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SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

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Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#141

Post by heywire »

hermitdev wrote: post #116
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually find Sirius frustrating for long road trips or commutes; most of the channels repeat their content every 6 or 7 or 8 hours. I often find the same programming on my home journey that was on when I was on the way in. Many news type channels like BBC endlessly repeat every hour. Having a pile of podcasts and audiobooks ready at hand makes long drives on ski trips much more tolerable to me... But I do keep the…

I also found Sirius frustrating in the same manner. Except for me, it was my daily commute. I could set the clock by the playlist. I only listened to 2 channels and for some reason, the traffic updates to my car stopped working. When they wanted something like $400 to renew for 1 year, I said fuck off.

A tip for anyone reading here — SiriusXM will gladly give you a year of service for $60+fees (about $74 last time for me). You don’t even need to threaten to cancel. Every year I call, tell them it is too expensive, but I’d stay if they give me the same price, and they always do. Something like the last 10 years...

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#142

Post by UI_at_80x24 »

toxican wrote: post #128
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…

>MY favorite times would be at night and manually adjusting the AM reception and picking up stations from all over the world. Trying to discern their location based on the commercials. I recently got into this as a hobby! Bought a cheap portable shortwave radio and every night this week I've sat outside or near the window to see how far away I could pick stuff up from. So far I've confirmed broadcasts from Romania, S…

This actually got me into amateur radio as a hobby.

It started when I was young and not tired enough to goto sleep. I had a decades-old transistor radio and would scroll through the dial using the smallest fractions of adjustment and hearing the world open to me.

Dark of night, speaker pressed to my ear so my parents wouldn't hear and yell at me. Languages I'd never heard before and had no way of knowing where they were.

Magical is the best way I can describe the experience.

The world became both small, and vast in the same moment.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#143

Post by criddell »

munificent wrote: post #125
criddell wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If bot followers made you leave SoundCloud, why were you there in the first place? Does the number of followers you have change how you use the service?

> Does the number of followers you have change how you use the service? Not the OP, but yes, of course. Most musicians want their music to connect to other people. If you had the opportunity to get on stage and play a show at a bar full of excited people or at one whose dancefloor contained only Roombas wandering aimlessly around, which one would you play at?

So how does the move to iTunes fix that? Aren't they even more opaque w.r.t. audience info?

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#144

Post by hardtke »

adventured wrote: post #42
kevinherron wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. I know like every new car comes with a trial but I didn’t realize people actually activated it.

Even more impressive than the market cap previously referenced is their actual business is vastly superior to Spotify. Sirius 2019: $7.8b in sales, $1.7b operating income Spotify 2019: $6.7b in sales, -$73m operating income Spotify's market cap is supported by a fantasy that one day, somehow, if they get big enough they might generate a real profit to support their Wile E. Coyote valuation (don't look down). So for e…

Compared to Spotify, SiriusXM has lower content costs (favorable statuatory licensing rates and a larger fraction of exclusive owned content) and a better user demographic (wealthy middle age Americans). Their churn rate is negligible.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#145

Post by reggieband »

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 received a trial of Sirius when I bought my vehicle. My Dad bought a life-time subscription (at a time they were practically giving them away) so I had listened to Sirius a few times when borrowing his car. My impression was they have bought and paid for a particular catalogue of music and they play that catalogue pretty exclusively. That catalogue seemed to have the 4th or 5th most popular songs from a huge list of artists but rarely the top 3. It is a massive catalogue but when you listen to it enough it starts to become repetitive and I would start to wonder "do they even have any other songs by that artists" after hearing a b-side for the third or fourth time.

I even considered buying it anyway since I like to go on trips to remote areas (fishing/camping) and can't rely on data for my phone for Spotify. In many rural places there is only a single radio station and even then it may be mostly static. But I found in those locations even Satellite reception was spotty, especially in the mountains or valleys I frequented.

Compared to top-40 FM radio, Sirius is amazing. It had its time. But comparing it to the internet with Youtube and Spotify (or Apple Music, etc.) just blows it away.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#146

Post by [deleted] »

nosajm wrote: post #117
myself248 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm looking at getting one of the cheap teaser receivers at BBY and then activating it on a Privacy.com card or a giftcard or something, so they can't pull that even if I forget or am unable to navigate their cancellation hoops.

I recently tried to subscribe to XM radio using multiple pre-paid Visa cards (for the same reason you outlined above) and all were denied. It also seems that using a credit card that expires before your subscription lapses won't help you either. They will send a bill to your address on file and report you to a collection agency if you do not pay.

[deleted]

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#147

Post by codesternews »

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/

Wow Thanks!!!

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#148

Post by koolba »

nosajm wrote: post #117
myself248 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm looking at getting one of the cheap teaser receivers at BBY and then activating it on a Privacy.com card or a giftcard or something, so they can't pull that even if I forget or am unable to navigate their cancellation hoops.

I recently tried to subscribe to XM radio using multiple pre-paid Visa cards (for the same reason you outlined above) and all were denied. It also seems that using a credit card that expires before your subscription lapses won't help you either. They will send a bill to your address on file and report you to a collection agency if you do not pay.

Giving expiring card information does not magically make you not liable for a charge. It just makes it harder for them to collect and (hopefully) harder for you to forget about the charge.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#149

Post by S_A_P »

criddell wrote: post #143
munificent wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does the number of followers you have change how you use the service? Not the OP, but yes, of course. Most musicians want their music to connect to other people. If you had the opportunity to get on stage and play a show at a bar full of excited people or at one whose dancefloor contained only Roombas wandering aimlessly around, which one would you play at?

So how does the move to iTunes fix that? Aren't they even more opaque w.r.t. audience info?

My point is that Soundcloud is a)disingenuous about fan engagement, and b) I would rather not even have the social aspect of it if it is fake. Posting on iTunes, I can actually have a shot at reaching people.

Also this is not a sour grapes because I have no fans sort of reaction. The point is that there is so much noise from the bots that I dont want to spend the effort to try and engage legitimate people. Lastly, I didnt quit soundcloud, I stopped using it for its initial purpose, and now use it for easily sharing audio in specific use cases. I just dont see it as a "social network". Its that for some people, but not for most people.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#150

Post by seppin »

nikisweeting wrote: post #103
mojuba wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, I love their recommendations based on my likes, love The Upload section. I wonder what algorithms they use. They are pretty good.

Their "The Upload" playlist is consistently the source of some of my favorite music on the internet, it almost never has a song I don't like. Whichever engineers worked on it deserve a raise.

Also https://hypem.com/popular is a fantastic interface (with a great mobile app too), it takes mostly from SC.
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