Launching Mixcloud Select, a pioneering funding model for online music

“At a time when music is being commodified and curation is losing its humanity, Mixcloud Select puts creators in control and brings passionate people closer to the culture and communities they care about. The Mixcloud Select campaign is Get Closer.” Soon after joining Mixcloud as Head of Comms, we launched a new fan-to-creator subscription layer to the platform called Mixcloud Select (Think: Patreon for DJs, online radio, podcasters and audio tastemakers). Mixcloud is known and loved as a free audio-streaming platform amongst its passionate community of tens of millions. This subscription model introduced an entirely new channel-specific membership concept and a first-of-a-kind model for the online music industry. Partnering with the “first wave” of 47 creators, we launched as a closed live beta (without calling it that) and were to test, learn and iterate as we scaled. These were the very first creators to start building their own membership communities of fans on Mixcloud.