Given Apple’s resources and their industry connections, thanks to the hiring of music industry veterans Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, it is understandable that other streaming platforms would have a hard time landing exclusives that would set them apart from the competition. This means that in order to compete, they will need to start exploring alternatives.
In Spotify’s case, that alternative could be in the form of SoundCloud. According to a report from the Financial Times (paywall; via Engadget), word on the street is that Spotify is currently in “advanced” talks to buy SoundCloud. Apparently SoundCloud has been shopping about for a buyer in recent times, and it looks like Spotify could be it, although both companies have yet to officially comment on the matter.
We’re not sure what Spotify will want with SoundCloud, especially since the latter platform is less about on-demand music streaming and seems to play home to a lot of indie musicians, as well as a lot of unofficial song mashups and remixes. SoundCloud has attempted a paid service with SoundCloud Go, but clearly that hasn’t taken off in the way they imagined.
That being said, they’re both music related so maybe Spotify has plans for SoundCloud that we didn’t think of. No word on when the buyout will be announced, but we’ll keep an eye out for it all the same.
Filed in . Read more about Music, Soundcloud and Spotify.