SoundCloud Rewinds Its Swan Song With $170 Million Investment

Keep working on that mixtape, because SoundCloud has announced an emergency investor funding round to keep it afloat for the foreseeable future.

Today SoundCloud announced a new round of investments from the Raine Group and Temasek, the largest financing round in the online audio purveyor’s history. The total investment is $169.5 million, according to Billboard. Rumors have swirled over the past few months regarding the audio distribution platform and whether or not it would cease operations.

The new investment’s terms outline that new and existing investors will be given Series F stock, a class that has seniority, while the previous Series E investors will have their liquidity preference cut by over 40 per cent.

“Recently you heard me say SoundCloud isn’t going anywhere,” wrote the company’s founder Alexander Ljung in a release. “And today I’m here to tell you the exact same thing once again. In all caps.”

Until now, Ljung was the CEO of SoundCloud, but former Vimeo leader Kerry Trainor will now take over. Mike Weissman will become the COO and Ljung will remain with the company as a chairman.

New leadership will devote more time to creators and push the aspect of SoundCloud Pro, a paid subscription that comes in two tiers: Pro is $7 a month and Pro Unlimited is $15 a month. These plans include the development of a robust creative toolkit designed to attract musicians.

The tumultuous story of whether SoundCloud would perish has been a roller coaster to read about. Less than 24 hours ago, it seemed the company was doomed when Axios revealed the entire company’s existence hinged on a single pending proposal. It appears that proposal worked, and here SoundCloud is back in front of the proverbial microphone letting users know it’s okay to believe in them once again.

“Today [SoundCloud is] a platform essential to the shaping of songs, artists, genres and global culture. I can’t fathom how we’ve been so lucky as to create that,” wrote Ljung. “But what’s even better is this: we’re all just getting started. The first 10 years are done, and now we’re onto decade II.”

There are over 175 million people who listen to SoundCloud every month.