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Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads

nytimes.com

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

#3

Post by onedev »

Their website and apps are really bad....but what keeps me coming back is the incredible incredible content. I've found so many great remixes as well as obscure but extremely talented musicians on Soundcloud. It's amazing.

The site/apps and just general design really are embarrassing though. I hope they're doing something about it.

I guess this is one case where content really does make up for a shoddy product. I'd be interested to know the story behind their growth and how they managed to create the community of content creators. I'm sure at least a part of it is lack of a better alternative but I'm sure there's some secret sauce in there somewhere.

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

#4

Post by FatalBaboon »

onedev wrote: post #3

Their website and apps are really bad....but what keeps me coming back is the incredible incredible content. I've found so many great remixes as well as obscure but extremely talented musicians on Soundcloud. It's amazing. The site/apps and just general design really are embarrassing though. I hope they're doing something about it. I guess this is one case where content really does make up for a shoddy product. I'd b…

I find the site/app/api amazing.

You can navigate while playing a song without interruption, keyboard shortcuts make sense, I can even play from Emacs!

The only thing I regret is the buggy login via facebook (the logo doesn't show, or clicking it doesn't do anything).

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

#5

Post by colechristensen »

onedev wrote: post #3

Their website and apps are really bad....but what keeps me coming back is the incredible incredible content. I've found so many great remixes as well as obscure but extremely talented musicians on Soundcloud. It's amazing. The site/apps and just general design really are embarrassing though. I hope they're doing something about it. I guess this is one case where content really does make up for a shoddy product. I'd b…

Sometimes, only sometimes, I think badly designed things are better because the lack of superficial (and sometimes even important) quality tends to keep out the crap.

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

#6

Post by latch »

onedev wrote: post #3

Their website and apps are really bad....but what keeps me coming back is the incredible incredible content. I've found so many great remixes as well as obscure but extremely talented musicians on Soundcloud. It's amazing. The site/apps and just general design really are embarrassing though. I hope they're doing something about it. I guess this is one case where content really does make up for a shoddy product. I'd b…

I'm less forgiving...I agree the content is great and when I set my mind to look around, I always find something I really like. But it's a battle. It's slow. It doesn't run well on my laptop, and search and recommendations are pretty useless...I just end up browsing huge lists and hoping.

Maybe part of it is that some of it is so well executed (the content, sure, but things like the comments are great), that it really makes the not-so-great stuff stand out. Still, I'm hopeful they'll keep iterating and improving!

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

#7

Post by justrandomanon »

Soundcloud already has a pro plan which I see a lot of artists using. Why do they need ads? Do you they not already make enough money?

It's not the specifics of what is being proposed here that bothers me. But something about this makes me feel that this will be soundclouds downfall. I don't want to be soundclouds product. I want soundcloud to be the product. I would happily pay for their service (providing they don't go down this route).

(I'm a bedroom producer that uploads to soundcloud, considering a pro plan)

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

#8

Post by Oculus »

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 directly to the fans for free. Anything that gets in the way of that (e.g. ads) is a step in the wrong direction. Instead of attempting to monetize ears/eyes, I'd instead suggest for a premium subscription for artists that gives them enhanced tools to monitor/distribute/track/etc. their music on the platform.

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

#9

Post by boyaka »

FatalBaboon wrote: post #4
onedev wrote: post #3

Their website and apps are really bad....but what keeps me coming back is the incredible incredible content. I've found so many great remixes as well as obscure but extremely talented musicians on Soundcloud. It's amazing. The site/apps and just general design really are embarrassing though. I hope they're doing something about it. I guess this is one case where content really does make up for a shoddy product. I'd b…

I find the site/app/api amazing. You can navigate while playing a song without interruption, keyboard shortcuts make sense, I can even play from Emacs! The only thing I regret is the buggy login via facebook (the logo doesn't show, or clicking it doesn't do anything).

Here's a post about the technology behind SoundCloud from a couple of months ago [1]. I agree that this is a great example of a cloud service. While it might not be completely optimized for one particular platform, I am able to hop between IOS, Android, and PC browsers with all my data being updated flawlessly and in realtime.

My biggest peeve with SoundCloud, though, is keeping track of what I have listened to and trying to remember a song that I thought was amazing. I didn't have an account for the first several months I was using it, but I would just remember the Artists I like and listen to their profiles/likes. Not being able to remember songs and artist names motivated me to make an account and start following them, and liking the songs I wanted to hear again, reblogging the ones I want to share with others... In the end, even though it was frustrating for me, I suppose this is good for SoundCloud and getting people to provide feedback.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7878433

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