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SoundCloud Lays Off Nearly Half Its Staff, Closes Two Offices (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: SoundCloud is cutting about 40 percent of its staff in a cost-cutting move the digital music service says will give it a better financial footing to compete against larger rivals Spotify and Apple. SoundCloud, which in January said it was at risk of running out of money, informed staff on Thursday that 173 jobs would be eliminated. It had 420 employees. The company's operations will be consolidated at its headquarters in Berlin and another office in New York. Offices in San Francisco and London will be shut.
"We need to ensure our path to long-term, independent success," Alex Ljung, the company's co-founder and chief executive officer, said in a blog post published on SoundCloud's website. He said the company has doubled its revenue over the past 12 months -- without providing specifics -- and that the cuts put it on a path to profitability.
"We need to ensure our path to long-term, independent success," Alex Ljung, the company's co-founder and chief executive officer, said in a blog post published on SoundCloud's website. He said the company has doubled its revenue over the past 12 months -- without providing specifics -- and that the cuts put it on a path to profitability.
This is just the beginning. We're in Dot-Com Bubble 2.0: Web Services Edition. Get ready for the collapse.
Apparently Twitter does. From the Twitter web site:
"We have over 35 offices around the world, and each one reflects the regional and cultural spirit of the cities they're in. Atlanta's conference rooms are named after southern hip-hop icons, local artists paint giant murals in our New York office, and Sydney has a panoramic view of the city and harbor from the 39th floor (make sure you check out the sunset). Explore below to see all our offices and the job openings available."
I can't figure out why they aren't making money.
SoundCloud hosts music uploaded by indie content creators with very generous licenses. Their revenue stream seems to be audio and visual advertisements, a subscription service to listen ad free, and a service for creators to upload more music.
The problem is that any downloadable song is immediately ripped and uploaded to YouTube under "free music aggregator" accounts, which YouTube then gets the ads revenue.
I'm not surprised SoundCloud can't make any money.