‘SOUND’ SPOTIFY MOVE

May acquire rival

Spotify is reportedly in “advanced talks” to buy rival music-streaming site SoundCloud as it looks to take itself public as soon as next year.

The acquisition by the Sweden-based Spotify could bolster its standing as the world’s biggest streaming service.

Earlier this month, Spotify said it had 40 million paying subscribers, up sharply from 30 million in March — and well ahead of the 17 million subscribers Apple Music had reported a week earlier.

As first reported by The Post, iHeartMedia also is launching a paid streaming service, fast on the heels of a new, $5-a-month option Pandora is unveiling.

The music-streaming sector could get further crowded by Amazon, which is rumored to be launching a stand-alone service of its own in early 2017 that could get paired with Echo, its sleeper-hit home speaker.

The reported deal talks between Spotify and SoundCloud, first reported by the Financial Times, follow reports earlier this week that SoundCloud has been looking to sell itself for north of $1 billion.

That would mark a healthy premium to the $700 million valuation Germany-based SoundCloud reportedly got in May when Twitter made a $70 million investment.

Other key investors in SoundCloud, who have poured nearly $230 million into the company since 2009, include media mogul Peter Chernin, venture firm Kleiner Perkins and Union Square Ventures.

Earlier this month, SoundCloud hired former Google exec Holly Lim as its first chief financial officer, stoking speculation that the company is looking to go public.

SoundCloud — especially popular with unsigned bands and musicians looking to promote themselves — boasts a worldwide user base of 175 million.

But a $9.99-a-month subscription service called SoundCloud Go has been off to a rocky start since its launch in March, plagued by complaints about its clunky user interface.

Financial filings earlier this year showed that SoundCloud lost $44.2 million in 2014 on revenue of $19.4 million. Spotify reportedly lost $194 million last year on revenue of $2 billion.