Soundcloud could be forced to close after massive losses...

[ras.s]

well...soundcloud agrees with you. its also hemorrhaging cash and might be going out of buisness. soooo.....

And just as we had this conversation, I started to follow ten more artists and labels. Found someone who had similar stats as I had, few followers and over 100 being followed - means it's someone interested in music. Will take a while to go through what they've already got and most certainly will provide me new music for a good time. Man I really like Soundcloud exactly for this -- from the perspective of someone who actively seeks out and listens to new music.

Also noticed this: https://blog.soundcloud.com/2016/02/02/ ... -stations/ They are making it easier to find new music, have to try that if it works. Not a big fan of randomly played endless streams, but we'll see.

[Touch The Universe]

Just what universal wants: close all the major streaming sites and force people to buy downloads for there site.

[chaosWyrM]

well...soundcloud agrees with you. its also hemorrhaging cash and might be going out of buisness. soooo.....

And just as we had this conversation, I started to follow ten more artists and labels. Found someone who had similar stats as I had, few followers and over 100 being followed - means it's someone interested in music. Will take a while to go through what they've already got and most certainly will provide me new music for a good time. Man I really like Soundcloud exactly for this -- from the perspective of someone who actively seeks out and listens to new music.

Also noticed this: https://blog.soundcloud.com/2016/02/02/ ... -stations/ They are making it easier to find new music, have to try that if it works. Not a big fan of randomly played endless streams, but we'll see.

yes. i understand that thats the direction soundcloud has been heading for a while. its my assertion that its that direction thats killing it. sure...theyve made it easier for listeners but in doing so theyve shot themselves in the foot by making it not all that useful for content creators. this is my point exactly.

theres no denying that sc is declining...rapidly. they are loosing money hand over fist and they are loosing the very people that they rely on most...artists. how easy will it be to find new music...when no artists are posting new music there anymore? its already happening. artists are jumping ship left right and center. i personally havent updated my soundcloud in almost a year. i even posted on my soundcloud that im not using it anymore and point people to my website or fb.

just yesterday i had a conversation with a fairly known artist about how they arent going to use sc anymore because of all the recent changes...they were asking about alternative sites.

so yes...your usage of sc is where they have decided to butter their bread. unfortunately...they chose the wrong side, and were seeing the results. soundcloud is dying.

[ras.s]

I do fail to understand your point about it being easier for listeners to use somehow being damaging to the artists?

They haven't done any major cuts in their services have they? They've increased the amount a free user can upload, haven't they? Made it easier for entirely random people to find their music? How exactly have they worsened their service towards the artists?

I can't see the decline, to be honest. I constantly keep finding new artists or old artists who have joined there and all are posting music. Is this really something genre specific?

[DJ Warmonger]

average wage per employee for that year totalled €79,980.

That's over 6500 Euro monthly.

eems to me soundclouds biggest problem has been one of identity. they wanted to become a listening destination...but they arent one. the main use of soundcloud was for small artists to have a platform to share their work, not as a place to go to listen to music. sure...you could do that...and they even made that easy...but the main function was to make sharing easy...not listening.

there really shouldnt even be music from sony artists (or other major labels) on soundcloud in the first place. soundclouds decision to scramble and try to find ways to placate large labels and to attract listeners instead of enhancing tools for small artists will be their downfall.

Absolutely agree with this. Soundcloud shouldn't host unlicensed songs. All indie labels love to post their clips on Soundcloud, though.

They also shouldn't allow DJ sets, these generate a lot of traffic but no royalties, unlike Mixcloud.

[chaosWyrM]

I do fail to understand your point about it being easier for listeners to use somehow being damaging to the artists?

They haven't done any major cuts in their services have they? They've increased the amount a free user can upload, haven't they? Made it easier for entirely random people to find their music? How exactly have they worsened their service towards the artists?

I can't see the decline, to be honest. I constantly keep finding new artists or old artists who have joined there and all are posting music. Is this really something genre specific?

yes they have done major cuts (id call them changes, not cuts) on sc...not the least of which is removing the ability to directly share a track on facebook. probably the single most used feature they had. other "changes" are the removal of the spotlight feature, the god awful change in how comments work...the grouping of playlsists into one long track.

heres an old article (i did say this has been going on for a while) talking about how sc is now for listeners and not artists: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/07/edit ... t-artists/

"The new SoundCloud launches site enhancements that benefit listeners more than artists. Conversely, points of failure hurt the legacy artist community for which the platform was founded more than the new listening audience. SoundCloud has shifted on its axis."

heres the quick and dirty rundown of recent criticisms with sc. obviously they go deeper than this overview...but you should get the idea:

(from the cs wiki...it was easier to do it this way)

As SoundCloud has grown and expanded beyond its initial user base, consisting primarily of grassroots musicians, some original users have complained that it is losing its fidelity to artists in an attempt to appeal to the masses, perhaps in preparation for public sale. Such criticism particularly followed the launching of a revamped website in 2013 that was heavily reconfigured to be more amenable to listeners—at the expense of artists, some claimed. CEO Alexander Ljung responded that while he would take these criticisms into consideration, the changes to the site would result in higher usage numbers for SoundCloud.

