AGAIN?
All these companies saying come put your content here and then they fold.
I still remember mp3.com. I feel like we need some kind of distributed federated service for self-publishing music at this point.
After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’
71–75 of 75 posts
Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you believe that if Soundcloud goes out of business in a couple of months artists affected will never again make those tracks available on the internet? Why would you believe that?
A large number of them never will. Any archive of user-created content ends up dominated by "zombie" works from creators that have moved on from that sort of thing or aren't terribly concerned with ensuring that their older works remain accessible (if they even still have their own copies).
>"Any archive of user-created content ends up dominated by "zombie" works from creators that have moved on from that sort of thing or aren't terribly concerned with ensuring that their older works remain accessible (if they even still have their own copies)."
Except when they are artists and that content is their art and that art is their passion and/or career. It's also how they build awareness and get gigs. We are talking about music not animated gifs and memes. Its unlikely that most artists no longer have the original tracks.
The music industry has always had works that have gone out of print often because the record company goes bankrupt. And those out of print works are then reissued often with enhancements. In fact there are record labels whose whole business model is reissues. And at the extreme there are cases where the original master tapes were lost and reissues were cut from secondary sources.
It would be unfortunate if SC were to disappear but if it did I doubt any appreciable amount of music would simply be "lost to the dust bin of history."
Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's how charities, not businesses work.
It's a long standing model in the software world (freemiums, sharewares, etc). I suspect SoundCloud demographics won't withstand a mandatory subscription.
Right, but I was taking that from the CEO of MySQL. In a presentation (after they were sold) he mentioned that he once got a donation from Craig's List for $15,000.00 since they were big users of MySQL. It was at that point he realized the problem with their open source business model.
Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 mo…
> 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 think you underestimate the capacity for people to delude thems…
Wasn't trying to underestimate. Was actually genuinely asking the question, which I appreciate you answering. I think you're likely right--many people are more than happy to delude themselves. Maybe I'm too cynical for that. And I think morale can actually improve when you're in an us-against-the-world situation, which is how I'd describe the hail mary situation.
Lastly, why would I go to the mat? Because assuming I still care about the mission of the company, I think some of the greatest opportunities for growth (intellectual, financial) can come out of the darkest hours at companies. And I'm older, but this was my attitude back in the day when confronted by potentially-failing companies. I think we often run from what frightens us instead of appreciating how many new doors may open in those types of situations. Sort of like the (Buffett?) quote "be greedy when people are scared, scared when people are greedy." Yeah, survivorship bias and all, but I'd step into an argument where someone asked if opportunity is more likely in chaos or success (might lose that argument, but I'd still have it).
Re: After big layoffs SoundCloud founder says its strategy is to ‘take back control’
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can buy music on Soundcloud.
Where? As a long time Soundcloud listener and artist I have never seen an option to buy or sell music on Soundcloud. Unless you mean the "Buy"-link which you can setup to redirect your listeners to actual stores and purchase options.
Oh, you're right. I'm mistaken.
For some reason I assumed there was a buy link on the preview tracks people put up.