SoundCloud discuss being bought by Spotify and their future

With rumours circulating that Spotify might buy SoundCloud the open music platform has openly talked on their plans for the future.

At the web summit conference SoundCloud co-founder and CTO Eric Wahlforss said in an interview with Music Ally: “What I would say is that we are one of the fastest growing platforms in the space and there is a lot of interest in us. We raised money from Twitter earlier this year. There are always some conversation in this space.”

Whilst Wahlforss didn’t speak on whether there were talks with Spotify for a buyout or whether they would consider it he did say that SoundCloud were appealing to big music companies like Spotify. He said: “Our audience is really young. We found there is this whole new generation [on SoundCloud]; there is now Generation Z, the next generation after Millennials.

“The way we think of it is that Millennials had an iPod as their first device. That is a world of difference and the behaviours we see are just so radically different. They can relate to a service like SoundCloud because of that directness.”

When asked on a potential IPO, assuming they aren’t being bought outright, Wahlforss said: “We are very determined that we are building a sustainable platform. We are focussed on the long game here and it has been a long time coming.”

Wahlforss’ ambiguous answers don’t really reveal anything about what may come for SoundCloud but there was no straight denial. Spotify buyout rumours are still spreading and some say it makes sense, with a venture capitalist at the conference saying “Soundcloud has the ear of the artist community. And Spotify is desperate to have a closer relationship with artists.”

You can read the full interview with Wahlforss and more coverage from the Lisbon tech conference from Music Ally.