article s factual accuracy may be compromised due to out of date information . relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . october 2016 soundcloud type privately held company founded september 2007 ; 9 years ago 2007 09 stockholm sweden headquarters berlin germany area served worldwide founder s alexander ljung eric wahlforss key people alexander ljung founder & ceo eric wahlforss founder & cto david no l vp community & evangelist employees 190 website soundcloud.com written in ruby 1 alexa rank 148 july 2016 2 type of site social networking service music website registration required to post and upload content users 40 million registered users july 2013 175 million unique monthly listeners dec. 2014 launched october 2008 ; 8 years ago 2008 10 soundcloud is a global online audio distribution platform based in berlin germany that enables its users to upload record promote and share their originally created sounds . according to the company s data in december 2014 the service attracts more than 175 million unique monthly listeners while content creators upload approximately twelve hours worth of audio every minute . 3 soundcloud s content is evenly split between small time and mainstream musicians . 4 founders alexander ljung and eric wahlforss are the chief executive officer ceo and chief technical officer cto respectively . contents 1 history 1.1 monetization subscription services 2 features 3 subscription services 3.1 soundcloud pro 3.2 soundcloud go 4 mobile apps 5 reception 5.1 recognition 5.2 criticism 6 blocking 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit soundcloud was originally founded in stockholm sweden but was established in berlin in august 2007 by swedish sound designer ljung and swedish artist wahlforss . the founders initially aspired to allow musicians to share recordings with each other but the concept later transformed into a full publishing tool that also allowed musicians to distribute their music tracks . 5 a few months after inception soundcloud began to challenge the dominance of myspace as a platform for musicians to distribute their music by allowing recording artists to interact more nimbly with their fans . 5 in a 2009 interview with wired ljung said we both came from backgrounds connected to music and it was just really really annoying for us to collaborate with people on music i mean simple collaboration just sending tracks to other people in a private setting getting some feedback from them and having a conversation about that piece of music . in the same way that we d be using flickr for our photos and vimeo for our videos we didn t have that kind of platform for our music . 5 in april 2009 soundcloud received 2.5 million series a funding from doughty hanson technology ventures . 6 by may 2010 soundcloud announced it had one million subscribers . 6 in january 2011 it was confirmed that soundcloud had raised a us 10 million series b funding round from union square ventures and index ventures . on 15 june 2011 soundcloud announced they had five million registered users as well as investments from ashton kutcher and guy oseary s a grade fund . on 23 january 2012 soundcloud announced on their blog that they had reached 10 million registered users . a story wheel was created for the occasion which can be found on the soundcloud blog . 7 by may 2012 15 million users were announced by the company at a press conference held in san francisco us where the next version of the site was previewed . the usage level for the site was growing by 1.5 million users per month at this stage . 8 at the start of december 2012 the new soundcloud version was released to the general public . heavily influenced by the tablet browsing experience and mobile devices the enhanced platform offered new features such as redesigned profiles ; more sharing options ; real time notifications ; continuous play which allows concurrent listening and site navigation ; the ability to create personal collections sets ; and the addition of real time indexing to search . 8 the response from users was mixed and many expressed dissatisfaction with the change . soundcloud received over 60 000 comments regarding the new layout by 10 december 2012 . 9 also in december 2012 the company s data showed that soundcloud was reaching 180 million people per month 8 percent of the global internet while users were uploading 10 hours of content every minute . 10 in march 2013 twitter announced soundcloud as a third party music partner alongside itunes in developing the twitter s first ever integrated music app . however the initiative never eventuated ; soundcloud s inability to load licensed music due to the absence of arrangements with the major music labels was cited as a major reason . 11 12 by july 2013 soundcloud s registered users had quadrupled in number from the beginning of the previous year with a total of 40 million and an additional 20 million listeners were using the service on a monthly basis . 13 soundcloud announced in january 2014 that it had commenced negotiations with the major music companies as copyrighted material consistently appeared on the platform . 14 not in citation given the announcement was publicised after a round of funding in which us 60 million was raised resulting in a 700 million valuation . the additional finances were suggested as the reason for the plan as finalising such deals is a costly process . 12 in march 2014 soundcloud was reportedly in a second round of talks with major music labels about licensing after the january negotiations did not amount to anything substantial . according to media sources the negotiation process was initiated in an attempt to avoid the problems faced by google which is forced to handle a large number of takedown notices on its youtube video sharing platform . 