In the current age of streaming, two of the biggest platforms are the record label-preferred and artist library destination Spotify, and the discovery-based, direct-to-fan budding artist community of SoundCloud. And now, SoundCloud may be purchased by its bigger corporate rival Spotify. At last valuation, SoundCloud was valued at approximately $700 million, and as of June 2015, Spotify at $8.5 billion. Both companies have lost money in recent years, with SoundCloud losing $44 million in 2014, and Spotify losing $194 million in 2015. SoundCloud launched their premium service to directly compete with platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, SoundCloud Go, earlier this year, in an attempt to diversify its offering and focus on profitability as copyright crackdowns from labels and the like have limited artist's creativity on the platform in recent years. After targeting curated playlists over the past year and announcing that it will stream mixes, Spotify's interest may not be in the SoundCloud 'Go' program, but in its user base of over 175 million people, compared to Spotify's 100 million.
Spotify in talks to buy SoundCloud
