SoundCloud unveils Australian sales team

Four months after launching its service in Australia, music platform and user-upload company Soundcloud has announced its local sales team.

Shaun Alexander is named Sydney-based Commercial Director for Australia/New Zealand and Marta Bonzanini will oversee the development of sales strategy and build partnerships, Mumbrella reported.

Alexander was Client Strategy Director AU and NZ for Pandora while Bonzanini was Client Solutions Manager across AU and NZ for social media giant Facebook.

Alexander said in a statement, “Marketers have clocked on to the fact that audio is an effective tool to engage with a generation of millennials who spend the majority of their day consuming audio with their headphones on.

“I’m excited to be on board and to build new partnerships, and introduce brands to Soundcloud’s unique offering.”

Image: Shaun Alexander

Last September, the Berlin-based SoundCloud launched its platform, Soundcloud Go, in Australia after entering the US, the UK, Ireland and France.

Soundcloud Go allows users to create playlists, follow artists and listen to music ad free. It also offered local advertising through programmatic while it assembled its Australasian sales team.

Programmatic ad buying makes it possible through automatic software for marketers to target users on the platform based on parameters like location, music listening habits and other demographics such as age.

Yesterday, SoundCloud announced it was introducing programmatic ad buying in the US where the sector is worth US$3.26 billion. Its partner in the venture is Triton Digital, an audio advertising platform which works with Pandora, Spotify and iHeartRadio.

It is most effective to reach younger consumers. SoundCloud says that the “Gen Z demographic” constitutes 75% of its audience. The US is SoundCloud’s biggest market, making up 75% of its 175 million users, or 131 million listeners.

Undertaking a targeted advertising approach is an important step step for the service. In 2015, the last year its financials were available, SoundCloud lost US$52 million on revenues of $22 million.

SoundCloud has not released details on the size of its Australian audience figures. But it stresses that Australia and New Zealand are key markets for the company moving forward.