UPDATE: WeTransfer aren’t trying to compete with Spotify and SoundCloud.
In a new statement, WeTransfer explained their new services a bit more and made clear that they’re not trying to compete with services like Spotify or SoundCloud, rather they’re trying to make something that complements those services to the benefit of the artists. Read it below in full.
For years, WeTransfer has partnered with major, as well as up-and-coming musicians and labels, to feature exclusive, downloadable content on WeTransfer.com. The music-streaming solution provides another distribution option to music creators.
To be clear, WeTransfer’s new music streaming-solution is not a direct competitor of Soundcloud, Spotify or other music-streaming platforms. Those are dedicated players. The streaming solution is very different and is primarily a marketing channel for the creator. With this player, artists get a focused campaign to deliver their content to our massive audience. It is more of a complement to their activities on Spotify or Soundcloud.
What makes WeTransfer different, though, is the ability to deliver both sound and sight for the artist to promote their work. Full-page customizable wallpapers featuring artist images or album covers can accompany a song or album on the streaming player, providing a high-end, fully realized music experience to a global group of more than 85 million creative tastemakers per month.
WeTransfer serves music creatives in two ways. First, artists and producers are very active on WeTransfer.com, using the service to share their work and collaborate on projects with other music creators. This – file-transfers – is our core business. We unveiled a demo of the service at SMASHD Labs Demo Day in LA, this past Wednesday. It will not be widely available to partners until Q1 of 2016. However, we are already in conversations with previous and potential partners about promoting their content through the service, at that time. Custom-made, high-quality wallpapers featuring streamed content are still available to partners and will still be an option even when the music-streaming solution is launched.
Secondly, though, given its scale and audience, WeTransfer has evolved to become a powerful distribution channel for music creators. With customizable wallpapers that can feature artist images or album covers, it provides a high-end music-sharing experience to truly promote content to a global group of more than 85 million creative tastemakers and influencers per month.
On top of that, the streaming-music solution is a free service for the artist. In fact, WeTransfer gives away one-third of its 900 million monthly page views to promote creative projects, including music, for free.
The company is looking to build its profile with exclusive content from big name artists.
File transfer service WeTransfer is launching a streaming music and video player next week.
As Bloomberg reports, the company doesn’t intend to make any money from the music it streams, instead using the player to land exclusives and previews from big name artists to compete with services like Spotify, SoundCloud and Vevo. Prince, Big Grams and Disclosure have already released songs and videos using the service.
“We’re using music to put us on the map,” WeTransfer marketing executive Maarten Kadiks told Bloomberg. “Six years ago we started out in Europe, and that is where we see the biggest amount of users. The U.S. is taking over in terms of growth.”
WeTransfer is also using the strategy to help itself stand out from file storage services like Dropbox, and has reportedly contacted representatives for Justin Bieber, Pharrell and Madonna about using the platform to promote and preview forthcoming projects.
“The service can become one of the most popular, alternative digital distribution channels for music content,” Kadiks believes. “Musicians we’re having conversations with understand the value of connecting with our audience of creative tastemakers.”
The company was founded in 2009. It serves 85 million users a month and was recently valued at $100 million.
