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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 about 12 hours worth of audio every minute. Founders Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss are the chief executive officer (CEO) and chief technical officer (CTO), respectively. ==History== 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. 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.〔 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.〔 In April 2009, SoundCloud received €2.5 million Series A funding from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures. By May 2010, SoundCloud announced it had one million subscribers.〔 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. 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. 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.〔 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. 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. 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.〔 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. SoundCloud announced in January 2014 that it had commenced negotiations with the major music companies, as copyrighted material consistently appeared on the platform. 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. 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. However, the outcome of the talks was not forthcoming in any media sources. At the start of May 2014, SoundCloud announced in an email to registered users that the Classic SoundCloud interface would be discontinued by the end of the month. The company explained in the email: "The complexities of keeping two SoundCloud websites up and communicating with each other at a global scale has been extremely difficult, causing increased outages on both sites and slowed the platform as a whole." 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 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 that SoundCloud's ongoing inability to secure deals with the major music labels was the foremost culprit. 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.〔 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 as part of the "Premier Partners" 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 remain skeptical of the company's business model.〔〔 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. The majority of registered users at this stage of the company's history are required to pay annual fees without the option to monetise. Although SoundCloud did not have paid subscriptions for ad-free streaming, they will plan to launch one in 2015.〔〔 In June 2015, Soundcloud announced that it had struck a deal with over 20,000 independent labels to cut them in on royalties. 〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Soundcloud Inks Royalty Deal With 20K Indie Labels )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「SoundCloud」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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