On 3 July 2014, TorrentFreak reported that SoundCloud offered unlimited removal powers to certain copyright holders, allowing those copyright holders to remove paid subscribers' content without avenue to contest and dispute wrongful deletions.

SoundCloud has announced a new partnership with Zefr, a content tracking company that currently works with YouTube to help identify songs on the platform and better facilitate either takedowns or ads being run against it. This means Zefr is Soundcloud 's copyright enforcement manager. The announcement is light on the hard details of what the two companies plan to do together, though Zefr states it will "better understand the sharing of content on the platform." Some users are worried it could mean a stricter copyright enforcement and more ads.

SoundCloud has a continuous play feature on non-mobile systems which relates to the listener's stream and likes. Unlike YouTube's autoplay feature which is on by default but can be turned off, users cannot turn off the continuous play feature on SoundCloud.


if you dont think the removal of one of the (or THE?) most important features...plus the addition of ads and auto take downs...combined with the refusal to improve audio quality isnt detrimental to artists...well i dont know what to tell you. listenership is going strong...but artists are leaving though...thats for sure.

just what all these listeners will be listening to? i have no idea.

[Zombie Queen]

Soundcloud had it coming. We can always move back to myspace...

[GeckoYamori]

The takedown algorithms (which naturally hit me personally with false positives) really soured my outlook on Soundcloud. After them making such cowardly concessions to bullying, archaic media corporations, I don't have much sympathy for their economic troubles if they're so willing to alienate the very people responsible for driving traffic to their service.

[fedexnman]

SC hmmmmmmm . I don't see them going down . But watch it'll have adds like YouTube, GoogleMusic , etc etc . That seems to be the trend these days and then a membership/subscription model for no adds .

[ras.s]

yes they have done major cuts (id call them changes, not cuts) on sc...not the least of which is removing the ability to directly share a track on facebook. probably the single most used feature they had. other "changes" are the removal of the spotlight feature, the god awful change in how comments work...the grouping of playlsists into one long track.

....


if you dont think the removal of one of the (or THE?) most important features...plus the addition of ads and auto take downs...combined with the refusal to improve audio quality isnt detrimental to artists...well i dont know what to tell you. listenership is going strong...but artists are leaving though...thats for sure.

Are you really saying the most used feature on their site was to cross-post on a different site? Surely even basic logic necessitates that the upload has to be more used, for without it there would be no cross-posting to begin with, right?

Now, I don't have a Facebook account, but I do occasionally check one group because they post about events that interest me, and there are Soundcloud links there. I can't imagine it to be so hard to make a post directly there where you are going to make a post to. And even if I had Facebook credentials I'd be wary of giving them away for a purpose like that.

There definitely is a spotlight feature, because I can see it being used. Some posts have "Spotlight" written on them and they are older than some other uploads.

God awful change in comments? How was it different from now, when you just type a comment and it appears at the moment you started typing it?

What's wrong with the playlists? You can pick any track from the playlist just the same.

Ads? Haven't seen or heard any, would be a bugger though. Takedowns? Well I haven't posted anything so I haven't encountered such, but I wouldn't be posting anyone else's music anyway. It is a piracy protection scheme and the basic idea of it -- it's not bad. If it constantly keeps giving false positives, it's not functioning properly and they do know their site not functioning for their content creators is bad for their business.


Audio quality sure could be better, but then on the other hand, it is a promotion site, so just link to wherever you got the good stuff. Or allow downloads, they give the option. I can't imagine them keeping it that way forever though, as people do demand better quality.

just what all these listeners will be listening to? i have no idea.

New, innovative and creative music, just as before. Not necessarily big music corporation stuff, but that isn't a big loss in my book. Independent artists.


I kind of get the feeling you're expecting the service (free one at that) to always stay the same? It isn't what it was, so it must be totally bad and entirely useless for all. Yet I get my stream filled every time I go to the site -- and I do hope it stays that way.

I suppose it just doesn't work for you and you're feeling nostalgic for something that's not coming back. It's working for me because I keep hearing new music from artists I'm interested in and even from artists I hadn't heard of.

This is getting tiring, let's just back off.

[chaosWyrM]

yes they have done major cuts (id call them changes, not cuts) on sc...not the least of which is removing the ability to directly share a track on facebook. probably the single most used feature they had. other "changes" are the removal of the spotlight feature, the god awful change in how comments work...the grouping of playlsists into one long track.

