Tech

Spotify is reportedly trying to buy Soundcloud

by Jeremy Mersereau

The music streaming ecosystem is about to get a whole lot smaller, if one report concerning two of the big players is accurate.

According to a report from the Financial Times, streaming market leader and OG Spotify is almost finished finalizing its acquisition of the preferred service of tossed-off mixtape makers everywhere, Soundcloud. If it happens, the purchase would come mere months after Soundcloud launched its own streaming service, Soundcloud Go, back in March. The news likely doesn’t bode well for Go’s performance so far, or its future.

Spotify is looking to bring Soundcloud’s legions of (mostly) non-paying users into the fold, a strategy which has seen Spotify’s own user base grow exponentially…as long as you’re counting the free tier, anyway. With an estimated user base of 40 million artists, uploaders, curators, or listeners, Soundcloud is an attractive purchase for any company, but its of particular value to streaming platforms, as many of the unpaid users would likely convert to a paying tier.

Acquiring Soundcloud would also heftily boost Spotify’s own roster of artists, and offer emerging artists easy, attractive early access to streaming their music on Spotify.

Spokespeople from both Spotify and Soundcloud declined to comment on the report concerning the purchase.