“The person who saw the future of music and steered the industry” | Mike Weissman, CEO SoundCloud

Searching for Mana with Lloyd Wahed

Mike Weissman, CEO of music and tech giant SoundCloud needs no introduction.

Leading one of the most prominent and well-known consumer tech companies on the planet, SoundCloud sits at the forefront of innovation within the music industry. Empowering the next generation of artists to launch their tracks and musical career, SoundCloud is connecting communities of fans and artists to transact directly.

Lloyd and Mike walk us through the technology underpinning SoundCloud’s success, their culture that brings musical creativity into a technology company, kickstarting the careers of the likes of Post Malone and Billie Eilish, and what the future of the industry might look like.

With an acute fascination in music, going from aspiring guitar player to band manager, at a young age, Mike combines a close personal passion for music, with business acumen developed in his early career working on Wall Street.

Whilst many of his cohort from Wharton pursued careers in finance, Mike went against the grain to follow this interest, serendipitously landing himself into this world, and working at iconic names including the likes of Vimeo, Viacom and Universal Music.

A truly brilliant episode to get into the mindset of someone driving innovation within the music industry, and leading the platform where the next generation of musical talent starts.

[ 0:00 - 5:41 ] SoundCloud, and enabling fans and artists to interact

[ 5:42 - 9:08 ] Post Malone, Billie Eilish and Lloyd & The Mana-ites

[ 9:08 - 12:33 ] Helping artists to launch a career, building communities and creating genres

[ 12:34 - 15:35 ] Size & scale of SoundCloud

[ 15:36 - 20:37 ] Building and evolving SoundCloud’s culture

[ 20:38 - 24:48 ] Communities, Web3 and NFTs

[ 24:49 - 28:39 ] Quick-fire round, Mike’s Mana and steering the future of music

[ 28:40 - 31:48 ] Reading 2 hours a day and building habits

[ 31:49 - 36:38 ] Mike’s background and formative interest in music

[ 36:39 - 40:29 ] Serendipity and starting a career in music

[ 40:30 - 45:01 ] Mike the Marathon Runner, Cable TV & Mike’s journey to SoundCloud

[ 45:02 - 49:50 ] Predicting the Future of Music