14 DAY TRIAL // SoundCloud has been getting some buzz lately as the music sharing and audio hosting platform became the preferred way many aspiring and established artists shared new tracks with their fans. With its venture into the mobile space, it launched apps for both the iPhone and Android, along with in-browser and in-app recording, it's probably the best time to be raising some new funds to feed the growth.
And that's exactly what it's doing, according to the German startup-focused blog Gruenderszene.
SoundCloud is said to be in talks with Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures, two of the biggest venture capital firms in the US, to raise some money. This is actually not the first time we've heard something like this.
The three-year-old company has only raised some €2.5 million, back in April 2009. Since then it has grown tremendously and hired more people. If it wants to continue to scale it's going to need some new funding.
The German startup now has over two million users and it becoming the music world's version of YouTube, or rather Vimeo, or Flickr.
The really interesting part is that, despite the fact that users can upload any audio files to their accounts, infringing tracks rarely end up on the site.
The most popular tracks come from some of the well-known artists that have adopted the platform, or from those that used it to get their music in the ears of as many people as possible.
The most recent new features, particularly the addition of a sound recording feature to both the site and the mobile apps may signal a change of focus for the site, since the most common use for the feature would be for on-the-go voice notes, or maybe as a podcasting platform.
There are no details on how much SoundCloud is hoping to raise, apparently it may be looking for a significantly larger sum than the last time around. [via TechCrunch]