The insiders stress that the deals aren't set in stone, and there's good reason to be cautious when SoundCloud's Spotify negotiations reportedly fell apart. However, SoundCloud isn't exactly in a position to hold out for better deals given its trouble generating revenues.

The potential loss of control underscores SoundCloud's problems, and the challenges of the streaming music business as a whole. SoundCloud built its reputation on free DJ sets, podcasts and rough cuts, and it has regularly had trouble both monetizing those free offerings and developing a subscription service you'd actually want. At the same time, it also doesn't have a financial safety net to let it take risks like Apple or Google can. If a streaming service doesn't have the luxury of a bigger business to back it up (and isn't named Spotify), it faces an uphill battle -- it has to rack up market share while still turning a healthy profit.