{"id":78100,"date":"2020-02-11T13:10:30","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T13:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=78100"},"modified":"2020-02-11T13:35:49","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T13:35:49","slug":"soundcloud-secures-75m-investment-from-pandora-owner-sirius-xm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/soundcloud-secures-75m-investment-from-pandora-owner-sirius-xm\/","title":{"rendered":"SoundCloud secures $75m investment from Pandora owner SiriusXM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SoundCloud has just announced that it has secured $75 million investment from SiriusXM \u2013 which, remember, acquired another leading music streaming platform, Pandora, last year<a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/pandora-ceo-roger-lynch-out-as-shareholders-approve-sale-to-sirius-xm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> in a $3.5bn all-stock transaction.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>US-based Sirius&#8217;s investment in SoundCloud comes three years after the latter company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/soundcloud-posted-a-82m-loss-in-2016-but-took-on-170m-in-investment-last-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">attracted $170m in investment from Raine Group and Temasek<\/a> \u2013 and three weeks after MBW revealed that SoundCloud had posted a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/soundcloud-with-more-than-200m-tracks-on-its-platform-saw-annual-revenues-top-200m-last-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$200m annual revenue run-rate<\/a> in the final months of 2019.<\/p>\n<p>U.S-based SiriusXM will take a minority stakeholding in SoundCloud as a result of the $75m investment.<\/p>\n      <div class=\"mb-advert__incontent\">      <div class=\"mb-advert mb-advert__tweeny hidden-xs hidden-ms hidden-sm\" data-loaded=\"no\" data-sizes=\"992 1200 1440\" data-name=\"628x90 Sponsor banner #5 (992+1200+1440)\" data-params=\"dfp_sponsor5_628\" id=\"dfp_sponsor5_628\"><\/div>      <div class=\"mb-advert mb-advert__banner mb-advert__banner--inline hidden-xs hidden-sm hidden-md hidden-lg\" data-loaded=\"no\" data-sizes=\"480\" data-name=\"468x60 Sponsor banner #5 (480)\" data-params=\"dfp_sponsor5_468\" id=\"dfp_sponsor5_468\"><\/div>      <div class=\"mb-advert mb-advert__mobile mb-advert__mobile--inline hidden-ms hidden-md hidden-lg\" data-loaded=\"no\" data-sizes=\"320 768\" data-name=\"300x50 Sponsor banner #5 (320+768)\" data-params=\"dfp_sponsor5_300\" id=\"dfp_sponsor5_300\"><\/div>      <\/div>      \n<p>SoundCloud says it will use this additional investment to &#8220;accelerate its product development and enhance the services that fuel its global community of creators and listeners&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSoundCloud\u2019s three consecutive years of strong financial performance directly reflect the success of our creator-led growth strategy,\u201d said Kerry Trainor, Chief Executive Officer, SoundCloud. \u201cWe have an exciting roadmap focused on deepening the connections between creators and listeners that fuel creator discovery, career growth and the evolution of music culture on SoundCloud.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve built a great relationship with SiriusXM through our highly successful Pandora ad sales agreement, and their investment gives us added capital flexibility to accelerate our vision and take advantage of strategic opportunities as they arise.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><figure class=\"mbw-articlepic mbw-articlepic--right\"><img  class=\"lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2020\/01\/Screen-Shot-2020-01-17-at-17.04.51-80x54.png 80w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2020\/01\/Screen-Shot-2020-01-17-at-17.04.51-160x109.png 160w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2020\/01\/Screen-Shot-2020-01-17-at-17.04.51-320x218.png 320w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2020\/01\/Screen-Shot-2020-01-17-at-17.04.51-418x285.png 418w\" data-sizes=\"auto\"><\/figure><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve built a great relationship with SiriusXM through our highly successful Pandora ad sales agreement, and their investment gives us added capital flexibility to accelerate our vision and take advantage of strategic opportunities as they arise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Kerry Trainor, SoundCloud<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>According to recently-filed documents, SoundCloud&#8217;s revenues <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/soundcloud-with-more-than-200m-tracks-on-its-platform-saw-annual-revenues-top-200m-last-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">rose to $127m in 2018<\/a>, up 23% at constant currency. Its annual operating losses narrowed by close to 50% YoY, down to $38.7m.<\/p>\n<p>Jim Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of SiriusXM, said: \u201cSoundCloud\u2019s unique platform serves a vital role in today\u2019s music ecosystem where new artists are discovered and build their fan base, and established artists experiment and connect directly with their fans in highly effective ways.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We admire SoundCloud\u2019s loyal and growing audience, its offering for creators, and its reputation and popularity in global music communities. We believe this is another opportunity to continue creating value for SiriusXM stockholders by investing in expanding digital audio platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The minority investment follows a successful ad sales relationship between SoundCloud and Pandora, which helped SoundCloud&#8217;s ad revenues grow 37.4% in 2018.<\/p>\n<blockquote><figure class=\"mbw-articlepic mbw-articlepic--right\"><img  class=\"lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-30-at-19.12.10-80x52.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-30-at-19.12.10-160x105.jpg 160w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-30-at-19.12.10-320x209.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-30-at-19.12.10-418x273.jpg 418w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-30-at-19.12.10-648x424.jpg 648w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-30-at-19.12.10-836x547.jpg 836w, https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-30-at-19.12.10-1296x848.jpg 1296w\" data-sizes=\"auto\"><\/figure><p>&#8220;We admire SoundCloud\u2019s loyal and growing audience, its offering for creators, and its reputation and popularity in global music communities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Jim Meyer, SiriusXM<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The agreement between the two parties, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/soundcloud-teams-with-pandora-to-rival-spotify-for-advertising-sales-in-the-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">launched in October 2018<\/a>, enables advertisers\u00a0 to purchase SoundCloud\u2019s U.S. ad inventory directly through Pandora, leveraging the company\u2019s direct sales capabilities, targeting data, and audio programmatic platform.<\/p>\n<p>Together, SoundCloud and Pandora says their combined U.S. audience offering reaches more than 100 million unique listeners, creating &#8220;the largest digital audio advertising marketplace&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>SoundCloud points out that &#8220;many of the most buzzed-about artists shaping music today \u2013 including Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Bad Bunny, Khalid, Lil Tecca, and more \u2013 started their careers first on SoundCloud&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Under the terms of the agreement, SiriusXM has purchased $75 million of securities for a minority investment, and the SoundCloud Board of Directors will expand to include two individuals designated by SiriusXM.<\/p>\n<p>The Raine Group served as financial advisor to SoundCloud, and Morrison &amp; Foerster as its legal counsel. Allen &amp; Company LLC served as financial advisor to SiriusXM, and Weil, Gotshal &amp; Manges LLP as its legal counsel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SiriusXM has purchased $75 million of securities for a minority investment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5651,3717,1344,1204,457],"class_list":["post-78100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-jim-meyer","tag-kerry-trainor","tag-sirius-xm","tag-siriusxm","tag-soundcloud"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}