15 however the outcome of the talks was not forthcoming in any media sources . later in may the media reported that twitter had regained interest in soundcloud and was considering acquiring the platform for around us 2 billion . the next clarification needed after the publicity of the deal surfaced the prospect was no longer an active consideration . one media report stated that the numbers didn t add up while bobby owsinski claimed on the forbes website in july 16 that soundcloud s ongoing inability to secure deals with the major music labels was the foremost culprit . 17 on 28 september 2016 spotify announced that they are currently in talks to buy soundcloud . 18 monetization subscription services edit in august 2014 soundcloud announced that it would begin to further monetize the service through a new partner program known as on soundcloud which allows premier partners to monetize their content through advertising units including pre roll audio ads sponsorship of channels mobile display ads and native content . the company announced deals with a number of content partners including comedy central and funny or die independent labels and youtube multi channel networks but stated that it was in active and ongoing advanced discussion s with major record labels and was planning to launch a subscription based music streaming product in the future . 19 sources with knowledge of the company s next funding round spoke with the media in early december 2014 to reveal that ongoing discussions could raise about us 150 million in new financing leading to a new valuation that would surpass the billion dollar mark . other startups that have crossed such a threshold include spotify and uber . at this time soundcloud claimed that 175 million unique listeners used the site each month while about 12 hours worth of audio were being uploaded every minute . 3 20 the major label issue became prominent again when the new financing information was released as the lack of monetisation was presented as an issue soundcloud had managed to sign an agreement with warner music group as part of the new premier program that allows both warner music which also has a minor stake in the company and its publishing division to collect royalties for songs they have chosen to monetize on the site ; meanwhile the other labels remained skeptical of the company s business model . 3 20 according to further information released in december 2014 the introduction of ads had allowed soundcloud to share revenue with about 60 other premier partners including independent labels and artists who are invited to participate and receive special promotion rights . although soundcloud did not have paid subscriptions for ad free streaming they had planned to launch one in 2015 . 3 20 concerns over the amount of revenue from the program led sony music entertainment to pull its content from the service entirely in may 2015 . 21 in june 2015 soundcloud announced that it had reached a deal with the merlin network a group representing 20 000 independent record labels to monetize their content through the premier partner program . 22 in january and march 2016 soundcloud reached respective deals with universal music group and sony music entertainment . a umg spokesperson told the new york times that the deal would give the company an option to require certain content to be restricted to paid subscribers a statement suggesting that soundcloud was preparing to launch its subscription streaming service . 23 24 25 on 29 march 2016 soundcloud launched its subscription music streaming service soundcloud go . 26 features edit among soundcloud s key features is the ability to allow artists to upload their music with a distinctive url . by allowing sound files to be embedded anywhere soundcloud can be combined with twitter and facebook to let members reach an audience better . by clicking a share button corresponding to the site where they wish to promote the shared content such as facebook and approving the post artists and publishers can let audiences on that site see the content through their desired media outlet . this contrasts with myspace which does not have reshare buttons . 5 over half the songs that are uploaded are played within the first 30 minutes and 90 % of all uploaded tracks receive a listen from at least one user . 27 registered users are allowed to listen to unlimited audio and may upload up to 180 minutes of audio to their profile at no cost . 28 29 30 soundcloud distributes music using widgets and apps . 6 users can place the widget on their own websites or blogs and then soundcloud will automatically tweet every track uploaded . 5 soundcloud depicts audio tracks graphically as waveforms and allows users to post timed comments on specific parts of any track . these comments are displayed while the associated audio segment is played . other standard features include the ability to create playlists previously known as sets and to like repost and share to follow another user and to make complimentary downloads of their audio available . 31 soundcloud s api allows other applications or smartphones to upload music and sound files or download files if the user has permission to do so . 5 this api has been integrated into several applications most notably garageband logic pro and presonus studio one daw 32 as well as into music finders including soundyouneed . 33 soundcloud supports aiff wav flac alac ogg mp2 mp3 aac amr and wma files and transcodes them at 128 kbit s. 34 subscription services edit soundcloud pro edit soundcloud offers premium services for musicians under the banner soundcloud pro . the soundcloud pro service allows users to upload up to six hours of audio and adds additional features such as enhanced analytics and the ability to disable comments on tracks . the pro unlimited tier allows unlimited uploads . 35 soundcloud go edit on