Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads • Hacker News Board

Re: Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads

#21

Post by felixbraun » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 8:59 AM UTC

From the official blog:

> At the Premier partner level, creators will have the opportunity to make money from their tracks through advertising.[...] Every time you see or hear an ad, an artist gets paid.

http://blog.soundcloud.com/2014/08/21/introducing-on-soundcl...

This is huge: Soundcloud has a way better connection to artists/labels than Spotify or Rdio -- which means that the best content will be on Soundlcoud first.

Given that users follow the content, I think it is safe to suggest that Soundcloud will be bigger than Spotify in a few years.

Re: Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads

#22

Post by Tiksi » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 9:20 AM UTC

Oculus wrote: post #8

I'm not sure this model will work like it did with Youtube. You don't put Youtube on in the background/at a party while friends are over. You sit down and watch a video (hence you're willing to sit through an advertisement). Music streaming that is broken up by advertisements is why people dislike radio and are moving to online services. The reason artists like Soundcloud is it gives a way to distribute music directl…

I'm not sure I agree with the first part of your comment. Spotify already does this, and in my experience plenty of people leave spotify on as background music and/or at a party.

My old roommates did this pretty frequently, and while it was annoying at first to hear ads between songs, as long as they're short enough, you eventually just tune them out.

If anything I'd say that the youtube style ads that play before your content are more aggravating, since you are delayed from actually seeing the content you are trying to watch, much like a loading page is generally a worse experience than a loading content area.

Re: Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads

#23

Post by sveme » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 9:43 AM UTC

dts wrote: post #20

JonnieCache wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems fair. What about on the users stream page though? Also, what is a "premier track?"

A premier track is a track uploaded and owned by a SoundCloud member who is part of the premier program. It can be monetised (ads can play in front of it) or not. The premier tier is currently invite-only but we want to open it up to more artists as fast as we can. If a user (currently US only) is listening to their stream and they start playing a track a premier member has decided to monetise an ad will play in fron…

Aren't you in the perfect position to establish a premium subscription for users, establishing a market place for musicians without the labels? Say, a user could choose the ad-supported model or a model where he deposits some money in a soundcloud account. A musician can then have some songs available for free, some songs available with ads played beforehand or some soungs available easily for a micropayment from the user's soundcloud account (say 5 cents). Soundcloud gets 30%, the musician 70%. If you love the song or album, you sell unlimited access (and download) to the song or album for something decided by the musician.

Just because ads are a horrible way to monetise a web endeavour.

Re: Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads

#24

Post by k-mcgrady » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 10:02 AM UTC

felixbraun wrote: post #21

From the official blog: > At the Premier partner level, creators will have the opportunity to make money from their tracks through advertising.[...] Every time you see or hear an ad, an artist gets paid. http://blog.soundcloud.com/2014/08/21/introducing-on-soundcl... This is huge: Soundcloud has a way better connection to artists/labels than Spotify or Rdio -- which means that the best content will be on Soundlcoud f…

The only thing SoundCloud was missing for artists was monetisation. I just hope there isn't a user backlash. I've already seen a lot of people complaining.

Re: Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads

#25

Post by narag » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 10:02 AM UTC

felixbraun wrote: post #21

From the official blog: > At the Premier partner level, creators will have the opportunity to make money from their tracks through advertising.[...] Every time you see or hear an ad, an artist gets paid. http://blog.soundcloud.com/2014/08/21/introducing-on-soundcl... This is huge: Soundcloud has a way better connection to artists/labels than Spotify or Rdio -- which means that the best content will be on Soundlcoud f…

There is also MixCloud: http//mixcloud.com/ with a very similar service. I've read that a lot of DJ types migrated to MixCloud when SoundCloud started to block content because of IP issues.

MixCloud doesn't let you download (which SoundCloud does sometimes) although it's not difficult to find out the streaming URL.

I use both services, but I'm not really happy with the playlist systems of neither. Recommendations, contrary to what other commenter said, are very good.

I don't really use them with the phone: too much traffic, also train tunnels are bad. I wish it could cache, downloading while on wi-fi and listen later.

