SoundCloud Is Introducing a 24-Hour Streaming Limit

This week, SoundCloud announced a new change they will be implementing to the highly-popular streaming service. According to their press release, the site will be implementing a 24-hour streaming limit of 15,000 plays. This limit applies to all songs streamed via developer applications that use the site's API outside of the site's actual network.

According to the company, this change is necessary due to violations of their developer's Terms of Use. "But as the ecosystem has grown, we’re dealing with an increasing number of applications that abuse creator content. To help control this type of behavior, we're introducing a daily rate limit on API play requests," the company said in a statement.

This limit will not affect tracks that are streamed via SoundCloud itself, only those played via third party applications; songs and playlists embedded via SoundCloud's own embedded player will not be affected. What this means for the site, developers and users moving forward remains to be seen, but it's the next in what could be a string of changes for the site.

Earlier this month, SoundCloud signed a deal with music licensing agency Merlin to pay over 20,000 independent record labels in exchange for their music appearing on SoundCloud. This deal was centered on the On SoundCloud feature, which splits ad revenue from commercials that appear on label's songs with the labels themselves. There have also been rumors floating around—no doubt sparked by the recent major moves by Apple Music, Tidal and Spotify—that SoundCloud is fleshing out a possible paid subscription model for its users.

Read the full press release for SoundCloud's latest move here.