I have been using SoundCloud almost exclusively for the better part of 7 years. I have playlists (eg., Personal Favourites for `) dating all the way back to early 2011. It's the /only/ online music service I subscribe to. Zero interest in Spotify, don't care for Apple Music, and even other services (eg., Mixcloud, Bandcamp, Audiomack, etc) miss the point of being driven by a community.
It's a service where, at this point, I cannot part ways with, simply because there are zero alternatives that either emulate its flow (twitter like feed), or house the same blossoming artists that go on to become big (eg., Post Malone, Don Monique, Bryon Tiller, Chance the Rapper, Joe Kay, etc) names.
But, SoundCloud has its issues, and its Go+ service (subscriber since day 1) is a missed opportunity. On its service, there are a many issues with SC.
1. SoundCloud (not a developer, but assuming) seems to have chosen poor engineering choices from the top. SoundCloud just chose to not solve it once it became too hard on their database, including when they famously had issues with being early adopters of Mongo. Their most recent frontend HTML5 rewrite chews up CPU usage, and it just hasn't changed in recent years.
2. SoundCloud Go and Go+ were blatant cash grabs. I purchased it purely to bypass ads, but also because I believe in the /concept/ of the service, but have lost faith in the company some time ago. Content Producers would have paid more if only discovery hadn't gone downhill, which may have heightened
3. Despite the iOS app being updated every other week, it seems as though it /actually/ hasn't been updated in years. You cant click "Like" and then "Repost" within 1-2 seconds of each other before the app just decides to crash. The app even lacks basic controls and makes it impossible to queue up songs /unless/ it's put into a playlist, but then you have to discovery > listen > add to playlist > flip to playlist... it's asinine
4. Artist Engagement is a /joke/. Just to "buy" or "download" a track means you're walking into a wall of questionable sites, and a plethora of social media logins. "LOGIN TO DOWNLOAD! NOW RETWEET! NOW LIKE! ALMOST THERE! NOW SNAP AT US". This isn't SoundCloud per se, but they implicitly allow this to happen. They could have easily required you to follow the artist before downloading directly to solve at least part of the problem. Especially considering you can just use a Chrome Extension to download the song...
5. Music discovery is pathetically trash. The further you drive down the rabbit hole of discovery, the slower the experience becomes. Discovery is the /core concept/ of SoundCloud since there is so much underground talent just waiting to be discovered. This was the entire point of SC, and they failed at it.
6. Copyright issues plague people to the point of marring them from becoming 'djs' or potential artists. It also seems like their ability to work with artists in general is just utter garbage.
7. The UI is /garbage/. It needs to be updated. It's almost like 10 teams at SC worked on it after a night of drinking and throwing up. The simplicity of discovery should be the focal point, but it seems like it's a bug when you want to find new music.
8. The power of SC is the community. It's a feed of new music, even music people you follow are reposting. While "The Upload" is a great idea, it's buried deep behind a sluggish UI.
9. Queueing took far too long to release. It's especially stupid considering that if you dive into an artists page, while having an album queued, playing their song will wipe the playlist in favour of the artists. Come on.
I can go on for /hours/. But, I hope SC stays around, a new CEO comes in, and the product is not only rebuilt, but redesigned from the ground up.
Please don't die. I have nobody else.