Mixcloud reveals brand consultancy arm LOUD

Audio streaming platform Mixcloud welcomes 2020 by announcing the launch of its in-house brand consultancy LOUD, under the leadership of founding partners Kazim Rashid and Ben Lawrence.

LOUD further diversifies the audio streaming platform's revenue mix, following 2019’s roll out of Mixcloud Select, a new fan-to-creator subscription model. Mixcloud is pioneering a reorganisation of its business model to monetize sustainably across listeners, creators and brands. With LOUD, the London-based company adds a unique and powerful offering for world-leading brands, further diversifying their positioning across technology, music and culture.
ABOUT LOUD

Mixcloud created LOUD to help brand partners achieve cultural resonance. Founding clients include world-leading brands such as adidas, Dr. Martens, Shure, Red Bull and W Hotels.

Mixcloud exists as a global community of culture creators and fans that is tens of millions strong. It is a home for people leading culture in cities across the world to attract loyal and deeply engaged listening audiences. Mixcloud’s community is the substratum that powers the ability for LOUD to learn, plan and execute across different cultures, cities and countries.

Founding partner Kazim Rashid is a celebrated visual artist, who joined Mixcloud following stints at record label Warp (Head of UK Marketing), brand strategy agency Protein (Creative Director) and VICE’s advertising agency VIRTUE. He continues to work as an artist manager and consultant for Grammy winning and underground musicians. Ben Lawrence assumes the founding partner role at LOUD following 9 years at Mixcloud as Head of Brand Partnerships.
Joining the LOUD leadership team are Rozi Rexhepi, Cathy Tennant, Holly Gilbertson and Joseph Strinati, who bring a wealth of experience across branding, sales, strategy and production. The consultancy operates as an integral and collaborative arm to the wider Mixcloud team from their headquarters in East London.

THE LOUD OFFERING

LOUD’s multidisciplinary team is uniquely positioned to help global brands resonate in culture through provocative intelligence, strategy and creative solutions. The consultancy offering has four parts: intelligence, strategy, creative and communication.

● INTELLIGENCE: running bespoke research and insight processes to deliver a leading understanding of culture and tools for decision-making.
● STRATEGY: writing strategic and creative solutions to address key business objectives to create meaningful and compelling cultural propositions.
● CREATION: creating disruptive content and experiential platforms that scale globally and deliver real cultural value.
● COMMUNICATION: leaning on Mixcloud’s network and collaborating with media teams to ensure that solutions are communicated effectively, measuring changes in awareness, sentiment and behaviour.

Kazim Rashid, co-founder of LOUD says; “for the past two years, we’ve been incubating LOUD and working with some of our favourite brands, so it’s nice to finally announce this to the world. Mixcloud has spent the last decade carving out its business model across music, advertising and culture, and LOUD now presents the perfect opportunity to channel this diversity of experience. I strongly believe in putting culture first. We deliver an uncompromising artist/culture-first approach to storytelling, activation and strategy. By doing so, we’re able to give our brand partners something truly unique – an experience that I hope comes with an extra dash of kindness and care.”

Ben Lawrence, co-founder of LOUD says; “It’s an honour to step forward as a founding partner of LOUD after leading brand partnerships at Mixcloud for the last decade. We’ve come a long way since operating as a bootstrapped startup out of a warehouse in North London. Yet we’ve never strayed from our vision as a business: amplifying culture and community. We’ve worked hard to build the team and knowledge that allow us to realise that vision in a completely new way through our work with brands. It’s exciting to finally unveil this to the wider industry.”