SoundCloud has begun bundling ads into the free version of its music streaming service, and launched a premium subscription option—dubbed Go—in the UK and Ireland.

British customers who shell out £9.99 a month will be able to listen to 125 million tracks with an option to download them to their devices, the Berlin-based outfit said.

It comes a month after SoundCloud unveiled Go to customers in the US. That particular launch was preceded by a series of music licensing deals inked between SoundCloud and Universal Music Group, Warner Music, Sony Music Entertainment, and other record labels.

Customers who pay the Go subscription fees will be able to listen not only to existing tracks uploaded to SoundCloud by artists themselves, but will apparently also have access to a wider selection of licensed music.

The price of the service roughly matches market rivals such as Spotify and Apple Music—the major music streaming players. However, SoundCloud Go hasn't been without its teething problems. It's been reported, for example, that SoundCloud Go lacks a number of tracks found on competing services.

The company's CEO and co-founder Alexander Ljung promised that the glaring holes in its catalogue were in the process of being fixed.

"Not everything was there on day one, but a lot of it has been added since," he told the BBC. "We're still ingesting huge amount of content every day."

Meanwhile, non-paying SoundCloud users won't be able to listen to the licensed tracks in full. Instead preview versions of audio material will be made available. Additionally, those using the free version of the service will be served ads including audio spots, in-stream native ads, promoted profiles, and creator partnerships between the tracks they're listening to—much like Spotify's business model.

SoundCloud's decision to stuff its free service with ads comes three months after the firm revealed it was operating at a substantial loss—confirming it was in the red to the tune of £49 million (€62.1 million), based on its 2013 and 2014 figures. SoundCloud’s board of directors stated at the time that there were "material uncertainties facing the business."