Earlier this year, several popular rappers (Lil Nas X, Lil Yachty, and Kid Laroi) took to SoundCloud to… release exclusive tracks which can only be heard on the streaming platform.
“Lil NAS X, unbeknownst to his record label, Columbia, his manager and us, released three exclusive songs one week after another this spring,” SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton told The Post. “He knows where his super fans are… And he wanted to ignite that flame, so he released those songs out of the blue.”
It was a moment of triumph for SoundCloud, which has at times faced cash crunches as it struggled to compete with tech giants.
New York-based SoundCloud first launched in 2007 (before Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music existed) and is now profitable. It has become the go-to platform for true music addicts and hardcore fans, and recently moved into new offices in the Meatpacking District.
The company, which was valued at $700 million in 2021, operates in 193 markets but has its roots firmly in the Big Apple. Fred Wilson, the prominent New York venture capitalist and partner at Union Square Ventures, sits on the company's board of directors.
“New York is the cultural center of the world and if you’re an artist or a fan, there’s no better place to be able to interact with music, live music or really music in any way,” Seton said.
Subscribers pay $10.99 per month to stream music from both big-name artists like Taylor Swift and emerging artists, as well as access to features that mirror social media and directly connect artists and fans.
Users can post their own music or remixes, comment on songs, repost other music, join “community pages,” and follow and direct message other artists.
The ability to interact with and find artists is what has given the company an edge. Post Malone, Billie Eilish and Chance the Rapper have all been discovered on the streaming service.
“This is a place where their fans can really interact with them and their music, and that’s why they keep coming back,” Seton said. “Fans come to find the next big artist. And those artists come to find their fans. And that, that engine is the lifeblood of SoundCloud.”
Seton was compelled to build a platform for artists in part because of his own history in music: His grandmother was a professional opera singer, and he and his now-husband met when they were in an a cappella group together at Harvard.
The 43-year-old joined the SoundCloud team in 2021, after working for more than a decade at Warner Music, where he rubbed shoulders with artists such as Macklemore and figures such as Steve Cooper, Len Blavatnik, Lyon Cohen and Julie Greenwald.
It was a risky move to move from a major label to an online company that had nearly run out of money by 2017. But Seton recognized that traditional labels were losing their dominance and welcomed a new challenge.
“I could see that while the history of music lived with the content owners, the future of music would live somewhere else and that innovation was happening somewhere else, and that place was SoundCloud,” he said.
Today, many musicians are discovered by online fans rather than by agents and record labels. Over 50% of listens on SoundCloud are for new music and artists are willing to pay for such valuable exposure.
“Technology has disrupted[traditional record labels],” Seton said. “And over the last 10 years, content owners have ceded the center of gravity of music to streaming platforms.”
In 2023, he was appointed CEO and that year the company turned a profit for the first time in its history.
Seton has found new and innovative ways to connect artists and fans…and make more money.
New features, including the ability for artists to promote their music to listeners or for subscribers to get early access to new music (both for an additional fee), helped SoundCloud post positive numbers.
“There are things that major labels and independent labels can’t do because they don’t have access to fans. It’s something that streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple can’t do because they don’t have a direct relationship with artists. For us, we’re a customer service for artists looking to start their career, find their fans, build their fan base and take off and get discovered,” he said.
SoundCloud has also introduced new programs like “Ascending,” which formally launched earlier this month and features artists who have gained organic traction on the platform and are on the verge of a breakthrough.
This story is part of NYNext, a new editorial series highlighting New York City innovation across all industries, as well as the personalities leading the way.
Additionally, the platform uses artificial intelligence to better understand subscribers' tastes and listening habits, so SoundCloud can introduce them to new songs they're likely to like.
“We’ll put them on playlists that we call trending playlists. And those trending playlists allow us to discover talent in a way that no other platform can do,” Seton said. “We’re looking for artists that really stand out.”
