SoundCloud announced today it has appointed Merritt Farren as its new General Counsel. Farren’s appointment succeeds former General Counsel Neil Miller, who left the company earlier this year after six years in the role, for a position at JAG Shaw Baker.
As General Counsel, Farren is responsible for shaping and defining SoundCloud’s legal affairs and public policy strategy, in addition to leading its team of legal experts across the areas of data protection and privacy, commercial contracts, music rights, copyright issues and corporate matters. Based in Berlin, Farren reports to co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Alex Ljung.
“Merritt’s vast experience guiding the complexities in both large and growth-oriented companies will be instrumental in helping us seize strategic opportunities and advocate on issues most important to the SoundCloud community,” said Alex Ljung, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, SoundCloud. “It’s an exciting time at SoundCloud as our business rapidly evolves and continues to grows. I’m thrilled to have Merritt’s proven leadership and legal acumen in place to lead us into our next chapter.”
Prior to SoundCloud, Farren was Chief Legal Officer at Amazon’s Audible.com. Before joining the Audible team, he was Associate General Counsel, Digital Media and New Technologies at Amazon.com where he helped Amazon launch digital video, digital music, eBooks and Kindle. Farren’s diverse background also included roles at educational internet company Lightspan, Sony Pictures, Paris law firm Duclos, Thorne and The Walt Disney Company where, among other things, he lead the legal effort on the launch of Disney Interactive.