SoundCloud revenues leap 80% to €90.7m, losses shrink by 27%

SoundCloud latest available financial figures – covering 2017 and filed this week – show that its global revenue rose by 80% to €90.7 million (A$$145 million).

It had generated €50.3 million ($80.4 million) in 2016.

It expanded its footprint in the US, the world’s biggest music market. 71% of its revenue comes from there, up from 69%.

Losses shrunk 27% to €51.4 million ($82.1 million) from €70.5 million ($112.7 million).

The Berlin-based streaming service posted subscription services up by 89%, from €38.4 million ($61.4 million) to €72.6 million ($116 million)

Ad revenues grew 53%. to €18.1 million ($28.9 million)

2017 marked a year when the company closed a number of offices around the world (including Australia) and let go of 173 staff.

While new CEO Kerry Trainor has been a stabilising factor, SoundCloud might even have turned a corner, if subsequent figures are any indication.

The 2018 figures won’t be out until later this year. But SoundCloud says they have exceeded expectations.

The filing read: “Since the August 2017 financing and throughout 2018, SoundCloud has taken significant steps to improve its financial health including retiring all outstanding debt, reducing certain fixed operating expenses, and cash flow burn, improving its cash collection processes and renegotiating certain rights holder contracts.”

It now has 214 employees across its Berlin, London and New York offices.

As for the future, the company will focus specifically on two strategies.

One is to grow its core creator business (which it excels over all other streaming services) “by building and marketing the best software tools for creators to upload, share, and promote their content, helping them to grow their careers.”

The second is “to build a differentiated listening and consumption experience for SoundCloud’s young, trendsetting, global music fans who want to be on the pulse of what’s new and next in music.”