Rumors have been swirling around music hosting service SoundCloud for weeks now, ever since the company announced a heavy load of layoffs that slashed its workforce nearly in half. Yesterday, the company was forced to combat rumors and reports that its operating capital was running low (which, true or not, will likely be damaging to its reputation going forward). Luckily for the company, though, it still has a champion in its corner: Chance The Rapper.
The rapper, philanthropist, Emmy nominee, and general get-shit-done-er tweeted yesterday that he was “working on the SoundCloud thing.” Today, he informed his legion of fans that he’d just had “a very fruitful call” with company co-founder Alex Ljung, declaring that “SoundCloud is here to stay.”
It’s not clear what Chance and Ljung talked about, or what the rapper is basing his confidence on. He’s been a vocal supporter of the service for years, crediting it with helping himself, and artists like him, spread their music without help from labels or massive corporations. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of the possible to think that Chance—who recently gave millions to Chicago-area schools—might have offered the company money to keep it afloat, but it seems just as likely that he’s engaging in a public relations campaign to remind internet denizens of its benefits, and assure them that SoundCloud is still a safe place for their music to live.
UPDATE: Putting his music where his mouth is, Pitchfork reports that Chance followed up his comments by dropping a new collaboration with Young Thug on SoundCloud this afternoon. You can listen to “Big B’s” right here: