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SoundCloud could be forced to close after $44m losses

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Re: SoundCloud could be forced to close after $44m losses

#241

Post by copperx »

jonknee wrote: post #135
strgrd wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are living in the age of data impermanence. There is no mechanism to archive all of the content we are generating efficiently. Soundcloud represents but one of the many websites whose content will be lost forever to the digital dark ages.

Data has never been more permanent than it is now, but we're also generating much more data than ever.

What are you talking about? Stone, paper, and magnetic tape are more permanent than any hard drive or optical storage medium today.

Re: SoundCloud could be forced to close after $44m losses

#242

Post by jonknee »

copperx wrote: post #241
jonknee wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Data has never been more permanent than it is now, but we're also generating much more data than ever.

What are you talking about? Stone, paper, and magnetic tape are more permanent than any hard drive or optical storage medium today.

Most things never made it to stone, paper and magnetic tape. We're recording more data now than ever before because it's so cheap to do so. Sure we lose some, but more information will be created and stored today than existed in the entire world not that long ago.

Re: SoundCloud could be forced to close after $44m losses

#244

Post by tripzilch »

cmyr wrote: post #103

Soundcloud is absolutely ubiquitous in the electronic music community. I was talking about this with a friend recently who is a programmer and a (relatively) well known composer, and she made the point that soundcloud actually represents a very important cultural document; there is tons of music that has been created in the past 5+ years that exists exclusively there, and it would be a tremendous cultural loss if it…

If I really like a track I hear on Soundcloud, I download it with youtube-dl.

Re: SoundCloud could be forced to close after $44m losses

#245

Post by mtalantikite »

killa_kyle wrote: post #115
mtalantikite wrote: post #89

Not being able to save tracks for offline use on mobile has been bothering me for a while. Maybe I'm an edge case, but I do a lot of listening while commuting, which means no Internet on the subway here in NYC. That means SoundCloud isn't even an option for me unless I'm at my desk. Also, I can't save a collection of favorite tracks in any meaningful way. I can favorite them, but they quickly get lost in the mobile U…

-Also, I can't save a collection of favorite tracks in any meaningful way. I can favorite them, but they quickly get lost in the mobile UI if I do too much of that. I end up relying on global search every time I want to revisit a song or artist. You can use playlists to save collections of tracks

Sure, but that's a workaround not a feature. I personally don't consume music in playlist format (on Spotify or wherever else). It forces me to still remember "oh yeah, playlist A has those few tracks from XYZ artist".

I'd prefer to have a screen that can sort my saved tracks in a meaningful way.

Re: SoundCloud could be forced to close after $44m losses

#246

Post by URSpider94 »

cJ0th wrote: post #209
URSpider94 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're taking a rather narrow view. soundcloud has become a storehouse not just for music, but for SOUND -- ambient environments, spoken word, audio diaries, etc. saying that anything of value is released on CD already would be like saying that the personal correspondence of Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, etc is worthless because we already have their published books. In this way, I think it's also unique vs. other m…

I was merely responding to GP who just mentioned music. And I think that most of what is released on soundcloud has no substance but that is fine. > saying that anything of value is released on CD already would be like saying that the personal correspondence of Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, etc is worthless because we already have their published books. No, not at all. What I meant to imply is that if something is of worth…

I get your point, and I think it's a reasonable point of view. I guess my belief is a little different -- I feel like people are fairly bad judges of what something is worth culturally. Sure, we get the high points right, but the Internet is chock full of stories of undiscovered genius that nearly ended up in the trash bin. See for example http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/02/18/found-at-auction-th...

Soundcloud contains an incredible collection of sound clips. If you take the virtual bulldozer to it, then you're just increasing the chance that something of value doesn't get copied over to archive.org or freesound.org, because the original owner isn't willing or able to do so.

Re: SoundCloud could be forced to close after $44m losses

#248

Post by floatrock »

erickhill wrote: post #216
jlarocco wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I don't think the solution even requires that much creativity or innovation. Just in the past 3 or 4 months I've found half a dozen or more artists on Soundcloud, then headed over to Bandcamp or Amazon to buy and download their music. It would be awesome if I could buy it right there on Soundcloud. Every song could have a "Buy MP3" and "Buy Album" button right there by the Like, Share and other buttons. May…

A lot of the music posted is a single here, a single there - often before official release. Sometimes it isn't weeks until that single (or larger album) is available for purchase. Plus, for the electronic/DJ side of things, many of the tracks posted are remixes which aren't ever for sale (it seems). But from a scale standpoint, you would think that there might be some sort of revenue opportunity there.

> many of the tracks posted are remixes which aren't ever for sale (it seems)

Isn't there a fair-use provision where you can remix/sample works as long as you don't sell the derivative work or something like that?

I think that's how a lot of the electronic music stuff works... people freely mix and remix stuff, give it away for free, and make their income doing live events and shows.

That's my sense... anyone know if I got these details right?

Re: SoundCloud could be forced to close after $44m losses

#249

Post by Futurebot »

I really hope this isn't true. I've hosted my own music there for years (and am a paying customers), and almost all of the interesting new music I find is from there.

One thing that might help them is to charge non-creators for some services. Right now there just doesn't appear to be any reason to if you're just a listener.

Re: SoundCloud could be forced to close after $44m losses

#250

Post by throwawayaway »

URSpider94 wrote: post #195
sbierwagen wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you used something like ipfs, syncthing, or generic torrents you could easily distribute anything you want at large scale at no cost, as long as people were interested in having it. The problem there of course is the "as long as people were interested in having it" part. You can publish stuff for free on Freenet, but to a first approximation, nobody actually uses Freenet. If a torrent/magnet URI runs out of seeds…

This. Torrents are a terrible solution for the long tail of content.

Disagree, torrents are a great solution for the most obscure stuff and very cheap. You just have to be the seed.
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