SoundCloud, ahead of its long anticipated launch of a subscription business, is tapping Alison Moore as its chief revenue officer.
Moore is an executive known for helping run the digital-video services of NBCUniversal and HBO that required people to pay.
SoundCloud, a popular site of user-uploaded music sometimes referred to as the “YouTube of audio,” is facing a turning point this year, aiming to leverage its heavy traffic into a subscription business.
Moore will be responsible for overseeing the consumer subscription products and marketing, as well as ad strategy, sales and products for both US and global markets. The company called it a “critical role” as it expands. She brings expertise from television digital-video efforts like NBCUniversal’s TV Everywhere products and HBO’s digital properties, such as HBO Go. She will report to cofounder and CEO Alexander Ljung and be based in New York.
The company attracts some of the greatest numbers of music listeners online — its 175 million monthly listeners trounce the 81 million active listeners who tune into online radio provider Pandora and the 75 million using streaming-music service Spotify as of last year.
But SoundCloud has struggled to turn its popularity into a feasible business model, having rankled the music industry in the past for a reputation about being cavalier about royalties. Now with deals in place with two of the major music labels, SoundCloud is working to amp up its advertising efforts and introduces subscription services in the U.S. and other markets later this year.
Ljung touted her understanding of SoundCloud’s business and the content and entertainment industries, in a statement announcing her her.
Previously, Moore was a general manager and executive vice president for TV Everywhere at Comcast’s NBC Universal, responsible for driving the TVE business across across the conglomerates portfolio. Before that, she was general manager of digital women’s lifestyle brand DailyCandy and senior vice president of digital products at HBO, where she oversaw consumer experience, operations and audience development for the network’s HBO GO app.