SoundCloud poaches Pandora, Facebook execs in Australia

SoundCloud has named Pandora exec Shaun Alexander and Marta Bonzanini, formerly of Facebook, as the first appointments to its advertising team in Australia.

Last year, the streaming service opened its platform to local advertisers in Australia after launching its premium offering, SoundCloud Go.

Alexander is Commercial Director of Australia New Zealand where he’s responsible for launching the commercial product into market.

He joins after four years at Pandora, where he was most recently Client Strategy Director, ANZ.

Prior to that Alexander was Interim Commercial Director after joining as Account Director in 2013.

Bonzanini has joined SoundCloud to lead the sales strategy and helm brand partnerships.

She spent seven years at Facebook, most recently as a Client Solutions Manager, working with brands including P&G, Nestle, Unilever and Coca-Cola.

SoundCloud International Vice President, Sonia Flynn, said: “We have a truly unique product which is a new and attractive environment for brands looking to connect with a switched-on audience, passionate about music and culture.

“Australia and New Zealand are key markets for us, and having someone with Shaun’s experience in place to lead the team will help us bring our ambitious goals to fruition.”

sonia flynn, soundcloud

“Australia and New Zealand are key markets for us, and having someone with Shaun’s experience in place to lead the team will help us bring our ambitious goals to fruition.”

Alexander added: “Marketers have clocked on to the fact that audio is an effective tool to engage with a generation of millennials who spend the majority of their day consuming audio with their headphones on.

“I’m excited to be on board and to build new partnerships, and introduce brands to Soundcloud’s unique offering.”

According to Comscore data, SoundCloud was the second biggest streaming service in Australia in December 2015 with 2.059m unique monthly visitors.

Spotify came first with 2.985m, with Pandora (976k), Tunein (484k) and iHeartRadio (468k) taking third, fourth and fifth place respectively.

Music Business Worldwide

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