Re: Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads

#26

Post by k-mcgrady » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 10:05 AM UTC

Oculus wrote: post #8

I'm not sure this model will work like it did with Youtube. You don't put Youtube on in the background/at a party while friends are over. You sit down and watch a video (hence you're willing to sit through an advertisement). Music streaming that is broken up by advertisements is why people dislike radio and are moving to online services. The reason artists like Soundcloud is it gives a way to distribute music directl…

>> "The reason artists like Soundcloud is it gives a way to distribute music directly to the fans for free."

Although I disagree that that's why artists like SoundCloud this won't change that. Ads will only play if you choose to monetise a track. Don't want ads on your track? You don't have them.

Re: Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads

#27

Post by dts » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 10:30 AM UTC

sveme wrote: post #23

dts wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A premier track is a track uploaded and owned by a SoundCloud member who is part of the premier program. It can be monetised (ads can play in front of it) or not. The premier tier is currently invite-only but we want to open it up to more artists as fast as we can. If a user (currently US only) is listening to their stream and they start playing a track a premier member has decided to monetise an ad will play in fron…

Aren't you in the perfect position to establish a premium subscription for users, establishing a market place for musicians without the labels? Say, a user could choose the ad-supported model or a model where he deposits some money in a soundcloud account. A musician can then have some songs available for free, some songs available with ads played beforehand or some soungs available easily for a micropayment from the…

From the linked article: "Eventually, [SoundCloud] plans to introduce a paid subscription that will let listeners skip those ads, as they can with Spotify and other licensed services."

Subscriptions and rev shares are generally far less friction than charging up an account and explicitly giving a micropayment to an artist. I think SoundCloud already is a "marketplace" where independent artists can function without labels (if they want to do all the other work that labels cover), just that currently all transactions happen outside of the platform. That said, I don't have any more info about how a premium subscription for users would function.

Re: Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads

#28

Post by abraxasz » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 10:36 AM UTC

dts wrote: post #18

JonnieCache wrote: post #17

I've just spent £35 to renew my pro subscription. If this means people are less likely to come and listen to my music, being bombarded with adverts on a page that I have paid for, I will be most displeased. I'll have to stop wearing my soundcloud tshirt to raves for a start, or everyone will be looking at me like like I'm about to sell them something. Bandcamp, anyone?

Hey there, I work at SoundCloud. One thing that might not be totally clear in our messaging about this right now is that ads will only play against tracks premier members have chosen to monetise. If you aren't monetising your tracks, your listeners won't be affected.

If so this should really have been made clearer in the press coverage because it is very different from the way I and probably other people understood it. I understand that soundclound would need a way to make money, and what you describe seems like a very reasonable way to proceed. However, a youtube-like or spotify-like ads system would likely be much harder to sell to users.

Re: Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads

#29

Post by dan_b » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 10:38 AM UTC

Oculus wrote: post #8

I'm not sure this model will work like it did with Youtube. You don't put Youtube on in the background/at a party while friends are over. You sit down and watch a video (hence you're willing to sit through an advertisement). Music streaming that is broken up by advertisements is why people dislike radio and are moving to online services. The reason artists like Soundcloud is it gives a way to distribute music directl…

I've seen people DJing at parties using two browser windows with Youtube.

Re: Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads

#30

Post by aikah » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 10:43 AM UTC

dan_b wrote: post #29

Oculus wrote: post #8

I'm not sure this model will work like it did with Youtube. You don't put Youtube on in the background/at a party while friends are over. You sit down and watch a video (hence you're willing to sit through an advertisement). Music streaming that is broken up by advertisements is why people dislike radio and are moving to online services. The reason artists like Soundcloud is it gives a way to distribute music directl…

I've seen people DJing at parties using two browser windows with Youtube.

> I've seen people DJing at parties using two browser windows with Youtube.

And ? DJing is about mixing music sources seamlessly, wherever they come from.I wouldnt trust the network during a gig though ,but there is nothing shocking in getting your music from Youtube.