Music streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale • Hacker News Board

Re: Music streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale

#21

Post by alisonatwork » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 4:03 PM UTC

jorvi wrote: post #17

Just logged into my dormant SoundCloud to check the activity of a bunch of friends and acquaintances. Looks like most user activity (liking tracks, add to playlist, etc) steeply dropped off ~13-11 years ago, and I see virtually no one active after ~7 years ago. Not sure what the cause of that is..

They tried to win the mainstream audience and failed because the mainstream went to Spotify instead. But by selling out to the majors they also hurt the underground artists and producers that built the site's indie cred in the first place. There was a good article a few years back on The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/21/15999172/soundcloud-busin...

I guess since then the platform saw some success as a home for lo-fi hip-hop, so it seems a new generation of youngsters have gotten something out of it. Good for them. For electronic music I think we mostly went to Bandcamp and Mixcloud, especially when Beatport sold out too.

Re: Music streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale

#22

Post by i_am_jl » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 4:05 PM UTC

drcongo wrote: post #11

naltroc wrote: post #9

Longtime soundcloud user here (creator and consumer, pro subscriber). Not excited about this news but also a good time to share about Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/ This site has shockingly few ads (feels like one per week) and lets you stream complete mixes. You won't find single tracks here. For most music consumers though, mixes are probably what you didn't know you needed anyway.

I love Mixcloud (creator, heavy consumer, and pro subscriber). I never really understood the USP of SoundCloud, for mixes Mixcloud beats it hands down, for single tracks audio.com beats it all ends up despite being very beta. SoundCloud's USP seems to be "it's just about bearable to use in place of audio.com and mixcloud".

I was a SoundCloud subscriber for a few years until mid '19. Back then the value prop was music discovery + streaming access to artists who weren't on other platforms.

But I don't see any evidence of growth. Other platforms have stepped up their music discovery tools and broadened their catalogs. I ended up dropping the subscription because they didn't support Android Auto and said they had no plans to (in their defense, they introduced support in mid-2021).

It very much feels like SoundCloud was first to the space (were they? surely someone else did "YouTube but music" first) and have been riding that out.

Re: Music streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale

#23

Post by rafaelgoncalves » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 4:13 PM UTC

pmarreck wrote: post #3

I've been a big fan of them forever and have had the paid version for years. It's one of the few (if any) legit places to get good remixes of songs (I've literally been a fan of remixes since 1982 when I was 10 and heard the "extended" version of "Don't You Want Me" by Human League for the first time, lol... just noticed that someone remixed this song AGAIN just 2 years ago and it's pretty good: https://soundcloud.co…

nice remix, thanks for sharing! And the soundcloud has been limited on some countries, eg., here in Brazil where i live i could not listen the remix on soundcloud but they no issues on youtube and spotify for example.

Re: Music streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale

#24

Post by leotravis10 » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 4:14 PM UTC

alisonatwork wrote: post #16

doublerabbit wrote: post #8

First bandcamp and now soundcloud. It's looking bleak for music services. I use soundcloud as my sole music provider.

I don't really see a decline in Bandcamp yet. It was great when it launched and is still great today, regardless of its current ownership. I'm surprised people still stuck with SoundCloud, to be honest, especially after they betrayed the very DJs and producers who had made the service popular in the first place. I canceled my paid account ~10 years ago and never looked back.

I'm sure the decline is coming eventually and folks need to be ready for that at anytime. The dust hasn't truly settled yet.

Re: Music streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale

#25

Post by sjwhevvvvvsj » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 4:24 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #19

Yet another opportunity to remind buying physical media is still an option.

SoundCloud was specifically good to find artists who didn’t exist on physical yet. That’s kinda the whole point of it, or was supposed to be before they lost their way.

Re: Music streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale

#26

Post by chimeracoder » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 4:52 PM UTC

alisonatwork wrote: post #16

doublerabbit wrote: post #8

First bandcamp and now soundcloud. It's looking bleak for music services. I use soundcloud as my sole music provider.

I don't really see a decline in Bandcamp yet. It was great when it launched and is still great today, regardless of its current ownership. I'm surprised people still stuck with SoundCloud, to be honest, especially after they betrayed the very DJs and producers who had made the service popular in the first place. I canceled my paid account ~10 years ago and never looked back.

> I don't really see a decline in Bandcamp yet. It was great when it launched and is still great today, regardless of its current ownership.

It's only been a couple of months since the sale[0]. They've already shut down a couple of features/services that Bandcamp previously had, as part of the layoffs which "just happened" to cover every single member of the union's bargaining team (and nearly all members of the bargaining unit). You're not necessarily going to see the full effects of a change like that so immediately.

It's too early to say what will actually happen beyond that, though signs aren't good.

[0] The Songtradr sale is the more significant of the two, because Epic only purchased Bandcamp in order to improve their legal standing for their otherwise-unrelated suit against Google. Now that that's not an issue, they sold it to Songtradr which is by far the more worrisome owner.

Re: Music streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale

#27

Post by pjmlp » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 4:58 PM UTC

sjwhevvvvvsj wrote: post #25

pjmlp wrote: post #19

Yet another opportunity to remind buying physical media is still an option.

SoundCloud was specifically good to find artists who didn’t exist on physical yet. That’s kinda the whole point of it, or was supposed to be before they lost their way.

Strangely enough YouTube, Vevo, Twitter have been my sources all these years, alongside indie concerts in small clubs.

Re: Music streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale

#28

Post by Andrex » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:04 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #7

YouTube wouldn't be the worst company to acquire SoundCloud. YouTube is already trying to gain some mind/market-share from Spotify. YouTube is already home to lots of non-label music and remixes and has most (all?) of the social/commenting features that SoundCloud has.

In theory, yes. But any IRL attempt to merge the two platforms would probably be a technical nightmare and inspire several user revolts. Not sure it'd be worth it to YouTube.

Re: Music streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale

#29

Post by wholelotta » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:20 PM UTC

brodock wrote: post #18

It's amazing how SoundCloud had "everything" and they threw away. They had the unique Indy artists, they had the DJs and music producers, and they opted to move to compete with Spotify on a money loosing bet, without putting the effort to build the Player in at least every single platform supported. They did even more harm to themselves by blocking open source players that were doing "their work for free". If there i…

All these web companies ran on gatekeeping their data to employ frontend teams. They look even more valuable to the financiers seeking to keep the aggregate busy so they don’t have time to focus on the expropriation of their labor and deflation of their buying power.

But it’s a terrible long term strategy as it cuts off the group who would pay for API access only. But also a community of frontend first users who don’t care about APIs but design and functionality that works for them, means frontend first users jump to the next company with a frontend. If there was an API fee and key, and open frontends of various styles, Sooundcloud wins.

There are API only streamers out there but they tend to focus on serving big tech. Apple I know specifies quality levels but actually passes some streaming requests along to wholesaler backends that deal with all the API and licensing crap for them.

Re: Music streaming service SoundCloud tunes up for sale

#30

Post by seanw444 » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:22 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #19

Yet another opportunity to remind buying physical media is still an option.

I absolutely would not have discovered the bands I listen to all the time today if I stuck to physical media. The strength of these services is discovery. But yes, if you can obtain physical copies, that would be a good idea. I should probably start doing that.