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SoundCloud cuts jobs, closes SF and London offices

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Re: SoundCloud cuts jobs, closes SF and London offices

#201

Post by alistproducer2 »

SC had a unique product and at one point I really enjoyed discovering music. In fact, I had a music blog where I reviewed indie and folk music I found there. I found some incredible talents. For example, this dude Packwood from Australia. I ended up buying his albums on Bandcamp, but never would've found him without SC. Looking back it's surprising that SC never tried to get into selling music. I would've bought download for lots of the indie music I found; if for no other reason than I wanted to be able to listen to it in the event that SC folded.

I switched to Amazon music, which I pay ~ $6/mo. I couldn't be happier. I'm actually happy to pay money to have access to almost anything I ever want to listen to. they even have obscure Drum n bass albums (which surprised me). As great as AM is, it doesn't fully replace SC for me. No podcasts or indie music by random Australian dude without record deals.

Re: SoundCloud cuts jobs, closes SF and London offices

#202

Post by sanj »

aaronlevin wrote: post #19

SoundCloud employee here. If you are hiring, please reach out to people from SoundCloud. The decisions of who to let go were not based on performance. A lot of amazing people, both attitude and technically.

I'm hiring in London for Time Out.

I would like to think that engineers from Sound Cloud may be excited by the music, theater, film, and event domain.

Drop me a line at [hn_username]@timeout.com

Re: SoundCloud cuts jobs, closes SF and London offices

#203

Post by thowaway9999 »

thowaway999 wrote: post #185

I was a director of an engineering department for SoundCloud for a time and left several years ago. Frankly none of this should be surprising: nobody there could figure out a product definition nor a monetization plan. What is more: the engineering organization at SoundCloud at large was completely fractured and suffered from in-fighting. Nobody trusted anyone across organizations. There was no shortage of bullying e…

follow the money: http://philcalcado.com/2017/06/26/on_leaving_digitalocean.ht...

Re: SoundCloud cuts jobs, closes SF and London offices

#204

Post by jayess »

justanton wrote: post #157

I wonder what made them to open offices in some of the most expensive cities in the world in the first place? Was it in order to find the right talent? There are great people in other, less expensive cities.

No only most expensive, but most business unfriendly.

Re: SoundCloud cuts jobs, closes SF and London offices

#205

Post by theWheez »

tomjen3 wrote: post #199
JohnnyConatus wrote: post #156

ITT no one admitting that the problem with the recorded music industry is now the fans who expect bits that make sound to be free while other bits are paid. Spotify, Pandora, and Soundcloud fixed just about everything that people said was wrong with the industry from the consumer point of view. And don't give me that line about the labels screwing artists because thanks to fans who won't even pay for a premium subscr…

I have no idea how you got that notion, but as a previous paying spotify customer I quit because they consistently screwed up their UI, made pointless changes and kept forcing "social" into something that shouldn't be social in the first place. I now use google music. It is still no way near as good as groveshark was (especially when it comes to having all the music and a simple interface) but it works pretty okay. A…

I use Google Music to listen to music, and when I find an album I like I buy it on Vinyl, and also attend concerts when they are nearby. More than I have spent on music than ever before.

Re: SoundCloud cuts jobs, closes SF and London offices

#206

Post by samcat116 »

Things I hate about Soundcloud:

1. They haven't updated their iOS app seemingly in years. It lacks basic controls and makes it impossible to listen to more than a single song at a time.

2. The really shitty "artist engagement" sites that force you to follow 20 other social media accounts in order to get a download. I know this isn't Soundcloud directly, but they're the ones letting artists link off to these basically spam services through a button that promises a direct download. They could have easily required you to follow the artist before downloading directly to solve at least part of this problem.

3. Music discovery is absolute trash. Discovery on a platform like SC is even more important than a place like Spotify because there is so much underground talent that should be listened to. This was the entire point of SC and they largely failed at that.

4. I have seen countless artists on twitter calling out SC for taking down their own songs from their own accounts for copyright strikes. It also seems like their ability to work with artists in general is just utter garbage.

Re: SoundCloud cuts jobs, closes SF and London offices

#207

Post by georgecalm »

aaronlevin wrote: post #19

SoundCloud employee here. If you are hiring, please reach out to people from SoundCloud. The decisions of who to let go were not based on performance. A lot of amazing people, both attitude and technically.

We're hiring at Adobe | Behance in NYC. We're a diverse team of people passionate about our craft, our product, and open source. https://www.behance.net/careers

Re: SoundCloud cuts jobs, closes SF and London offices

#208

Post by snarf21 »

JohnnyConatus wrote: post #156

ITT no one admitting that the problem with the recorded music industry is now the fans who expect bits that make sound to be free while other bits are paid. Spotify, Pandora, and Soundcloud fixed just about everything that people said was wrong with the industry from the consumer point of view. And don't give me that line about the labels screwing artists because thanks to fans who won't even pay for a premium subscr…

You are right, people are cheap. However, some of the blame lies with these companies. They have taken a growth at all costs > figure out monetization later path to their own doom. You can't go from free unlimited streaming to paid limited streaming once you realize your costs are killing you. The recording industry does keep raising the prices (rightfully so?) making it harder to stay afloat. There is still a win here for the person with the right vision.
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