Where does Soundcloud Stand in the Streaming Market?

Soundcloud is an important for artists and fans alike as it offers a free way for original music to be uploaded and shared. This has helped greatly to extend the long tail of the music industry by opening up marketing channels for talented artists who have little financial backing. Without Soundcloud, many artists that are adored today may have never been discovered.

Soundcloud offers multiple tiers of licensing with the most recent addition called “Go”. Soundcloud Go has been wildly unnoticed with only a few hundred thousand of the 175 million subscribed. Although the success of the new service is pending, the company has released a statement regarding the overall success of the company over the past year. It is reported that the company increased its revenue by a mighty 43%, which comes to $28 million in 2015.

It can be assumed that much of this comes from advertising sales due to the low amount of Go subscribers. The last estimated value of Soundcloud came out at $700 million, seems to have caught the attention of Spotify. As the largest music streaming company in the world, Spotify’s subscription count of 40 million makes Soundcloud Go users look obsolete. Although it is only rumored, a Spotify buyout of Soundcloud could spur some major changes for artists and fans everywhere.

We have already seen Soundcloud slowly change in recent years with the addition of ads between tracks, third-party repost to download links, and Go. Will Soundcloud continue to be the music streaming site trusted by electronic fans or is a shift to an ulterior platform eminent?

Source: Dancing Astronaut