SoundCloud: You can't stop the music, nobody can stop the music

Singaporean group that funded Dell EMC buy among bailout funders as new CEO steps in

SoundCloud has avoided collapse, announcing that it has secured “the largest financing round” it's ever secured.

The audio storage and streaming site laid off forty per cent of staff in July and batted away rumours that it had just a few weeks worth of cash to hand.

The company's strife saw it become an exemplar of the risks inherent in unprofitable cloud services that may have users galore but can't go on forever without either black ink or willing investors. And when such outfits flame out, they tend to do so without leaving users much time in which to retrieve their stuff.

With SoundCloud VC-funded, but never profitable during nine years of operation, users feared the worst.

But the site has defied critics by securing funds from merchant bank The Raine Group and Singaporean investment house Temasek. Readers may remember the latter applied principles of Chinese numerology to acquire 18,181,818 shares of Dell.

SoundCloud's also changing leaders, with Kerry Trainor and Mike Weissman to become CEO and COO, respectively. Current CEO Alexander Ljung will become chair and “fully focus” on that role “and the long-term.” ®