qualifying streams ($99 ÷ $0.0025). An artist below that is paying for tools, not earning from streams — which is fine, as long as they know it.
Which SoundCloud Statistics Are Wrong or Outdated?
This is the audit nobody else runs. Axis Intelligence Research took the 12 SoundCloud figures that recur most across search results and traced each to a live primary document.
The SoundCloud Stat Audit (as of September 30, 2026)
| Circulating claim | Status | What the primary record shows |
|---|---|---|
| 76M monthly active users | Untraceable | No live SoundCloud document states it; SoundCloud says it doesn’t publish MAU (MBW, Nov 2025) |
| 175M monthly reach | Untraceable | Absent from the current advertiser page |
| 140M registered users | Untraceable | No primary source located |
| $485M revenue in 2025 | Untraceable | No company disclosure located |
| $100B valuation | Contradicted | Only reported figure is a >$1B sale target (MBW, Jul 2026) |
| €288M revenue (2023) | Traceable but aged | Company guidance to MBW, Dec 2023 |
| 400M+ tracks / 40M+ artists | Verified | CEO via MBW, Nov 2025 |
| 85% of listening is UGC | Verified | CEO via MBW, Nov 2025 |
| 43% current-music listening (US) | Verified | MIR 2026 |
| 54% Gen Z | Verified | SoundCloud Advertise page |
| $0.0025–$0.004 per stream | Verified | SoundCloud |
| 100% distribution royalties | Verified | SoundCloud Help Center |
The Stat Verifiability Score (SVS)
The Stat Verifiability Score (SVS) is an Axis Intelligence Research metric that grades how trustworthy the public statistics about a company are, on a 0–100 scale.
SVS = (verified × 1 + traceable-but-aged × 0.5 + untraceable × 0 + contradicted × 0) ÷ total figures × 100 SVS (SoundCloud) = (6 × 1 + 1 × 0.5 + 4 × 0 + 1 × 0) ÷ 12 × 100 = 54.2
This is the baseline reading. A score of 54.2 means barely half of what the internet “knows” about SoundCloud survives a source check.
Alex Rivera’s read: The $100 billion valuation line is the tell. That’s roughly a hundred times the only figure anyone has reported, and it sits in “key statistics” boxes that LLMs happily repeat. If you’re a journalist, a label analyst, or a student citing SoundCloud this year, the audit table is the one to bookmark.
How Does SoundCloud Compare With the Wider Music Industry?
Global recorded music revenue reached $31.7 billion in 2025, up 6.4%, with streaming at 69.6% of the total and 837 million users of paid subscription accounts, per IFPI’s Global Music Report 2026. Paid subscriptions grew 8.8% and made up 52.4% of revenue.
SoundCloud’s share of those 837 million accounts cannot be calculated: the company discloses neither subscriber nor MAU counts. What can be said is that SoundCloud competes on a different axis — catalog depth and new-music share — rather than on subscriber scale. For the subscriber race itself, see our music streaming statistics, Spotify statistics and streaming market share pages.
Charts
- SoundCloud Stat Audit: 12 circulating figures by status (stacked bar: 6 verified, 1 aged, 4 untraceable, 1 contradicted) — Source: Axis Intelligence Research
- Current-music share of listening, US: SoundCloud 43% vs industry ~24% (DPR 1.79) — Source: SoundCloud MIR 2026; Axis calculation
- SoundCloud audience composition (Gen Z 54%, under-35 80%, mobile 95%, logged in 91%, multicultural 58%) — Source: SoundCloud
- Fastest-growing SoundCloud scenes, 2025 (UK underground rap ~300%, #DJset uploads 39%, dubstep 35%, minimal/tech house 19%, UK garage 18%) — Source: SoundCloud MIR 2026
- SoundCloud EBITDA 2022 vs 2023: −€29M → +€2M — Source: SoundCloud guidance via MBW
Frequently Asked Questions
Why won’t SoundCloud say how many monthly users it has?
