SoundCloud has been moving to match the feature sets offered by other streaming services. The latest act is the launch of a student subscription tier. SoundCloud announced in a blog post that students can take advantage of a 50% discount to its SoundCloud Go+ tier. In the United States, that means $4.99 a month for the full suit of premium listening features, such as exclusive content, unlimited downloads, ad-free listening, and high-quality audio.

Students can receive up to four consecutive years of the lower cost if they are enrolled at a Title IV degree-granting college or university. Existing subscribers can take advantage of the reduced price right away. New student listeners can test out SoundCloud Go+ with a 30-day free trial before paying the half-cost subscription.

Lower pricing for students has become a standard option for music services. Apple Music introduced the tier in May 2016. Amazon Music Unlimited received the same treatment in August 2017. YouTube added student options for Premium and Music Premium in November 2018. Most of these services don’t break out the details of how many students participate in their cheaper programs, or how many then upgrade to full subscribers after graduation. However, the general idea of attracting listeners at a lower cost of entry has been a common strategy for streaming music since these platforms began offering paid options.