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SoundCloud launches Go: a subscription service

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Re: SoundCloud launches Go: a subscription service

#41

Post by wdewind »

kdamken wrote: post #33
radiusvector wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey there - It's a huge catalog of tracks which contains all content from both emerging and established creators. The full details of which can be found on https://blog.soundcloud.com/

I read the article - the pros seems to be: - Ad free music - Listen offline - More tracks from established creators The first two are a given with any streaming service. My point was their catalog isn't enough to make me switch over. As an artist, unless you're getting some kind of crazy deal to just be on one of the services, your best bet is to be on every one out there.

YMMV then, because their catalog is the only reason I want this. Soundclouds service in general kind of sucks, but they are the only place to get a ton of new smaller niche music very quickly. If you're really into electronic music stuff like spotify just doesn't cut it. This is a godsend for me, I've been begging for years to pay them a monthly fee to cache/not have ads.

Re: SoundCloud launches Go: a subscription service

#42

Post by oldmanhorton »

This would be appealing if the Soundcloud apps (including web) werent so atrocious. Navigating through your collection on Android is a mess, and the webapp shows as few as 2 tracks on a full laptop screen (while eating up gigabytes of RAM after only casual listening). I still love how the webapp "shuffle" mode will only shuffle through the songs already loaded by the client, so its just a mix of your most recent 25 or 50 songs.

Re: SoundCloud launches Go: a subscription service

#44

Post by k-mcgrady »

geostyx wrote: post #39
k-mcgrady wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "The actual offering left aside, the naming is quite unfortunate." It seems good to me. One of the major features is offline listening to you can now listen 'on the go'. Am I missing something?

HBO Go Go (golang) Go (game)

HBO Go is the only real clash there (very few people are going to confuse an offering by a well known music site with a programming language or board game). I don't see HBO ever making Go available outside the US so it probably won't be a real issue for many people.

Re: SoundCloud launches Go: a subscription service

#45

Post by kdamken »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #36
kdamken wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the article - the pros seems to be: - Ad free music - Listen offline - More tracks from established creators The first two are a given with any streaming service. My point was their catalog isn't enough to make me switch over. As an artist, unless you're getting some kind of crazy deal to just be on one of the services, your best bet is to be on every one out there.

Where in the article does it say you have be exclusively on this platform? The word is exclusive is mentioned twice and both times in relation to Tidal.

That's the only thing that really separates these services. They all have similar catalogs and features for the most part.

The issue I have is with the exclusivity deals that come up as part of them trying to compete with each other. It annoying for the customer, and ends up with less money for the artist as most people will inevitably just go torrent their work if it's not on the one streaming service they're using.

Re: SoundCloud launches Go: a subscription service

#46

Post by dominotw »

I used to use soundcloud all the time but switched to 'Discover weekely' on Spotify, like the author of the article. Spotify hit it out of park with Discover weekly.

One downside of spotify is still discoverability, discover weekly doesn't introduce you to completely new kinds of music, it sticks to what you already like. You are on you own to introduce randomness into spotify's discovery algorithms.

I think Rdio had that right idea here. I was discovering much more new music when I was with Rdio than with Spotify. Spotify leans heavily towards what is popular.

Re: SoundCloud launches Go: a subscription service

#47

Post by johnyfav »

kogepathic wrote: post #35

This would explain why they have removed the local cache option in their Android app. In previous versions, you could select how much content to cache locally on the device, up to 100%. This meant if you listened to a song once, you could listen to it again offline. From using their app now, and the website (non-mobile) it seems they have removed all caching completely. Anyway, it's absolutely trivial to download the…

This is one of the reasons I don't like the iOS app. There was never any caching. On the commute to work (where I listen to the most music) I could listen to the same track as long as I had net connection which isn't always the case.

I feel that they have taken a step back on their apps recently.

Re: SoundCloud launches Go: a subscription service

#48

Post by aiw1nters »

owenwil wrote: post #29

While I like SoundCloud a lot, what the hell have they been up to for the last few years? From where I'm sitting Spotify, Apple Music and many more out-innovated them and SoundCloud did... well, nothing.

as the article states they were trying to score deals around content derivatives (e.g remixes, dj sets) that never existed before. I wouldn't underestimate that!

Re: SoundCloud launches Go: a subscription service

#49

Post by x1798DE »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #44
geostyx wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HBO Go Go (golang) Go (game)

HBO Go is the only real clash there (very few people are going to confuse an offering by a well known music site with a programming language or board game). I don't see HBO ever making Go available outside the US so it probably won't be a real issue for many people.

I think the bigger problem with these generic names is that they are hard to search for and crowd the search space. Go is a common enough word that you'll need to search for `"SoundCloud Go"`, since `SoundCloud Go` will bring up a bunch of unrelated stuff about SoundCloud, e.g. "go to your SoundCloud account panel and..." But using quotes will miss sentences like, "SoundCloud has released a new service, Go."

Re: SoundCloud launches Go: a subscription service

#50

Post by 6stringmerc »

aiw1nters wrote: post #48
owenwil wrote: post #29

While I like SoundCloud a lot, what the hell have they been up to for the last few years? From where I'm sitting Spotify, Apple Music and many more out-innovated them and SoundCloud did... well, nothing.

as the article states they were trying to score deals around content derivatives (e.g remixes, dj sets) that never existed before. I wouldn't underestimate that!

Another article over on Billboard points out that Apple Music and Dubset just announced a system for remixes and DJ sets that actually pays the remixer and DJ a portion of funds while also compensating the original content owners, and about a week before this SoundCloud announcement.

I know about it because I'm already signed up and have an account. SoundCloud has provided nothing in the way of notification, tools, or access to a similar platform. Sure, they're getting in better position with the RIAA/Merlin groups but that's not traditionally the value proposition with SoundCloud for listeners/creators. Maybe in time we'll learn more about why SoundCloud and Dubset both have competing systems for license revenue (apparently?!), and which one might be the better of the two.

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