53 Facts About SoundCloud

SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio, as well as a digital signal processor enabling listeners to stream audio.

SoundCloud offers both free and paid memberships on the platform, available for mobile, desktop and Xbox devices.

SoundCloud has evolved from a traditional online streaming platform to an entertainment company with premium offerings, including advanced audience insights, playlist pitching tools, and promotional marketing resources for its users.

SoundCloud was the first streaming service to adopt and implement a user-centric payment model for artists called fan-powered royalties.

SoundCloud has received support from many investors and other media platforms such as Twitter.

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In Q3 of 2020, SoundCloud posted its first profitable quarter with double-digit revenue gains and substantially reduced operating losses.

SoundCloud was established in Berlin on August 27, 2007, by Swedish sound designer Alexander Ljung and Swedish electronic musician Eric Wahlforss, and the website was launched on October 17, 2008.

In January 2011, it was reported that SoundCloud had raised US$10 million Series B funding from Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures.

On 15 June 2011, SoundCloud reported five million registered users and investments from Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary's A-Grade Fund, and on 23 January 2012, it reported 10 million registered users.

In May 2012, it was announced that SoundCloud had 15 million users, and site usage was increasing by 1.

However, the project never moved forward because SoundCloud was unable to accommodate licensed music due to a lack of necessary arrangements with music labels.

In July 2013, SoundCloud had 40 million registered users and new users were joining at 20 million per month.

SoundCloud announced in January 2014 that it had commenced licensing negotiations with major music companies to address the matter of unauthorized, copyrighted material regularly appearing on the platform.

In Spring 2017, SoundCloud initially faced being sold after not raising the $100 million needed to support the platform.

In July 2017, SoundCloud announced layoffs and the closure of two of its five offices in San Francisco and London in an effort to manage costs.

In May 2019, SoundCloud bought artist distribution platform Repost Network.

On 2 March 2021, SoundCloud announced a new pay model for artists, entitled "fan-powered royalties", which went into effect on 1 April 2021.

SoundCloud announced deals with a number of content partners, independent labels, and YouTube multi-channel networks, and that it was in "active and ongoing, advanced discussions" with major record labels.

The major label issue became prominent again when the new financing information was released, as the lack of monetization was presented as an issue—SoundCloud signed an agreement with Warner Music Group as part of the new Premier program that allows both Warner Music, which has a minor stake in the company, and its publishing division to collect royalties for songs they have chosen to monetize on the site; meanwhile, the other labels remained skeptical of the company's business model.

In June 2015, SoundCloud announced that it had reached a deal with the Merlin Network, a group representing 20, 000 independent record labels, to monetize their content through the Premier partner program.

In January and March 2016, SoundCloud reached respective deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment.

In February 2017, SoundCloud launched a mid-range subscription tier named SoundCloud Go, that allows users to remove ads and listen offline for $US5 per month through the site.

The original version, which was renamed to SoundCloud Go+, allows access to over 150 million songs, offline playback, no ads, no previews, and premium music tracks for $US10 per month through the site.

In May 2022, SoundCloud announced the company had acquired the Singapore based music AI company Musiio, with the aims of increase features on the site such as discovery features.

At this time, SoundCloud was reported to be "reaching 180 million people per month", with 10 hours of content being uploaded per minute.

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SoundCloud offers two mobile app; the main SoundCloud app is oriented towards streaming, with music discovery, playlist, and sharing features.

In November 2015, its separate app known as SoundCloud Pulse was released for Android and iOS; it is primarily oriented towards content creators, allowing users to upload and manage their uploads, reply to comments, and view statistics.

In July 2020, SoundCloud introduced Insights into its mobile app, discontinuing SoundCloud Pulse.

SoundCloud has attempted to create desktop clients equivalent to their mobile applications to compete with services like Spotify.

In May 2017, SoundCloud released an application for Xbox One, which was set as the basis for the beta desktop version to be released later that month.

On 30 May 2017, SoundCloud released the "SoundCloud for Windows" desktop application to the Windows 10 Microsoft Store (digital).

In SoundCloud's case, downloading "SoundCloud for Windows" from the digital Microsoft Store would showcase this feature.

On 29 March 2016, SoundCloud unveiled SoundCloud Go, a subscription-based music streaming service; the service provides an ad-free experience, offline playback, and integrates licensed music from major labels into the existing, user-uploaded content of the service.

Co-founder Eric Wahlforss stated that this aspect would help to differentiate SoundCloud Go from other music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, as it technically provides a larger total library of songs than competing services, with a higher degree of diversity in its content.

SoundCloud offers premium services for musicians under the banner SoundCloud Pro.

SoundCloud won the Schroders Innovation Award at the 2011 European Tech Tour Awards Dinner.

In 2012, SoundCloud was named Best International Startup at the TechCrunch Crunchies award ceremony.

In 2015, SoundCloud won two Webby Awards, the Webby Award and People's Choice Award for Best Streaming Audio app.

In 2022, several SoundCloud executives were named in Billboard Magazine's annual lists, including CEO Michael Weissman as a 2022 Billboard Power Player, CCMO Lauren Wirtzer-Seawood as one of the 2022 Top Women in Music, and General Counsel Antonious Porch and his team as 2022 Billboard Top Lawyers.

On 3 July 2014, TorrentFreak reported that SoundCloud offered unlimited removal powers to certain copyright holders, allowing those copyright holders to unilaterally remove paid subscribers' content without recourse.

In July 2016, SoundCloud notified registered users via email that it would be "phasing out" groups because they "were not a strong driver to help users share their new tracks to the most users effectively".

SoundCloud has a continuous play feature on non-mobile platforms which relates to the listener's stream and likes.

SoundCloud first entered the music streaming industry as a new way for artists to share and promote their music.

SoundCloud users are both listeners and artists, using the platform together, creating a community focused space.

SoundCloud is often referenced in mainstream media, including in Marvel's Black Panther, Saturday Night Live, The Today Show, MTV's TRL, as well as television shows Atlanta and DAVE.

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SoundCloud rap is a lo-fi, melody driven, distorted sound with lyrics that usually focus on repetition and less on content.

These SoundCloud rappers are in the late teens to early twenties age range with a strong youth following.

Smokepurpp, a SoundCloud artist, explained in a Rolling Stone article how the first songs he created and put on the platform were not recorded using a real microphone.

The DIY nature of SoundCloud made it so millions of artists were able to put out their work without any studio equipment usually needed to make music.

The imperfect sound created by these SoundCloud rappers has contributed to their growing popularity and the creation of a rap sub-genre.

In January 2021, SoundCloud debuted its "SCENES" docuseries that featured communities of users created on the platform.

SoundCloud's "SCENES" featured several scenes of PC Music, a record label that represented many of the early hyperpop innovators.

SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming services in the world and is available in 190 countries and territories.