Spotify No Longer in Talks to Buy SoundCloud

Back in September it looked like there was a good chance that Spotify would be buying SoundCloud. According to Sources at TechCrunch, Spotify has now backed out of discussions surrounding that potential deal.

According to the tech site’s source, buying Spotify would add a variety of licensing tasks–like negotiating with music labels–to their list of things to do in preparation for their potential IPO, so that’s apparently why they’re backing out. Although the folks at Spotify have yet to confirm that they’re going public, many have speculated that that’s something they could be looking to do in the new year.

SoundCloud has had an up and down 2016. Back in February, the folks at Music Ally reported that the company had suffered a loss of $70 million during the years of 2013 and 2014. SoundCloud attempted to raise their stock back in March when they launched Soundcloud Go, a premium version of their online streaming service. The select service costs $9.99 per month and gives the user offline streaming capabilities and ad-free listening.

Still, it’s unclear how much that’s helped the struggling streaming service. According to a report Bloomberg posted this past July, SoundCloud owners were looking to sell their site for $1 billion. It’s now unclear what, exactly, their next move will be, but we now know that Spotify definitely won’t be involved.

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