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Show HN: Music sharing site that allows listeners to support artists

soundrat.com

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Re: Show HN: Music sharing site that allows listeners to support artists

#21

Post by mcrwfrd »

> Listen to your favorite music for free on any device.

Do you plan on adding a paywall when a listener has heard a song a certain amount? I’m a huge fan of Bandcamp, and I love that I hit a paywall when I’ve heard an album a certain number of times. Reminds me that there’s an artist behind the music and that I obviously like the album enough to buy it. Often I’ll buy the album on Bandcamp but then find it on my streaming service and listen to it there (easier for adding to playlists, etc).

Re: Show HN: Music sharing site that allows listeners to support artists

#22

Post by dubme1 »

_bohm wrote: post #20

How does this differ from SoundCloud's newly added feature to support artists directly?

SoundCloud has a great discover feature and I used to use it a lot. However, recently as a listener I find it unusable with all the constant audio advertisement I get. On SoundRat there are no advertisement.

The newly added support button on SoundCloud is just a PayPal button as far as I know and does not integrate within the platform. I want to integrate the support feature as a core part of SoundRat and let supporters stand out as loyal fans. Lastly, I have been working on this before SoundCloud announced their support button ;)

Re: Show HN: Music sharing site that allows listeners to support artists

#23

Post by dubme1 »

mcrwfrd wrote: post #21

> Listen to your favorite music for free on any device. Do you plan on adding a paywall when a listener has heard a song a certain amount? I’m a huge fan of Bandcamp, and I love that I hit a paywall when I’ve heard an album a certain number of times. Reminds me that there’s an artist behind the music and that I obviously like the album enough to buy it. Often I’ll buy the album on Bandcamp but then find it on my stre…

One of my core points is that listeners can enjoy the music for free and without requiring to sign up for something. I do not see myself enforcing a paywall after a certain number of plays on a song or album.

However, I could see adding a notification or achievement after listening to an artists music a lot. This way we could remind the user to support the artists work.

Re: Show HN: Music sharing site that allows listeners to support artists

#24

Post by have_faith »

lucideer wrote: post #18
dubme1 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your feedback. I believe 6% is lower than selling on iTunes, Bandcamp and co. With this number I do not think I can run this (any time soon) as a full time business but that is not my goal right now. I hope to use this percentage to cover some or all of the costs. I did this for fun and for my interest in listening and discovering small artists.

> I hope to use this percentage to cover some or all of the costs. I don't think the commenter above was trying to make out that 6% is not fair, just that they'd like to see the breakdown of this percentage covering some or all of the costs. iTunes, Bandcamp and co. might not offer that breakdown, so you're definitely not worse, but it would be a really nice differentiator.

I disagree about the breakdown. I think the vast majority of people are going to go with their gut feel in whether or not the cut sounds reasonable. Reasonable and fair being the goal but evaluation of what is reason and fair from consumers is almost always subjective. The breakdown is going to change when features of the service change, maybe quality is upped and costs rise or a host of other things change. I think from a marketing perspective "this is less than anyone else takes and it allows us to provide the service" is enough.

Re: Show HN: Music sharing site that allows listeners to support artists

#25

Post by DHPersonal »

dubme1 wrote: post #10
the-dude wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who are your competitors?

Definitely Bandcamp. I have used it a lot to support artists I like. However, the way I use Bandcamp I never think of it as a music streaming site. I usually download my songs and listen to it offline. On SoundRat I support continuous music streaming while browsing the site with the music player in the footer. I also would like to experiment with some new ways for artists to connect with their supporters that is not…

Comments on songs are not currently supported by Bandcamp, but I think their implementation of comments make sense: users can recommend songs at the album level rather than per song, so that all rave and rants about a particular album's contents can be found together rather than pieced apart in each song's download page. SoundCloud chose to go to an even more granular level and allow comments to be placed within a track's duration, and then also comments below each track. Both are interesting methods of offering a community.

Another form of community-building is what Beatport did, which encouraged remixes by offering stems and integrating with software that the artists used.

Another indie music site is good news; I remember fondly finding some good music on Amie Street before Amazon gobbled them up.

Re: Show HN: Music sharing site that allows listeners to support artists

#26

Post by deeblering4 »

truckerbill wrote: post #13

Maybe you think it's a bit too late to change it but: I'm not sure about the name! Rats don't have a great connotation with most people. Even SoundMouse is a bit friendlier.

Came here to say this as well. Have a look through the link below and see if any definitions accurately describe your service:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rat

Re: Show HN: Music sharing site that allows listeners to support artists

#27

Post by deeblering4 »

rayuela wrote: post #16

This is terrible branding. At first I thought it was called soundART, which would be a million times better. Hell, I'm pretty sure you could get away with switching those two letters and nobody would notice. Rebrand ASAP! How many artist are really going to want their own personal brand to be associated with the term rat?

Exactly, who trusts a rat?

Re: Show HN: Music sharing site that allows listeners to support artists

#28

Post by pierrec »

_bohm wrote: post #20

How does this differ from SoundCloud's newly added feature to support artists directly?

This is actually the perfect time to launch a competitor, since SoundCloud recently announced it is no longer free for artists. You now need to pay if you want to publish more than 15 tracks. I would link to a public announcement but I don't think they made any, they just emailed artists directly.

https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/comments/e51gwn...

Re: Show HN: Music sharing site that allows listeners to support artists

#29

Post by dublinben »

dubme1 wrote: post #10
the-dude wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who are your competitors?

Definitely Bandcamp. I have used it a lot to support artists I like. However, the way I use Bandcamp I never think of it as a music streaming site. I usually download my songs and listen to it offline. On SoundRat I support continuous music streaming while browsing the site with the music player in the footer. I also would like to experiment with some new ways for artists to connect with their supporters that is not…

I would encourage you to check out the Bandcamp mobile apps. They allow the exact functionality you describe, of "continuous music streaming while browsing." You may be focusing on users like yourself who primarily interact with a desktop website, and download purchased music to a computer. I would urge you to consider the mobile-first use case, as this is how the trend in the market is going.

Re: Show HN: Music sharing site that allows listeners to support artists

#30

Post by mcrwfrd »

dubme1 wrote: post #23
mcrwfrd wrote: post #21

> Listen to your favorite music for free on any device. Do you plan on adding a paywall when a listener has heard a song a certain amount? I’m a huge fan of Bandcamp, and I love that I hit a paywall when I’ve heard an album a certain number of times. Reminds me that there’s an artist behind the music and that I obviously like the album enough to buy it. Often I’ll buy the album on Bandcamp but then find it on my stre…

One of my core points is that listeners can enjoy the music for free and without requiring to sign up for something. I do not see myself enforcing a paywall after a certain number of plays on a song or album. However, I could see adding a notification or achievement after listening to an artists music a lot. This way we could remind the user to support the artists work.

A notification seems like it would be a great idea. Users could ignore it and carry on with with the free listening premise. But the very existence of the platform seems to be based on the fact that listeners will choose to support artists, so a notification to support will probably appreciated and heeded by listeners.
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