SoundCloud: A Case Study of a German Start-upIn 2007, founders Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss launched SoundCloud to meet their need for a simple music sharing platform. Inspired by other simplified media companies such as Twitter, Vimeo and Flickr, they felt that music had been left behind in this innovative move towards technology-assisted collaboration. As co-founder Alex Ljung explains, “It was really boring for us to collaborate with people on music – I mean simple collaboration, just sending tracks to other people in a private setting, get feedback from them and have a conversation about this piece of music. » (Van Buskirk). With this idea, they decided to create a space where people could share music and receive feedback in a way that is not offered by current music sharing sites. Now a global company with offices in Berlin, San Francisco, New York, London and Sofia, it has over 10 million registered users, with countless more directed to their site every day (SoundCloud). Beyond sharing music files, the company now has a mobile app and multiple tiers of profile options, from free user to professional artist. With constant updates and stylish design, SoundCloud has truly become one of the best websites for downloading, sharing and exploring music. SoundCloud Is Revolutionizing Music Sharing Ljung and Wahlforss weren't the first to create a music sharing website, nor to successfully start one, but they have proven to build on past companies in a way revolutionary. SoundCloud was founded in 2007 and became increasingly popular around 2009 (Robedhmed). Ten years earlier, in 1999, Napster became one of the first websites to design a peer-to-peer music file sharing platform, with a...... middle of paper...... "How SoundCloud Avoids Becoming the Next MySpace." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, August 10, 2012. Web. March 10, 2014. “SoundCloud Co-Founder Eric Wahlforss: “How We Built SoundCloud”.” European news on startups, entrepreneurship and innovation: Whiteboard. Np, nd Web. March 10, 2014. "SoundCloud » The Official SoundCloud Blog " SoundCloud. Np, nd Web. March 10, 2014. Van Buskirk, Eliot. "SoundCloud threatens MySpace as music destination for the Twitter era." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, July 6, 2009. Web. March 10. 2014. .