SoundCloud’s aggressive restructuring yielded $100 million growth last quarter

It appeared the streaming wars were weeding out SoundCloud last year. It’s no secret that industry professionals and content creators were growing increasingly annoyed with the platform. In the midst of it all, Spotify and Apple Music were stifling the competition in the global marketplace of online streaming.

So when did SoundCloud begin to turn things around?

With Spotify’s revenue hitting all-time lows in the closing quarter, and Apple Music announcing that music streaming wasn’t even its first priority, Soundcloud began searching for new, never-before-implemented business strategies to drive more users to its platform.

Things began changing for the Berlin-based company around ADE in October. For starters, the company, under newly-appointed CEO Kerry Trainor, introduced a monetization feature for independent artists to start earning on the platform. Coupled with their newly-implemented Instagram Stories integration, users began turning back towards the platform.

Next, Soundcloud rolled out its Serato integration, which allows DJs to play online music directly to the DJ decks during their live sets. Then, they partnered with Dubset, a go-between company that lets artists clear the rights to copyrighted material owned by music labels. They then began drawing in more revenue from subscriptions, which are up 89 percent, according to their latest Q4 report. In turn, their advertising revenue was up 53 percent.

SoundCloud nearly doubled its revenue in 2017, to more than $100 million.

According to Music Business Worldwide, SoundCloud has turned around their financial situation in 2017 by drawing in more subscriptions and advertising dollars, all the while lowering its annual operating loss to $27 million. It was all thanks to a complete overhaul under the direction of Trainor, a former Vimeo executive, who focused also on renegotiating certain rightsholder contracts and retiring outstanding debts.

SoundCloud says it has surpassed its 2018 growth plan and will remain focused on two major ideas: expanding its creator business with a suite of useful artist tools and offering a unique listening experience for its “young, trendsetting, global music fans.”

Source: Rolling Stone