SoundCloud does not publish MAU, according to Music Business Worldwide (November 2025). It only describes 2025 MAU growth as a “record.” Any specific MAU figure online is either pre-2022 or unsourced.
Is the 76 million SoundCloud users figure still accurate?
No live primary source supports 76 million monthly active users as of September 30, 2026. Axis Intelligence Research classifies it as untraceable; treat it as historical, not current.
How many DJ sets and mixes get uploaded to SoundCloud?
SoundCloud doesn’t publish a count, but uploads tagged #DJset rose 39% year over year in 2025, per its Music Intelligence Report 2026. Covers, DJ sets and mashups are not eligible for Fan-Powered Royalties.
How many streams do you need on SoundCloud to cover Artist Pro?
At $0.0025 per qualifying stream, $99 per year requires 39,600 qualifying streams, per Axis Intelligence Research’s calculation from SoundCloud’s published rates.
Does SoundCloud still take a cut of distribution royalties?
No. Since November 2025, artists keep 100% of distribution royalties (previously 80%), paying only a payout processing fee of $0.50 to $25, per SoundCloud’s Help Center.
Is SoundCloud profitable?
SoundCloud guided to a €2 million EBITDA on €288 million revenue for 2023, its first EBITDA-positive year, per MBW (December 2023). No later profit figure has been disclosed.
Which genre is growing fastest on SoundCloud?
Electronic music is the fastest-growing genre on SoundCloud in the US for the third straight year, while hip-hop remains the most-streamed there (SoundCloud MIR 2026).
What is the Discovery Premium Ratio?
The Discovery Premium Ratio (DPR) is an Axis Intelligence Research metric dividing a platform’s current-music listening share by the industry’s. SoundCloud’s US DPR is 1.79.
Methodology
Collection. All figures were fetched on September 30, 2026 from SoundCloud’s own pages (Music Intelligence Report 2026, Advertise, About, monetization guide, Help Center), company statements published by Music Business Worldwide, and IFPI’s Global Music Report 2026 release. Company-reported figures are labeled as such; none are audited financials.
Stat audit. We selected the 12 SoundCloud figures that recur most often across top-ranking pages for “SoundCloud statistics” and related queries, then searched for a live primary document for each. Classification: verified (live primary source, dated within about 12 months or undated but live), traceable but aged (primary source exists but older than 24 months), untraceable (no primary source located), contradicted (a primary source states otherwise).
Formulas. DPR = platform current-music share ÷ industry current-music share. SVS = weighted verified count ÷ total × 100 (weights disclosed above). EBITDA margin = EBITDA ÷ revenue. Per-million payout = per-stream rate × 1,000,000.
Scope notes. “Untraceable” means we could not find a live primary source, not that the number was never true. The DPR industry input is approximate as published. The advertiser page is undated.
About This Dataset
The dataset behind this page — soundcloud-statistics.csv — contains 87 rows covering SoundCloud catalog, listening, audience, financial, artist-pay and audit data, plus IFPI industry context, with source organization, document, URL, retrieval date and calculation notes for every row. License: CC BY 4.0. Updates are relevance-driven: new SoundCloud disclosures (MAU, revenue, a new Music Intelligence Report) or a sale.
Download: soundcloud-statistics.csv
Cite This Page
- APA: Axis Intelligence Research, & Rivera, A. (2026, October 1). SoundCloud statistics 2026: Users, revenue, creators — and which numbers actually hold up. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/soundcloud-statistics/
- MLA: Axis Intelligence Research, and Alex Rivera. “SoundCloud Statistics 2026: Users, Revenue, Creators — and Which Numbers Actually Hold Up.” Axis Intelligence, 1 Oct. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/soundcloud-statistics/.
- Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research and Alex Rivera. “SoundCloud Statistics 2026: Users, Revenue, Creators — and Which Numbers Actually Hold Up.” Axis Intelligence, October 1, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/soundcloud-statistics/.