Soundcloud had to make a significant cut to the company in order to keep its status as independent, and 40% of employees are being laid off. Out of their four main corporate offices, the London and San Francisco headquarters are being shut down, making 173 of their 420 offices disappear. With a heavy heart and business in mind, Soundcloud co-founder Alex Ljung posted an open letter saying in part:
Eric and I founded SoundCloud nearly 10 years ago as we saw a need for something that would enable artists to share and connect through music. As we hovered together back in 2008 to push the button that would make SoundCloud live for the entire world, we had no idea the impact our, then tiny, platform would have on the future of music culture, and millions of listeners and artists around the globe.
In the competitive world of music streaming, we’ve spent the last several years growing our business, and more than doubled our revenue in the last 12 months alone. However, we need to ensure our path to long-term, independent success. And in order to do this, it requires cost cutting, continued growth of our existing advertising and subscription revenue streams, and a relentless focus on our unique competitive advantage — artists and creators.
View the rest of the statement here.
There has been deliberation between major tech companies to buy Soundcloud over. Fellow music sharing platform Spotify thought about purchasing, but ultimately decided against it– while tech giant Google is currently considering the investment for a whopping $500 million.
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