Business News Deals Digital

SoundCloud to offer more creator tools via a Repost acquisition

By | Published on Friday 24 May 2019

SoundCloud

SoundCloud is continuing to boost the distribution and marketing services it offers artists and creators, this time with an acquisition. It is buying a company called Repost Network, which originally focused on helping artists get more plays and royalties out of SoundCloud specifically, but which now also provides a wider range of music distribution and marketing tools.

Although SoundCloud now competes directly with Spotify et al with its ad-funded and premium streaming packages, in the last year most of its innovations have focused more on the company’s original core business, ie providing services for content creators. Which includes helping said creators distribute and monetise their content beyond the SoundCloud platform itself.

In February the digital firm announced an alliance with music distributor FUGA, so that customers of its SoundCloud Pro service could also get their music onto all the other key streaming platforms, as well as trying to monetise their content on SoundCloud itself via the company’s Premier programme. The Repost acquisition will further extend the range of tools available to Pro subscribers.

Confirming the deal, SoundCloud’s COO Michael Weissman said: “There are more than 20 million audio creators on SoundCloud, and we know building audiences and earning income from streaming are critical to them. SoundCloud’s focus is to build more tools and services to solve those needs”.

“We’ve built the foundation with our SoundCloud Premier programme and our recently launched distribution product, and today we are taking another step forward”, he added. “The acquisition of Repost Network will meaningfully move SoundCloud forward as we build the most comprehensive set of tools to help creators build their careers. We welcome the Repost Network team to SoundCloud and are excited about what we will build together”.

For the Repost side, its co-founder Jeff Ponchick said: “Repost Network has been working with SoundCloud since the early days of its monetisation initiative, and we are ecstatic to join the world’s largest audio creator community. Our mission is to help artists make a living through their audiences online, and by joining the SoundCloud family we can help even more emerging artists take the next step in their career, earn more revenue and be heard by more fans”.



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