SoundCloud could be in trouble with Major Labels.

Soundcloud seems to be the mecca of all electronic (and otherwise) music lovers with tons of uploads of their favourite tracks, where anyone can stream what they like, at the click of a button. More-so it provides a perfect medium for artists, upcoming and established, to showcase their work to the world. But things this perfect can’t last forever, unfortunately, as SoundCloud is set to engage in discussions with major music labels regarding licensing issues and artistic rights.

According to certain sources on Digital Music News,  major labels are discontent with SoundCloud’s difficult process for them to take down every single individual infringement of items they have rights to. Because this process is available though, SoundCloud has been able to work its way around the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. A loophole in the law allows for user-generated uploads (like SoundCloud), so long as major labels are able to take down infringements at their discretion. Thus, the music can remain free-flowing.

But notifying SoundCloud of every little re-post and illegal upload in a label’s catalog is pretty much impossible. “Their [catalog] is all over SoundCloud, and it’s essentially too hard to police but that doesn’t mean they won’t start,” the source said. Furthermore, “SoundCloud doesn’t want to start that because they could get completely flooded [with DMCA takedown demands]. And that’s just one way [the major labels] will start a war.”

How can SoundCloud avoid a DMCA shutdown? Although a simple download Google result these days will yield warnings from the Act, Google (and YouTube) have the power and resources to provide content while complying within these laws, unlike the much smaller SoundCloud. This loophole has been largely ignored until now, but as the service only grows, it’s garnering more attention and the company must come face-to-face with these issues.

So it seems our beloved SoundCloud maybe in a bit of soup. What comes out of these meetings, we are still yet to find out. Let’s hope for the best however.