Chance The Rapper Is Working To Save SoundCloud
Things aren’t looking good for SoundCloud. Last week, the company laid off 40% of its staff in an effort to stay afloat and remain independent, and earlier this week, reports emerged that even that probably won’t be enough to save the streaming service, and that it could be as little as 50 days until the company would have to declare bankruptcy.
But SoundCloud may have found a surprise benefactor in the form of Chance The Rapper, who owes his career in part to the easy access and community that SoundCloud provides. (Earlier this year, the rapper even invited only his most loyal SoundCloud followers to his carnival-esque Magnificent Coloring World event.)
Yesterday, Chance tweeted out that he was “working on the SoundCloud thing” and today he followed that up with news that he had “a very fruitful call” with SC co-founder Alex Ljung and affirmed that “SoundCloud is here to stay.”
Just had a very fruitful call with Alex Ljung. @SoundCloud is here to stay.
— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 14, 2017
Then came word from SoundCloud itself that they weren’t “going anywhere.” Some tweets and an optimistic blog post from Ljung marked a stark contrast from the tone of the one announcing the recent mass layoffs.
*airhorn* Spread the word: your music isn’t going anywhere. Neither are we.
— SoundCloud (@SoundCloud) July 14, 2017
We’re gonna keep providing you with the tools to discover, share and connect.
— SoundCloud (@SoundCloud) July 14, 2017
“There’s an insane amount of noise about SoundCloud in the world right now. And it’s just that, noise. The music you love on SoundCloud isn’t going away, the music you shared or uploaded isn’t going away, because SoundCloud is not going away,” Ljung wrote in the post. “Not in 50 days, not in 80 days or anytime in the foreseeable future. Your music is safe.”
It’s unclear what, if any, arrangement that Chance The Rapper and SoundCloud came to, but it seems unlikely that one person (even Chance) could single-handedly bail out a tech company that’s hemorrhaging money. Then again, Chance is probably looking for a good PR opportunity after we all found out that he can’t handle negative press. Maybe they can work something out. Until more details emerge, we won’t know.