SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM • Hacker News Board

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#201

Post by Koremat6666 » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 1:43 AM UTC

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…

The reason why I cancelled SiriusXM was because of lack of diversity. A huge chunk of the channels were the sports channels which I did not care about.

Music channels were outright weird and all of them played may be 20 songs again and again.

They had zero diversity of music. There are plenty of non-white, non-american born people in North America and yet they did not have any Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Punjabi channels.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#202

Post by Koremat6666 » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 1:46 AM UTC

HelloFellowDevs wrote: post #4

gdsdfe wrote: post #3

SoundCloud is getting worse by the day, I just don't understand why they're not doing the obvious to monetize and get better

What is the obvious?

They could fix their search to begin with. It is pretty pathetic.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#203

Post by senorjazz » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 1:58 AM UTC

Larrikin wrote: post #199

Plyphon_ wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> 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

Fairly sure that was only applied to some locations.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#204

Post by xfitm3 » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 2:01 AM UTC

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…

Fuck work trucks without a/c in hot climates

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#205

Post by scarface74 » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 2:08 AM UTC

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…

In the modern era would streaming over cellular been good enough if you were still a truck driver?

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#206

Post by ericskiff » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 2:14 AM UTC

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…

Wait - is this not still a large part of the SoundCloud model? I host a bunch of my 8bit tracks up there and give them away for free, but I have to pay $150 annually to do it (and yes I self host as well, but the soundcloud ecosystem drives a good deal of traffic my way, and I appreciate the service they provide.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#207

Post by pid_0 » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 2:44 AM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #64

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 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…

The quality is also worse than FM in many cases. Satellite radio sucks for music.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#208

Post by muglug » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 5:07 AM UTC

nitrogen wrote: post #193

muglug wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Wikipedia said January 25th for some reason

Video search was launched then, but you couldn’t submit your own videos.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#209

Post by jupp0r » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 5:17 AM UTC

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?

Once you throw mountains into the picture, it becomes pretty hard to have coverage everywhere.

Re: SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM

#210

Post by nojvek » Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 5:23 AM UTC

SiriusXM has deals with a whole bunch of dealerships. A new car comes with SiriusXM. Even rental cars have deals. I remember heartz had a dark pattern of including SiriusXM and charging almost as much as GPS for $10/day unless customer explicitly asked to cancel it.

SiriusXM use every tactic in their book to convert and retain customers. In the age of Spotify and Apple Music, their charges don’t quite make sense.

I cancelled mine because satellite reception was poorer than FM and I just didn’t see the point. They spammed me pretty hard for 6 months and gave me all sorts of offers. The product isn’t worth it.