....


if you dont think the removal of one of the (or THE?) most important features...plus the addition of ads and auto take downs...combined with the refusal to improve audio quality isnt detrimental to artists...well i dont know what to tell you. listenership is going strong...but artists are leaving though...thats for sure.

Are you really saying the most used feature on their site was to cross-post on a different site? Surely even basic logic necessitates that the upload has to be more used, for without it there would be no cross-posting to begin with, right?

Now, I don't have a Facebook account, but I do occasionally check one group because they post about events that interest me, and there are Soundcloud links there. I can't imagine it to be so hard to make a post directly there where you are going to make a post to. And even if I had Facebook credentials I'd be wary of giving them away for a purpose like that.

There definitely is a spotlight feature, because I can see it being used. Some posts have "Spotlight" written on them and they are older than some other uploads.

God awful change in comments? How was it different from now, when you just type a comment and it appears at the moment you started typing it?

What's wrong with the playlists? You can pick any track from the playlist just the same.

Ads? Haven't seen or heard any, would be a bugger though. Takedowns? Well I haven't posted anything so I haven't encountered such, but I wouldn't be posting anyone else's music anyway. It is a piracy protection scheme and the basic idea of it -- it's not bad. If it constantly keeps giving false positives, it's not functioning properly and they do know their site not functioning for their content creators is bad for their business.


Audio quality sure could be better, but then on the other hand, it is a promotion site, so just link to wherever you got the good stuff. Or allow downloads, they give the option. I can't imagine them keeping it that way forever though, as people do demand better quality.

just what all these listeners will be listening to? i have no idea.

New, innovative and creative music, just as before. Not necessarily big music corporation stuff, but that isn't a big loss in my book. Independent artists.


I kind of get the feeling you're expecting the service (free one at that) to always stay the same? It isn't what it was, so it must be totally bad and entirely useless for all. Yet I get my stream filled every time I go to the site -- and I do hope it stays that way.

I suppose it just doesn't work for you and you're feeling nostalgic for something that's not coming back. It's working for me because I keep hearing new music from artists I'm interested in and even from artists I hadn't heard of.

This is getting tiring, let's just back off.

1. ulpoading isnt a "feature" its a necessary function or the site doesnt work at all. thats like saying an engine and wheels are "features" of a car. when a MAJOR (the main) point of contact for an artist to their fan base is through facebook, removing that point of contact is quite a big issue.

2...oh whats the point? you continually state that you dont use the site as an artist but rather a consumer...how then are you supposed to understand? suffice to say that for the past 3 years artists have been bemoaning the changes taking place at soundcloud. as of late (since other services have begun to take the place of sc) artists are bailing on soundcloud like crazy. i guess you think theres no reason for that? if you have no point of reference for the complaints why do you insist they arent valid?

apparently enough artists feel that soundcloud doesnt serve them anymore since many of them are leaving.

and not for nothing...i had a paid subscription to soundcloud for years. i let it lapse because the service became mostly pointless.

[chaosWyrM]

since this thread got me thinking...i decided to open a hearthis.at account.

importing everything (23 tracks) from soundcloud went buttery smooth. it imported the tracks (in order), the descriptions, and the images. i did have to go through and re-tag genre stuff...but the entire process took me like 10 mins.

and linking a track to facebook worked perfectly.

so long soundcloud, it was nice knowin' ya.

[VitaminD]

I miss MP3.com in the late 90s. They had charts for various genres and thus sections for different genres. New songs could be found in their own list. Could create CDs for a % of sale price. Payola program for number of listens (I made almost 11 bucks -- which I subsequently never received by not cashing out apparently). And a featured songs list if you wanted to pay for listing.

One could also design their page to a degree.. it was neat.

I suspect most of that went into bandcamp.com when mp3c died.

[trimph1]

Has anyone had any experience with Reverbnation?

[GeckoYamori]

I miss MP3.com in the late 90s. They had charts for various genres and thus sections for different genres. New songs could be found in their own list. Could create CDs for a % of sale price. Payola program for number of listens (I made almost 11 bucks -- which I subsequently never received by not cashing out apparently). And a featured songs list if you wanted to pay for listing.

One could also design their page to a degree.. it was neat.

I suspect most of that went into bandcamp.com when mp3c died.

I also remember the "golden age" of mp3.com. All of these services inevitably seem to go through the same cycle. Eventually in some misguided pursuit of growth they seem more interested in catering to the traditional record labels, often at the expense of marginalizing the smaller indepenant one who originally came to define the site. And then their brand just slip into total irrelevance as their original userbase abandons them for greener pastures, and the kind of mainstream audience who listens to the artists from the big labels already have other outlets for that kind of consumption, so their service is now just pointless and superfluous.