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SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

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Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#131

Post by jniedrauer »

kevinherron wrote: post #9

Wait, what? I’m already surprised SiriusXM is still somehow around, let alone that they have $75 million to invest in another company and not that they’re taking $75 million to stay afloat...

I thought the same thing until I interviewed there in 2017 and got a look into what they were doing behind the scenes. At the time, they were definitely not struggling. They were working on transitioning their core competency toward streaming services, but their satellite radio business was still alive and well. (I took another offer, which I regret in retrospect, because I ended up working on a Perl 5 stack...)

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#132

Post by kingbirdy »

eric_cc wrote: post #12
kevinherron wrote: post #9

Wait, what? I’m already surprised SiriusXM is still somehow around, let alone that they have $75 million to invest in another company and not that they’re taking $75 million to stay afloat...

SiriusXM has no competition in the satellite radio space as far as I know.

It used to be that Sirius and XM were two separate companies providing competing services. Unfortunately in 2008 the US DoJ allowed them to merge on the basis that FM & internet radio were sufficient competition.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#133

Post by devmunchies »

k__ wrote: post #85

Most artists I like prefer BandCamp to SoundCloud.

That's only because the make money on it. If soundcloud can figure out how to get listeners to pay more money, then more will go to the artists. I'm leaning towards a patreon model like I mentioned in another comment.

I've been paying for the SoundCloud Go+ plan ($9.99/mo) since November 2016, which I match when I buy 1-2 albums on Bandcamp. Its not enough. I would gladly subscribe to some artists and pay $5/mo.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#135

Post by devmunchies »

Minor49er wrote: post #36
adamcccc wrote: post #19

Eh? The last I heard was the Soundcloud was going bust and letting all it's employees go? ...I'm so out of the loop

It's another modern tech company that hemorrhages money with no return. All they do is lose cash, but they're popular. Compare this to Bandcamp, which has a great UI, no bots, and generates revenue. Yet it's less popular by comparison. Just take a look at this article from 3 years ago titled "SoundCloud is losing a lot of money — is an acquisition coming soon?": https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/8/14206830/soundcloud-p…

Bandcamp is a great service, but I wouldn't say its a great product. I will get emails saying that an artist released a new album, but when i check my feed it doesn't show up. I have to go to that artist's page directly sometimes. The feed system is buggy, and that's an important part of a music app for discoverability. And the mobile app still doesn't allow me to save offline, last I checked, also important for a music app when streaming on the road.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#136

Post by unlinked_dll »

mojuba wrote: post #59

I feel like I'm in the minority of those who love SoundCloud. It's one the very few places for indie music makers and DJs to showcase their work that otherwise may not necessarily be published via the official publishing channels. That includes e.g. long running DJ mixes, not exactly the type of material for the official release bureaucracy and associated costs. The only problem with SoundCloud is that instead of fol…

The other issue with Spotify is that they had no answer for Dropbox, clyp.it or more recently, Bandlab.

Back in the day if you wanted to collab with another producer, vocalist, rapper, whatever, SoundCloud was the quick and dirty way of sharing audio ideas and files in the browser. For larger projects you used Dropbox.

Shame they tried to be internet radio and not a place and tool for content creators, like YouTube. They could have been the YouTube for audio, like podcasting.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#137

Post by grahamburger »

murph-almighty wrote: post #65
UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #35

When I was a truck driver, Satellite Radio was practically a necessity. Sure I loaded up my ipod with music, but the selection was too damn limited and I would tire of hearing the same songs over & over again. The best case scenario for FM radio (when you would finally find something that you could tolerate) was 1 hour. 1 hour of variety to stave off bordem and try to save your sanity. The effective range of the FM s…

I honestly hadn't considered this use case for satellite radio. I used to do 5-6 hour drives through areas with crappy cell service and awful radio (only country, gospel or a sermon). Spotify _helped_ with its download feature so I could play tracks I liked locally, but sadly satellite wasn't an option for me since I was driving an '04 Jeep.

There are and always were satellite radio options that don't have to be built in to the car. My first satellite radio (Sirius, before they merged) was actually battery powered and portable - I could clip the antenna to my backpack and listen while I walked the dog. (This was before mobile streaming was really a thing.) Like others here are bringing up though, I've found the variety on the music channels to be lacking. These days I get more mileage out of Pandora and a few podcasts.

Also a fun little note - if you have a standalone radio with active service, then turn it off and stuff it in a box, cancel the service, and wait a few months or a year before pulling it back out, you'll have free service for the life of the radio. They stop sending the device specific kill codes after a while so it will just keep working.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#138

Post by mzgaljic »

hypertexthero wrote: post #66
UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #35

When I was a truck driver, Satellite Radio was practically a necessity. Sure I loaded up my ipod with music, but the selection was too damn limited and I would tire of hearing the same songs over & over again. The best case scenario for FM radio (when you would finally find something that you could tolerate) was 1 hour. 1 hour of variety to stave off bordem and try to save your sanity. The effective range of the FM s…

You might enjoying tuning in to Radio Garden: https://radio.garden/

This is the coolest thing i’ve seen this year! Thanks for sharing.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#139

Post by goatherders »

skellera wrote: post #43
goatherders wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have probably 6 or 7 paid subscriptions for my personal use. Aside from Netflix, SxM is probably the one I would cancel last of the group.

What are your use cases? 6 or 7 seems like a lot.

DAZN WWE TuneIn JeFiT Spotify Netflix Sirius Dropbox

Does not include subs I use for my business like GSuite, Freshbooks, Front, Zapier, Monday, etc.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#140

Post by goatherders »

dylan604 wrote: post #55
teruakohatu wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think like the person you replied to I misread is as having 6 or 7 SxM subscriptions, which sounded like a big flex "I have 6, maybe 7, cars". 6 or 7 paid subs sounds reasonable.

> Aside from Netflix, SxM is probably the one I would cancel last of the group. I read it that way as well right up until I read the rest of the comment where the last sentence made it clear.

My mistake. 6 or 7 DIFFERENT apps. I have one Sirius sub that we use in the one car we own.
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