SoundCloud lays off 40% of its staff and closes two of its offices

Over the past decade, SoundCloud has helped countless musicians to showcase their work and make a name for themselves, and has been hailed as an internet startup success story. However, despite doubling its revenue over the past 12 months, the company has now been forced to cut costs, and is slashing its workforce by 40% and closing its London and San Francisco offices accordingly.

“With more focus and a need to think about the long term, comes tough decisions,” wrote SoundCloud co-founder Alex Ljung on the company’s blog. “Today, after careful and painful consideration, we took the difficult step to let go of 173 SoundCloud staffers and consolidated the team into two offices: Berlin and New York. We are extremely grateful for the contributions of each and every staff member who will be leaving SoundCloud, and we wish all of them the best. Without them, we would not be where we are today.

“By reducing our costs and continuing our revenue growth, we’re on our path to profitability and in control of SoundCloud’s independent future.”

Ljung says that SoundCloud will continue to operate as before and will reveal more about its future  plans in the coming weeks and months.