After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’ • Hacker News Board

Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’

#11

Post by matt4077 » Wed, Jul 12, 2017, 11:14 PM UTC

I wish I could somehow archive some of their content. They have a serious amount of audio data and are the only source I know with annotations attached to specific seconds within a track. I've been thinking about building a music-generating neural network–something that may work especially well for electronic (and often instrumental) music that soundcloud has a lot of.

Unfortunately, they have limited their API access to approved developers, and I haven't even gotten a response after applying two months or so ago....

Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’

#12

Post by thesmallestcat » Wed, Jul 12, 2017, 11:25 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #8

I can't help but feel badly for SoundCloud and their CEO. Over the years I've seen dozens of companies get to a point where its clear that the future is not what they had envisioned. It's that moment of facing reality of "If we were likely to win, we would have by now, but we didn't so really what is next for us?" It is that point where the investors have seen perhaps three or four internal projects that haven't push…

Cry me a river, poor well-connected CEO will have to go Serial Entrepreneur another company on the wings of investors. These people only have to deal with mental anguish, the ones with consciences at least.

I feel badly for the employees and, to a certain extent, the customers.

Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’

#13

Post by toomuchtodo » Wed, Jul 12, 2017, 11:34 PM UTC

jaggederest wrote: post #5

blurbleblurble wrote: post #3

I wish they would partner with services like Patreon and flattr instead of limiting everything to a stupid subscription model. I imagine that many artists could get a lot more revenue through voluntary payment services than through forced subscription models.

Not gonna lie, I find it really amazing that I see really niche projects with three- or four-digit patreon income levels, things like that. I'm really glad that as a society we've found a way to support public goods directly.

SV Delos, known for their sailing videos, is pulling in $10k per video.

https://www.patreon.com/svdelos

https://www.youtube.com/user/briantrautman

Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’

#14

Post by snakeboy » Wed, Jul 12, 2017, 11:41 PM UTC

marssaxman wrote: post #7

scopecreep wrote: post #6

Remember the employee you guys had that said "Comment timelines are neat but this is not enough to establish a working business"? Find him/her - rehire him/her, and fire all of the fucking idiots that ignored them. They should have sold the idea to Google - at least then we might all benefit from it. Instead, SoundCloud, and comment timelines, will be a neat idea strangled by poor leadership.

What is a "comment timeline"?

I assume they are referring to the feature in which users comment at specific times in the song. As the song plays, these pop up on-screen.

Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’

#15

Post by capex » Wed, Jul 12, 2017, 11:41 PM UTC

I thought Soundcloud would truly become the 'Youtube of Audio'. But it seems to be trying to do too many things. Right now, there is no place on the internet where I could search a keyword and find relevant podcasts about a topic. Why can't Soundcloud do that? Just be the Youtube of podcasts, leave the music part to others.

Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’

#16

Post by anatari » Wed, Jul 12, 2017, 11:46 PM UTC

thesmallestcat wrote: post #12

ChuckMcM wrote: post #8

I can't help but feel badly for SoundCloud and their CEO. Over the years I've seen dozens of companies get to a point where its clear that the future is not what they had envisioned. It's that moment of facing reality of "If we were likely to win, we would have by now, but we didn't so really what is next for us?" It is that point where the investors have seen perhaps three or four internal projects that haven't push…

Cry me a river, poor well-connected CEO will have to go Serial Entrepreneur another company on the wings of investors. These people only have to deal with mental anguish, the ones with consciences at least. I feel badly for the employees and, to a certain extent, the customers.

Yes, and I only feel bad for those who have cancer, and have no food to eat. The employees only have to worry about the mental anguish of suffering through some stupid whiteboard coding problems to get their next job. /sarcasm off.

Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’

#17

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 12, 2017, 11:47 PM UTC

thesmallestcat wrote: post #12

ChuckMcM wrote: post #8

I can't help but feel badly for SoundCloud and their CEO. Over the years I've seen dozens of companies get to a point where its clear that the future is not what they had envisioned. It's that moment of facing reality of "If we were likely to win, we would have by now, but we didn't so really what is next for us?" It is that point where the investors have seen perhaps three or four internal projects that haven't push…

Cry me a river, poor well-connected CEO will have to go Serial Entrepreneur another company on the wings of investors. These people only have to deal with mental anguish, the ones with consciences at least. I feel badly for the employees and, to a certain extent, the customers.

[deleted]

Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’

#18

Post by josephpmay » Wed, Jul 12, 2017, 11:50 PM UTC

It's a huge shame that SoundCloud is likely dying, because large segments of the music industry and literally entire genres of music are solely on SoundCloud. This may sound hyperbolic, but I feel like them shutting down would be the "burning of the Library of Alexandria" of 21st century music

Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’

#19

Post by acjohnson55 » Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 12:00 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #8

I can't help but feel badly for SoundCloud and their CEO. Over the years I've seen dozens of companies get to a point where its clear that the future is not what they had envisioned. It's that moment of facing reality of "If we were likely to win, we would have by now, but we didn't so really what is next for us?" It is that point where the investors have seen perhaps three or four internal projects that haven't push…

But some companies actually come out of that, especially when they've built valuable assets. It took a long time before it seemed like Facebook could be turned into a profitable business from being a plaything. But the fact that they were sitting on this growing social graph gave people enough faith to believe it might be worthwhile to give them some more rope.

At least that's the way I see it -- maybe they started monetizing effectively earlier than I recall.

Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’

#20

Post by harmmonica » Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 12:03 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #8

I can't help but feel badly for SoundCloud and their CEO. Over the years I've seen dozens of companies get to a point where its clear that the future is not what they had envisioned. It's that moment of facing reality of "If we were likely to win, we would have by now, but we didn't so really what is next for us?" It is that point where the investors have seen perhaps three or four internal projects that haven't push…

Do you think that employees stick around because the CEO/leadership says "we've got this new direction we are super excited about" and they would bail if they got "nothing... has created a viable business"? That is, are the employees who stick around happy to stick their heads in the sand as long as the leadership throws out the "we're excited" bone?

I would prefer the honesty about the hail mary and I would think most HN readers would feel the same, but I wonder if that's the norm and CEOs/leaders just can't/won't (shouldn't?) admit the reality regardless of how obvious that reality is.

EDIT: I should also say that I'd likely go to the mat for the person who's honest about the hail mary.