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Soundtrap, the cloud-based music production platform, will become an independent company again after Spotify revealed plans to sell the business back to its founders nearly six years after its acquisition.
The streaming giant acquired Stockholm-based Soundtrap from founders Per Emanuelsson, Björn Melinder, Gabriel Sjöberg and Fredrik Posse in November 2017.
Specific financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but Swedish tech news outlet break it At the time, the deal was reported to be worth at least $30 million.
That estimate is based on Soundtrap’s significant rise in value since it raised $6 million in a Series A funding round in 2016 and was valued at $25 million at the time.
At the time, Spotify said of the startup acquisition, “Soundtrap’s fast-growing business is very much in line with Spotify’s vision of democratizing the music ecosystem.”
Sweden-based Soundtrap has operated as a standalone app since its acquisition by Spotify. In August 2022, the app will begin offering live collaboration and autosave tools as a new test feature, allowing artists to work on their projects in real-time from a variety of devices.
In May 2019, it followed the release of other features to grow its user base, including the rollout of a podcast recording, editing, and publishing tool called Soundtrap for Storytellers.
“Together with Soundtrap co-founder Björn Melinder, we have made the decision to acquire the company from Spotify and return to independent operations.”
According to Emanuelson, Soundtrap
News of Soundtrap sale reported by Swedish press industry today On Friday (June 9), Spotify announced that about 100 current employees will be offered to work at the newly independent Soundtrap.
Soundtrap’s decision to sell suggests that Spotify’s strategic focus has shifted away from music production.
In late 2021, Spotify sold music marketplace Soundbetter to its founders, just two years after the streaming giant acquired the company.
“Soundtrap was built to provide the best collaboration platform for making music online.With Soundtrap co-founder Björn Melinder, we acquired the company from Spotify and will operate independently. I have decided to return to ,” Per Emanuelsson told Music Ally on Friday.
“Over the past five years, we have greatly benefited from Spotify’s expertise and global reach, which has allowed us to rapidly expand our service and launch new products. We thank Spotify for putting us on board and are very excited about the future.”
Charlie Hellman, vice president and global head of music products at Spotify, said Spotify is “proud of what we have achieved together and look forward to working with Soundtrap in the next few years. I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
According to a study released in February, Soundtrap was used by more than 10 million people between its launch in 2011 and January 2021.
The decision to sell Soundtrap comes as the company reorganizes its podcast division.
Last week, Spotify’s vice president and head of podcast operations, Sahar Elhabashi, announced that Spotify would cut 200 jobs in its podcast division, about 2% of its total workforce.
Elhabasi said the job cuts were part of a broader effort to move to the “next phase of our podcast strategy” to “maximize consumption from the massive audience we’ve established through format innovation and create more opportunities in more places.” It starts with many creators achieving success.” ” includes “introducing more business models to help more creators earn meaningful income from their work.”
global music business
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