Abstract
SoundCloud is an audio platform that enables sound creators to upload, record, promote and share their original creations. It was the brainchild of two Swedish-born music enthusiasts, Eric Wahlforss and Alexander Ljung, who suspected that there was a large enough community of potential music makers and users to justify the creation of an interactive online audio platform on which to launch and host new music. Their efforts to fill this niche market resulted in SoundCloud (Wahlforss 2012). The company has grown rapidly following its launch in October 2008, attracting over 250 million listeners per month around the globe by the end of 2013 (Dillet 2013). While originally based in Sweden, the company quickly relocated to the more musically inclined Berlin. It now has satellite offices in San Francisco, New York City, London and Bulgaria (Taylor 2013) and can count Paul McCartney and 50 Cent among the many artists to have released singles on the platform (WEF 2013).
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Notes
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According to Investopedia (http://www.investopedia.com), seed capital is the initial capital used to start a business, often coming from the founders and their friends and family. Series A funding is the first round of financing undergone for a new business venture after seed capital. Generally, this is the first time that company ownership is offered to external investors. Series B funding is the second round of financing for a business by private equity investors or venture capitalists. Successive rounds of funding a business are termed Series A, Series B (and so on) financing. The Series B round will generally take place when the company has accomplished certain milestones in developing its business.
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According to a recent discussion by Baschieri on Friday at Six, a monthly talk show about start-ups in Berlin which broadcasts interviews with entrepreneurs and company founders: http://fridayatsix.com/
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Mahroum, S. (2016). SoundCloud in Berlin, Sharing the Vibe. In: Black Swan Start-ups. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57727-6_4
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