I am a huge fan of SoundCloud, owing to its immense catalogue of electronic music and its unique ability to discover new material on the platform. However, my favorite music streaming service is up for sale and with a steep price of $1 Billion. The service has in recent times faced competition owing to the entry of new players into this segment which has piled pressure on it to monetize.
SoundCloud recently raised $100 Million in a round of funding, with Twitter pumping in $70 Million. The funding valued the company at 700 Million. According to Bloomberg News, SoundCloud is facing difficulty finding a buyer who values it at the $1 Billion ask. The platfrom has 175 Million unique monthly users across the globe with 40 million registered users. Billed as a platform for creators, the service has 12 million content creators who it charges $7 and $15 per month for the ability to upload more than the standard 12 hours of audio, plus analytics and more content controls.
As part of its recent efforts to monetize, the service announced the launch of SoundCloud Go, a music streaming service that charges users $9.99 a month for premium tracks, along with offline listening, and no ads. It has also signed deals with record labels to allow for the launch of the stream service. As recent as yesterday, SoundCloud allowed users to easily discover albums on the platform thanks to the newly formed relationship with record labels.
SoundCloud has also added video ads on mobile but with a unique twist. Instead of merely having ads at every intersection, SoundCloud serves these ads when the user is actively engaged with the app. The ads do not stream in the background or when the user’s screen is off. Anyone with $1 Billion?
