Streaming music platform SoundCloud is hiring its first ever chief revenue officer.
The Berlin-based company announced Monday that Alison Moore, who has headed NBC’s streaming business for two years, is joining the company in the newly created position. Moore will be responsible for overseeing upcoming consumer subscription products, marketing and ad strategy for U.S. and global markets.
Given SoundCloud’s less-than-stellar financial picture, the move isn’t a total surprise. The company’s latest filing shows it lost 39.14 million euros (U.S. $43 million) on revenues of just 17.35 million euros ($19 million) in 2014.
From 2012 to 2014, SoundCloud lost $82 million and brought in just $41 million in income. Administrative costs grew 68% to $52.3 million.
SoundCloud, which launched in 2007, has been the destination for underground DJs and artists to share their music for free, and these expenses are generally typical for a startup in growth mode. It has struggled to extract solid revenue from its large user base. For example, 7-year-old check-in platform Foursquare has yet to achieve profitability.
SoundCloud is pushing out a paid subscriber model for users later this year, and Moore will be responsible for its development.
“This new role represents a rare opportunity to grow a vibrant and diverse business platform creating exciting new consumer offerings that amplify SoundCloud’s huge community of creators and brings to light an unrivaled catalog of music and audio,” Moore says in a statement.
Among her recent accomplishments, Moore built and launched the apps of 17 NBC brands across over-the-top platforms like AppleTV, Roku and Xbox. “Alison has an understanding of both the complexities of SoundCloud’s business, and the content and entertainment industries, having spent the majority of her career building businesses, products and experiences that deepen consumer engagement with extraordinary content,” SoundCloud CEO Alex Ljung said.
According to the company, Moore will be capitalizing on its user base to “drive revenue growth by consumer subscriptions and a diversified advertising product offering.”
Moore was most recently the executive vice president of TV Everywhere, NBC’s big streaming push. She assumed this role after NBC’s DailyCandy was shuttered in 2014. Before that she was senior vice president of digital products and brand strategy at HBO.
Her primary focus has been user experience and digital marketing strategy. With a platform of 175 million monthly listeners, SoundCloud has the audience, but the big question is will indie artists and listeners stick around if they have to pay? (Spotify Premium charges $10 a month and has 20 million users while Tidal costs $9.99 or $19.99 a month and has 1 million users.
Atlanta-based R&B musician Renee Gardner says yes. She upgraded her account to Pro unlimited last month after using the platform for two years. She had used up all of her free space (SoundCloud allows artists to upload up to three hours of content for free) so she opted for unlimited posts. This membership costs 100 euros (about $110) a year, and provides stats like how many people are listening to which tracks.
“It’s one of the best and easiest streaming platforms that anyone can access. People don’t like to download a lot of things,” says Gardner.
Ljung is hoping Moore will catapult SoundCloud from a mission of shareability into profitability. “We’re thrilled to have Alison heading up what will become a monetization engine of global scale,” he says.
With a crowded music streaming field including the likes of Tidal, Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora, Moore certainly has her work cut out for her.