A new round of investment into SoundCloud is keeping the music streaming service going for the foreseeable future. As part of the deal, SoundCloud Chief Executive Officer and founder Alex Ljung will be stepping aside and former Vimeo head Kerry Trainor will be the new CEO. Another former exec from Vimeo, Mike Weissman, will be coming in to serve as SoundCloud's chief operating officer. Ljung will act as chairman and will stay on for the long term. His co-founder Eric Wahlforss will stay on with the company as chief product officer. The Raine Group, a boutique merchant bank, together with Singapore-based investment company Temasek, led the US$169.5 million investment to give SoundCloud the much-needed cash.
Trainor wants to put greater emphasis on developing tools for musicians and other creators, including a "more robust creative toolkit" for them via the Pro Unlimited subscription. The service is used by a lot of artists to do things like public collaborations, promote new songs, or get private feedback before a track is released to the world. Trainor claims this is what gives SoundCloud a unique brand in the digital music arena. He tells Billboard, "SoundCloud is the largest open audio platform in the world. Millions of creators choose these tools to share their work with the world—that will remain at the focus and center of the company."