Via: billboard.com
SoundCloud has reportedly raised another large round of funding, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The Berlin-based music streaming company has raised a $150 million round from unidentified investors, less than a year after the company brought in $60 million from Institutional Venture Partners and the Chernin Group.
Early last month, the company announced a partnership with Warner Music Group, its first with a major since the company’s founding in 2007. TheJournal claims that negotiations with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment have languished over the past few months. While a reason for the stall isn’t given, speculation is free; Universal may have wanted a bigger slice of equity (Warner received three to five percent) or revenue, while Sony may have been disappointed with the structure of the proposed partnership, which takes a less structured approach to monetization, with much of the onus on the rights holder.
Universal Music Group chairman Lucian Grainge said of the discussions: “Our intention is to create something that’s valuable for everybody and so valuable that everybody wants to be in. We’re not there yet.”
Alexander Ljung, co-founder and CEO, characterized SoundCloud’s deal with Warner as an optional proposition to Billboard around that time, saying that Warner doesn’t “have a commitment to put up their entire catalog,” but rather to monetize what they like through the site and remove anything they don’t using copyright system they put in place over the summer. “It’s much more in their control,” said Ljung. “This allows them to enable monetization of content they already have on the platform. And now there’s more incentive for Warner to put up [more] content.”