SoundCloud has just announced that it has secured $75 million investment from Sirius XM – which, remember, acquired another leading music streaming platform, Pandora, last year in a $3.5bn all-stock transaction.
Sirius’s investment in SoundCloud comes three years after the latter company attracted $170m in investment from Raine Group and Temasek – and three weeks after MBW revealed that SoundCloud had posted a $200m annual run-rate in the final months of 2019.
The freshly-issued Sirius press release follows. More to come shortly.
February 11, 2020, NEW YORK, NY – SoundCloud and SiriusXM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) announced today that the leading U.S. audio entertainment company, SiriusXM, has invested $75 million in SoundCloud, the world’s largest open audio platform. SoundCloud will use this additional investment to accelerate its product development and enhance the services that fuel its global community of creators and listeners.
“SoundCloud’s three consecutive years of strong financial performance directly reflect the success of our creator-led growth strategy,” said Kerry Trainor, Chief Executive Officer, SoundCloud. “We 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. We’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.”
“SoundCloud’s unique platform serves a vital role in today’s 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,” said Jim Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of SiriusXM. “We admire SoundCloud’s 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.”
The minority investment follows the highly successful ad sales relationship between SoundCloud and Pandora, a subsidiary of SiriusXM, which started in 2019. The agreement enables advertisers and brands to purchase SoundCloud’s U.S. ad inventory directly through Pandora, leveraging the company’s direct sales capabilities, targeting data, and audio programmatic platform. Together, SoundCloud and Pandora’s combined U.S. audience offering reaches more than 100 million unique listeners, creating the largest digital audio advertising marketplace.
SoundCloud is the global accelerator for music culture and has grown its business through the introduction of new products, services and partnerships that empower audio creators and listener discovery. The creator-driven platform continues to be the first place creators share their audio with the world and the first place listeners discover what’s next in music. Many of the most buzzed-about artists shaping music today – including Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Bad Bunny, Khalid, Lil Tecca, and more – started their careers first on SoundCloud.
In 2019, SoundCloud set all-time highs for platform engagement, creators heard, subscribers and revenue. The company exited the year with its strongest financial performance in its history – accelerating to a $200 million forward revenue run-rate for the first time in the fourth quarter 2019.
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.
The Raine Group served as financial advisor to SoundCloud, and Morrison & Foerster as its legal counsel. Allen & Company LLC served as financial advisor to SiriusXM, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP as its legal counsel.Music Business Worldwide
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