Micro blogging platform Twitter Inc has been in talks with Berlin-based audio sharing website SoundCloud in its efforts to add a music service to its offering; the Financial Times reported citing people familiar with the matter.
Twitter has weighed up deals worth billions of dollars and has also considered buying music-streaming service Spotify and internet-radio provider Pandora Media Inc, the newspaper.
Soundcloud has aggressively expanded its capabilities to carry multimedia content. Last year, it acquired “We Are Hunted,” a three-person music streaming-start-up from Australia. It creates a path to facilitate people to upload, record, promote and share their music and other audio files.
Twitter’s plans to acquire Soundcloud were abandoned after internal disagreements over the profitability of audio advertising and concerns over copyright problems.
Twitter has been one of the most acquisitive technology companies, snapping up start-ups ranging from Vine, the six-second video clip service, to analytics companies that can enhance its offering to advertisers. Most recently, the company bought Grip, a provider of social data, for an undisclosed sum.
But analysts have noted that Twitter does not have large sums of cash with which to buy a music service. It raised $2.1bn in its initial public offering last year and has secured a $1bn credit line, but remains unprofitable.
