SoundCloud's legal battle with the UK licensing company Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS) has come to an end. PRS announced today it reached a legal agreement with SoundCloud following PRS's accusations that SoundCloud failed to compensate artists for their music and refused to remove material that infringed on copyright.

A royal settlement

This summer, PRS filed a lawsuit against SoundCloud for failing to pay sufficient royalties to its artists. PRS, which represents musicians and publishers in the UK, said SoundCloud never obtained the proper license to legally stream its members' music in the UK. Without that license, SoundCloud's royalty payments to PRS artists were incomplete, PRS claimed. SoundCloud at the time said it was in the middle of a commercial negotiation to fix the issue with PRS when the lawsuit was filed.

As part of the recent legal settlement, SoundCloud agreed to a new "multi-territory licensing agreement," according to PRS. While the specifics are confidential, the agreement will allow artists represented by PRS to recoup royalties for their music hosted on SoundCloud. PRS says the agreement covers music used since SoundCloud's launch, but it's unclear how much SoundCloud agreed to pay for past usage of PRS music.

PRS also says it supports SoundCloud's plans to introduce subscriptions and advertising across Europe in 2016.