Remember the heady days when SoundCloud rocked the music world, a freeform playground for bedroom DJs and boundary-pushing artists?
That era might be about to fade out – the platform’s owners are reportedly putting it up for grabs with a $1 billion price tag.
The company’s billion-dollar encore arrives on the heels of an 8% workforce reduction in 2023, an effort by its owners to chase profitability.
Two key stakeholders, boutique merchant bank Raine Group and Singaporean investment firm Temasek Holdings, have initiated talks with banks to potentially auction off SoundCloud, as disclosed by Sky News.
This revelation isn’t entirely unexpected, following recent news that SoundCloud—a music streaming giant—aims to achieve its first annual profit since its inception in 2007. CEO Eliah Seton confirmed a positive €2 million EBITDA against projected annual revenues of €288 million in late December.
Back in August 2017, Raine and Temasek entered the SoundCloud ecosystem with a $170 million deal, securing a dominant position in the company as its value soared to $300 million, as reported by Music Business Worldwide.
Despite its reputation as a music tech trailblazer, SoundCloud was teetering on the edge of collapse, facing years of platform reconstruction and corporate overhauls in its quest for a sustainable business model. To date, the platform has hosted roughly 40 million artists and showcased over 320 million tracks.
Who will buy the keys to this audio kingdom? Tech giants with deeper pockets? Streaming rivals looking to add some grit to their playlists? One thing’s for sure, the sale of SoundCloud marks the end of an era, and the opening notes of a new chapter, one potentially filled with even bigger drops and unexpected remixes. So crank up the volume, raise a glass to the platform that dared to be different, and get ready for the next track on the ever-evolving mixtape of the music industry.
The sale is not likely to start for “some months.” – Source Close to Sky News
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