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SoundCloud Establishment
SoundCloud was originally founded in Stockholm, Sweden, but was established in Berlin in August 2007. SoundCloud was established and founded by Swedish sound designer Alexander Ljung and Swedish artist Eric Wahlforss. -
Series A Funding from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures
In April 2009, SoundCloud received $2.5 million Series A funding from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures. A Series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. Doughty Hanson & Co is a British private equity fund manager focused on leveraged buyout and recapitalization transactions primarily of upper middle-market companies in Europe. The firm invests in European real estate and provides early stage venture capital to technology companies. -
1, 000, 000 Subscribers
By May 2010, SoundCloud announced it had one million subscribers. -
$10 Million Rasied in Series B Funding
In January 2011, SoundCloud had raised $10 million Series B funding from Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures. Union Square Ventures is a New York-based venture capital firm that manages assets totaling $650 million. Index Ventures is a Europe- and San Francisco-based global venture capital firm, focused on making investments in information technology and life sciences companies. Since it was founded in 1996, the firm has invested in businesses in more than 20 countries. -
5, 000, 000 Users
On June 15th, 2011, SoundCloud announced they had five million registered users, as well as investments from Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary. -
10, 000, 000 Users
On January 23rd, 2012, SoundCloud announced on their blog that they had reached 10 million registered users. -
15, 000, 000 Users
By May 2012, 15 million users were announced by the company at a press conference held in San Francisco. At the conference, the next version of the site was previewed. The usage level for the site was growing by 1.5 million users per month at this stage. -
New SoundCloud Released
At the start of December 2012, the new SoundCloud version was released to the general public. Heavily influenced by the tablet browsing experience and mobile devices, the enhanced platform offered new features such as: redesigned profiles; more sharing options; real-time notifications; continuous play, which allows concurrent listening and site navigation; the ability to create personal collections/sets; and the addition of real-time indexing to search. -
Response From Users
The response from users was mixed, and many expressed dissatisfaction with the changes. SoundCloud received over 60,000 comments regarding the new layout . The company's data showed that SoundCloud was reaching 180 million people per month, which is 8 percent of the global Internet, with users uploading 10 hours of content every minute. -
Parterning with Twitter
In March 2013, Twitter announced SoundCloud as a third-party music partner, alongside iTunes, in developing the Twitter's first-ever integrated music app. However, the initiative never happed due to SoundCloud's inability to load licensed music. -
40, 000, 000 Users
By July 2013, SoundCloud' had a total of 40 million users, and an additional 20 million listeners used the service on a monthly basis. -
Negotiations: Round 1
In January 2014 SoundCloud annouced that it had commenced negotiations with the major music companies, as copyrighted material consistently appeared on the platform. The announcement was publicised after raising $60 million in funding,making SoundCloud worth $700 million. -
Negotiations: Round 2
In March 2014, SoundCloud was in a second round of talks with major music labels about licensing after the January negotiations did not amount to anything substantial. The outcome of the talks was not expected to be substantial i nthe near future. -
SoundCloud Discontinued
In May 2014, SoundCloud announced in an email to registered users that Classic SoundCloud would be discontinued by the end of the month. -
Twitter & Warner Music Gain Intrest
Later in May, Twitter had regained interest in SoundCloud and was considering acquiring the platform for around US$2 billion. SoundCloud had also managed to sign an agreement with Warner Music as part of the "Premier Partners" program that allows both Warner Music and its publishing division to collect royalties for songs they have on the site. -
Striking Gold
In June 2015, Soundcloud announced that it had struck a deal with over 20,000 independent labels. -
Partnering with HEOS by Denon
On July 14, 2015 SoundCloud announced its partnership with HEOS by Denon, a Japanese electronics company. This alliance enable the users to easily create, share and stream their SoundCloud audios through HEOS range of multi room audio speakers.
