Streaming giant now valued at $700 million.

Yesterday The Wall Street Journal reported that Soundcloud had closed another round of funding for $60 million, valuating the streaming platform at $700 million.

With similarities between YouTube and Soundcloud being brought up, Re/Code reports that the company is apparently in discussion with big labels to strike a deal allowing it to license their songs. It should be noted there are no apparent sources for these allegations, yet.

What this exactly means is unclear for now, however one possibility is that Soundcloud could start bringing in the sort of advertising attached to music as seen on YouTube. Currently copyrighted material cannot be uploaded on Soundcloud, unless you can prove rightful use.

For a while now Soundcloud has been in somewhat of a grey legal area, with many independent labels complaining that they are abusing their position by profiting from the material uploaded to the site without paying anything to those who provide it.

Considering the criticisms being levelled at Spotify and other on-demand services for similar reasons, it’s something which Soundcloud will no doubt have to deal with now that their new value is public. Whether or not their moves to license music will in effect allow them to pay smaller labels and artists remains to be seen.