Lauren Wirtzer-Seawood has stepped down as Director of Marketing & Content at sound cloudmoderator confirmed with MBW.
Wirtzer-Seawood joins SoundCloud in June 2021was hired by then-CEO, Michael Weismann.
Prior to joining SoundCloud, she was the President of a well-funded service and distribution company, UnitedMasters, where she worked for two years.
Before joining UnitedMasters, she was Head of Music Collaboration at Instagram (from 2015 to 2019) and held roles at companies including Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment and video game company Zynga.
At New York-based SoundCloud, Wirtzer-Seawood is considered one of the company’s most influential executives working under Eliah Setonwho is promoted from Chairman to CEO company in March.
Wirtzer-Seawood told MBW: “Finally, I’ve arrived [SoundCloud] to help transform the company and set it on the path to success.
“After nearly two years of building the team, process, and priorities — and hiring some really brilliant people — it’s time to move on. I firmly believe that Eliah, the executive team and the board will bring great success to SoundCloud in the very near future.”
A source at SoundCloud told MBW: “Lauren came to SoundCloud to help grow/transition from an open audio platform into a music community.
“Now that the company is firmly on that path and she’s hired an incredible team to take it into the future, she decided it was the right time to leave.”
“After nearly two years of building the team, processes and priorities – and hiring some really brilliant people – it’s time to move on.”
Lauren Wirtzer-Seawood, SoundCloud
Last week, SoundCloud announced that they’ve hit a new step. contract of transfer of the right to use with indie bands, Merlin.
This agreement gives some of the world’s largest independent record labels and their artists the opportunity to earn royalties from SoundCloud through a “fan-powered royalties” (FPR, aka the user-centric model) of the platform.
Elijah Seton, CEO of SoundCloud, said at the time: “At SoundCloud, we are committed to putting artists first. The FPR model makes streaming royalties more equitable, helps artists benefit directly from their fans, and opens the door to more meaningful fan-artist connections.
“I am delighted that Merlin’s extraordinary community of independent labels and distributors, as well as their artists, will now benefit.”
The “fan-powered” model has been turned on MBW lips last weekfollowing news that the AI music creation engine, Boomy, appeared to have been used by streaming scammers to create tracks that were then uploaded to Spotify and played through streaming farms.
Proponents of the latter say, the shift away from the dominant “proportional” online payment model and towards “fan-powered,” which would nullify most of the brand incentives. Current trade promotes streaming fraud.
SoundCloud today (May 8) announced latest improvement: the ‘Fans’ tool allows artists to directly message their die-hard fans on the platform.
In February 2023, SoundCloud extend operates its artist services business globally by entering into a joint venture with Jax Jones and Dan Stacey’s UK-based, dance-specialized record label, WUGD (What You Gonna Do) Ltd. .
That builds on an artist-signing joint venture with Solid Foundation, the creative services and management arm of QC Media Holdings.Global Music Business
