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SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

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Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#191

Post by on_and_off »

jkdufair wrote: post #95
1stcity3rdcoast wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cancellation is also by phone call only, which creates a lot of friction. I’ve tried to cancel a couple of times, and let it lapse once, and they always end up dropping my rate to $4/mo. Hard to say no to $50/year for 150 more options in your car. Even when the bitrate is like listening to a 1998 mp3.

It is indeed surprising to me that people can tolerate the low bitrate sound. I would consider subscribing but I can’t stand to actually listen. Do subscribers get a higher bitrate? My impression is that it’s a limitation of the satellite signal bandwidth and the number of channels they cram into it.

I have worked in the music streaming industry.

We did not try to cheat with bitrate but I am confident that only 1/100000 users would actually notice any difference between 128kbit/s and anything higher.

Even going lower than 128, you would be surprised how low you need to go before it really becomes noticeable to end users.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#192

Post by vel0city »

TeeWEE wrote: post #162
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 don't understand satellite radio.. Ok in an airplane. But why in a car? In the Netherlands all radio is FM and its for free. Why would somebody want satellite radio... I guess there is no full country coverage of FM in USA?

There is probably several FM radio stations in range of you wherever you are on the interstates in the United States. However, there may not always be stations in the genres of music you like. The frequencies are also not always consistent so as you travel from city to city you'll have to scan around to find something you may enjoy listening to. Its not like you can tune in to an FM talk radio station in New York and expect to still be listening to the same thing on the same frequency in San Francisco.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#193

Post by nitrogen »

muglug wrote: post #159
nitrogen wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Google Video also launched slightly before YouTube, if I'm remembering and reading the dates right.

No, that was in April 2005: https://www.infoworld.com/article/2669287/google-launches-vi...

Wikipedia said January 25th for some reason

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#194

Post by divbzero »

zabana wrote: post #51
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…

Stories like this is why I love reading HN comments. Thanks for sharing your experience!

100% agreed. The tech discussion is always interesting, but especially so when informed by our diverse experience.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#195

Post by ryguytilidie »

ericabiz wrote: post #151
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'm definitely in the minority here, but I cancelled my Spotify subscription in favor of SiriusXM. There were a couple changes they've made recently that made this make sense. One, all their car subscriptions now come with an app version. And two, they have a pretty cool Web UI ( https://player.siriusxm.com ) where you can listen to any channel live or experiment with "Xtra" channels (it's a Pandora integration.) My…

I got really lucky. Bought my car 4 years ago. They said it included a 3 month sirius subscription. It still works to this day. My wife bought a car a couple years ago with a 3 month subscription and it ended on day 90 :(

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#198

Post by nolok »

kingbirdy wrote: post #132
eric_cc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is the DOJ ever denying merger anymore though? European here so probably biased but I feel like US regulatory tools have taken a serious step back the last 15 / 20 years

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#199

Post by Larrikin »

Plyphon_ wrote: post #105
morrbo wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mixcloud is great however the people in charge seem to be intent on killing the platform with bad ideas. I say this as a huge fan and a paying customer (premium user). The android app is horrible. They used to have 10-30 minutes of cache time, now they have 0. You go under a tunnel, on the tube, whatever, and your stream cuts out. Also lots of UI bugs. This might have gotten better but I wouldn't know as I am on an o…

> You have to pay to rewind stuff apparently This is true. It is also the worst piece of hostile-UX I've ever seen. I'd love to have seen the Product Designer and Product Manager tie this one back to revenue forecasts. Who knows, maybe its a huge converter? It just seems overly hostile to me, as if thats the only way they could think to increase revenue - instead of, you know, working on their core value proposition.

When I discovered mixcloud, this was described as a "feature" that essentially turned them into radio which allowed them to have much more generous licensing terms with the labels. It allowed small DJs to essentially upload mixes containing none of their own music. At the time it made sense and may still be true to an extent, but SoundCloud is far more popular and seems to have become much more lax in their policy of long form audio.

I've only lost one mix in my favorites in the past few years and that was the rare good mix I found consisting solely of popular rap.

Pretty much everything else I listen to on there is EDM and most of the time they are DJs uploading sets they played for money at huge festivals. I only lose those when the artist removes music to force people to listen to their new stuff. In those situations it makes an easy filter for who to unfollow since if the new stuff was any good they wouldn't need to remove the old stuff.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#200

Post by _jal »

zackmorris wrote: post #181
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…

While I don't normally condone the use of swearing, I applaud your use of it here. I moved furniture for a few years in my early 20s, and none of the trucks had working air conditioning. That was during a heat wave with 110 F heat, which translates to 120+ at the top of a trailer. The air conditioning should have worked at the very least to prevent a heat-exhaustion death. Some things in life will never change, and t…

One may only swear around you when engaged in traditionally blue-collar careers? I'm pretty sure every engineering department I've ever been in would have a choice word or two.
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