Some of SoundCloud’s offices had catered lunches twice a week and had lavishly stocked kitchens and bathrooms, according to a source. When team members joined, they were given company swag, headphones and brand new Apple laptops. Employees were confused how the company was “blowing through money, but now is saying they don’t have any money. People would have made sacrifices, to be honest. It’s a fun company to work at, but there was no indication . ”A core question from staff during the all-hands was why there wasn’t transparency into the finances or a strict hiring freeze. The message from management was that a hiring freeze would show weakness and lead to people asking questions. That wasn’t satisfying when the company ended up shedding almost half its staff.Focusing on independent creators, not beating SpotifyIt’s been almost three years since SoundCloud updated its user stats, though it still touts that 175 million people listen every monthreenex facial. Yet some analysts believe it to have sunk to as low as 70 million. The company hasn’t given employees any updates on the stats, either, with one telling TechCrunch “I think no one within SoundCloud believes the user number. I think they’ve been going down for a while now.”Growth of SoundCloud’s subscription services also hasn’t been worth announcing, but the company plans to change its focus.SoundCloud has a free tier with ad-supported access to 120 million songs, largely from lower-quality independent artists. Its $4.99 per month SoundCloud Go subscription removes the ads and offers offline listening. And its $9.99 per month SoundCloud Go+ tier adds access to 30 million premium songs from big-name artists like what you’d find on Spotify or Apple Music.In the all-hands, both sources say Ljung discussed SoundCloud getting back to its roots by prioritizing its open creator platform and the mid-tier Go subscription plan, rather than focusing on Go+ and the mainstream music of major record labels .