The Berlin-based streaming service’s last publicly-available accounts, for FY 2014, show a business whose losses are growing far faster than its turnover.
The Berlin-based streaming service lost €39.14m ($44.19m) in 2014 on revenues of just €17.35m ($19.14m) – without any significant royalty payments to rights-holders.
Within those figures, administrative expenses (staff and other business basics) grew 67.8% to €47.74m ($52.7m) in the year.
And despite such severe losses, SoundCloud’s headcount grew by 21% to 236 people in 2014 – with an average annual wage of €79,980 ($82,253).
Having failed to sell the business to Twitter for $1bn in 2014, SoundCloud’s bosses have now struck licensing deals with the likes of Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Merlin.
These agreements have seen SoundCloud give away slivers of equity and, for the first time, agree to proper royalty payments – while also pledging that it will launch a subscription service this year to complement its ad-funded efforts.
Now SoundCloud has named the exec whose ultimate job will be to fix the scary financial challenges its business faces.
Alison Moore (pictured) has joined SoundCloud as Chief Revenue Officer, and will be a key player in driving the business’s subscription service forward.
In addition, she will oversee marketing, and ad strategy/sales/products for both US and global markets.
A SoundCloud press release said: “This is a critical role as the company expands at a rapid pace, capitalizing on its massive user scale to drive revenue growth via consumer subscriptions and a diversified advertising product offering.”
You ain’t kidding.
“We’re thrilled to have alison heading up what will become a monetization engine of global scale.”
Alexander Ljung, SoundCloud
Moore will report to Alexander Ljung, Co-founder and CEO.
Moore joins SoundCloud from NBC Universal, where she was the GM and EVP for TV Everywhere – an attempt by the media giant to provide consumers with a video-on-demand option to tackle the exodus of viewers to the likes of YouTube.
“Alison is an innovative and strategic leader with a proven track record of building consumer business strategies that drive new revenue growth across multiple platforms,” said Alex Ljung, Co-founder and CEO, SoundCloud.
“Most importantly, she has an understanding of both the complexities of SoundCloud’s business, and the content and entertainment industries, having spent the majority of her career building businesses, products and experiences that deepen consumer engagement with extraordinary content.
“We’re thrilled to have Alison heading up what will become a monetization engine of global scale.”
Moore commented: “I’m looking forward to joining SoundCloud at an exciting time in its growth. This new role represents a rare opportunity to grow a vibrant and diverse business platform creating exciting new consumer offerings that amplify SoundCloud’s huge community of creators and brings to light an unrivaled catalogue of music and audio, which houses the most creative voices in music today.”
Prior to her TV Everywhere role, Moore was GM of DailyCandy overseeing the digital women’s lifestyle brand.
And prior to DailyCandy, she was SVP, Digital Products of HBO, overseeing consumer experience, operations and audience development for HBOGO and other digital platforms.Music Business Worldwide
