Video Of The Week: Peter Kafka Interview of Kerry Trainor, SoundCloud CEO

At the Code Media conference a few months, Peter Kafka interviewed Kerry Trainor, CEO of our portfolio company SoundCloud.

It’s a great conversation about the past and future of SoundCloud and also the past and future of the music business.

#Music#Web/Tech

Comments (Archived):

  1. jason wright

    how much input do you have in the appointment of a new CEO? from 7:00, what are “statutory rates”, anyone? i wonder how many grassroots hardcore users would be put off soundcloud if they were to watch this interview? a decentralised platform (if the model can be perfected) would have a great chance.

    1. fredwilson

      Statutory rates are the rates Congress requires internet radio (not on demand) services to pay to publishers and labels

      1. jason wright

        thanks. is that unique to the music industry? i’m surprised that this sort of thing goes on in ‘free market’ America. the music industry must be a very powerful lobby indeed.

    2. Kassy Ruimy

      that’s what Choon is doing – they built a decentralized platform that removes the need for labels and other intermediaries. really interesting model that actually allows artists to make money and the platform to be profitable

      1. jason wright

        I’l check it out 🙂

  2. Salt Shaker

    Great conversation. Consolidation is inevitable. How can these independent companies compete w/ AMZN Prime’s rich ecosystem, for example, at a comparable annual cost? Yes, SoundCloud has a point-of-diff versus other streaming music services w/ its original content, mashups and other derivatives, but that may not be significant enough for this dog to hunt economically. I’d also be scared of any company banking on an ad rev model, unless your name is fb, Goog or AMZN. I can easily envision consolidation w/ streaming video and audio services joining forces to enhance their value prop, rather than the pursuit of independent verticals. Netflix acquiring Spotify, Hulu merging w/ SoundCloud, AT&T acquiring Pandora, etc., or any combination of the above. As a stand-alone, I’m not buying. Just not enough meat on the bone relative to other integrated, sub opportunities.