Having spent the last eighteen months ramping up the subscriptions side of its business, Mixcloud has announced a new initiative focused on the other main revenue stream for online content, ie tapping the marketing budgets of content-hungry brands.
Going beyond simple ad sales and sponsorship, the digital platform is launching its own in-house brand consultancy called Loud.
It's a bit like how Vice has its own in-house agency called Virtue. And one of the people running Mixcloud's new business - Kazim Rashid - previously worked for the Vice agency, as well as having a stint at indie label Warp and working as an artist manager and visual artist. Also heading up the new venture is Ben Lawrence, Mixcloud's long-standing Head Of Brand Partnerships.
Mixcloud says that Loud's "​multidisciplinary team is uniquely positioned to help global brands resonate in culture through provocative intelligence, strategy and creative solutions", which is the sort of nonsense you have to say when pitching for big brand budgets. Also, "Mixcloud's community is the substratum that powers the ability for Loud to learn, plan and execute across different cultures, cities and countries". Yeah, shit like that.
On launching Loud, Rashid confirmed that the new brand consultancy venture had been in development for sometime, saying: "For the past two years, we've been incubating Loud and working with some of our favourite brands, so it's nice to finally announce this to the world. deliver an uncompromising artist/culture-first approach to storytelling, activation and strategy. By doing so, we're able to give our brand partners something truly unique - an experience that I hope comes with an extra dash of kindness and care".
Initial clients for Loud include Adidas, Dr Martens, Shure, Red Bull and W Hotels.