This document summarizes information about the streaming music platform SoundCloud, including its origins, features, business models, financial performance, competitors and potential future acquisitions. It notes that SoundCloud was founded to provide an affordable way to access and share music online. While premium subscriptions have recently been introduced, SoundCloud struggled financially for years with older business models resulting in large losses. The document compares SoundCloud to competitors like Spotify and Apple Music and suggests SoundCloud may soon be acquired by Google.

1. Shiv Ghai (sghai)

2. The Problem
Need access to music on the fly
Need a place to share music/audio
Too expensive to buy each song

3. Solution
Cross platform streaming service
Ability to upload/share music
Platform to discover music/sounds

4. Features
Listen to music on various platforms (Web, iOS, Android, Chromecast)
Make public (and private) playlists
Like songs
Repost songs on profile
Follow artists, friends, miscellaneous other users
Time based comments on songs
Different dedicated app for content creators - SoundCloud Pulse

8. Early Timeline of the Company

9. Business Models
Two tiers for premium subscriptions announced in March 2016 and February 2017
- SoundCloud Go and Go+, $4.99/mo and $9.99/mo respectively
SoundCloud Pro - artists get more online storage and higher upload limits and get
analytics information
SoundCloud Premier - artists earn revenue, get analytics information if they are a
Premier partner
Advertizing revenue

10. Financials and Usage (2010 - 2014)
Constant ‘unsustainable’ loss with
older business models
Premium subscriptions introduced
recently, might help with finances
As of December 2014, 175 million
monthly users
12 hours of audio being uploaded
every minute

11. Financials (2015-present)
2015: Loss of €51 million euros, with a revenue of €21.1 million
Revenue growth 21.8%
Expected year over year growth going forwards: 43% (according to estimates by
PrivCo, which tracks private company valuations)

12. Possible Acquirers
Twitter, 2014: $2 billion - backed out due to lack of major licensing deals at the
time
Spotify, 2016: $1 billion - backed out due to possible IPO
Google, 2017: $500 million - reportedly still interested

13. Secret Sauce
Social feed for music
Good platform for music discovery
Listeners can easily become contributors
Larger library than Apple Music’s, Tidal’s and Spotify’s combined

14. Main Competitors
SoundCloud Go+ Spotify Tidal Apple Music
Price $9.99/mo $9.99/mo $9.99/mo,
$19.99/mo for HiFi
$9.99/mo
Songs 125+ million 30+ million 40+ million 30+ million
Offline Playback ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
See what friends
are listening to
✓ ✓ ✗ ✗
Listen to Podcasts ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓

15. Future of SoundCloud
Likely to be bought by Google soon
Subscription models should help speed up way to profitability

16. References
http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/ouch-soundcloud-losses-show-a-broken-
business-model-in-desperate-need-of-a-fix/
https://thump.vice.com/en_us/article/soundcloud-2015-financial-report-loss
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/09/30/soundcloud-revenues-43-pct-year/
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-top-music-streaming-services-compare-2
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