How many of you enjoy SoundCloud...You might want to read this!

So do you enjoy finding new music for free or maybe hosting your own musical creations on one of the world's top streaming websites? I sure do and I almost exclusively use the service for all of my music hunting and streaming needs as well as hosting a few mixes of my own there. That all might change by the end of 2017 though if reports are correct.

Amidst a bevy of possible buyouts, SoundCloud’s financial system is heading towards implosion.  The company has just announced that 173 staffers are being let go, with two major offices going dark.

According to official word from company CEO Alexander Ljung, offices in San Francisco and London are getting shut down.  Effective immediately, all operations will be shifting to Berlin and New York.

Earlier this year, SoundCloud’s CEO alluded to possible bankruptcy ahead, with mounting debt and impatient investors causing concern.  Separately, deals with major labels like Universal Music Group seemed to help, though licensing came with significant costs and downstream promises.  At present, it’s difficult to tell if SoundCloud has met its obligations to its major label partners, financially or otherwise.

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Last July, SoundCloud apparently mulled a $1 billion offer.   Yet, late last year, Spotify walked away from SoundCloud acquisitions talks.  Had they acquired the popular yet underperforming platform, it would’ve slowed down their IPO plans. Then, after posting a very poor financial report, co-founder and CEO Alexander Ljung admitted that the company may close its doors at the end of 2017.

That’s now less than 6 months away.

Source

However it appears there are a few buyers interested in acquiring the 175 million users and the hosted music. French company Deezer has been a front runner looking to boost their own user pool into the upper echelon of streaming content providers. Hopefully something will work out and we won't lose access to such a treasure trove of free music nor the ability for musicians to get heard without spending tons of money hosting content for others to enjoy.

For me SoundCloud has been a musical staple for around 10 years now and I can't imagine a day I couldn't hit my stream and discover some funky new tunes to enjoy! Hopefully whoever ends up buying them out doesn't make the same mistakes with poor business models and lavish offices they can't afford.

a reply to: RickyD

why does a website need 4 physical offices ?? - theres your problem

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
a reply to: RickyD

why does a website need 4 physical offices ?? - theres your problem

To deal with international publishing rights, advertising and analytics I would suppose.
My band JUST posted our demo a couple days ago on Soundcloud and we were mulling over whether to buy a premium account that allows you to track listeners and get other stats.

originally posted by: Asktheanimals

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
a reply to: RickyD

why does a website need 4 physical offices ?? - theres your problem

To deal with international publishing rights, advertising and analytics I would suppose.
My band JUST posted our demo a couple days ago on Soundcloud and we were mulling over whether to buy a premium account that allows you to track listeners and get other stats.

Slightly off topic, but have you also set up a Bandcamp profile, or even Reverbnation (premium)? The good thing about the latter is that your stuff can more easily get distribution and streaming, such as on Spotify and iTunes (you might also want to check out Tunecore, if you haven't). I try to every available service available to get the sound out.

a reply to: ignorant_ape

I would imagine exactly what animals said as well as their whole web infrastructure. They for sure didn't need Google esque offices though. If it ends up just going away I'll be pretty sad as I use SoundCloud specifically for the fact there are a lot of mixes on it as opposed to singular songs. There is always mixcloud but I don't think it's ability to predict music I'll like will be up to par nor does it host nearly as diverse and as much content as SoundCloud does. None of the other music streaming sources I know of really host 30min to 2hr long mixes though and that's what I enjoy.

a reply to: Liquesence

All great sites as well and I do think from the artist perspective that diversity is the best bet. I just always felt browsing SoundCloud was easier and more intuitive than most of the other sites mentioned.

originally posted by: RickyD
a reply to: Liquesence

All great sites as well and I do think from the artist perspective that diversity is the best bet. I just always felt browsing SoundCloud was easier and more intuitive than most of the other sites mentioned.

Yeah, I get that SC is more browsing/searching for new music and easier to use in that regard. I use Soundcloud for my own stuff (as well as BC and RN), but not for finding new music.

I just feel SC is more a community in itself, whereas the others allow one to attempt to market their music better. But yeah, as much as exposure as possible is the best bet.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

I've been using bandcamp for many years as a songwriter, It may not have quite as wide an audience, but you have access to a lot of really useful stats, and it's still free.

a reply to: Liquesence

I actually pay for SoundCloud now just to kinda give back a bit for a solid 10ish years of free tunes. At the end of all of this I hope they still get bought out if not for anything just keeping the music up and streaming. I'm not too familiar with this Deezer company though.

If anyone knows anything about Deezer and what they're offering that would be something I'd be interested in for sure.

Just looked Deezer up and ew...They're in bed with the labels so kiss that user content goodbye I bet. They don't seem to offer uploading for end users from what I could tell. I am going to download their app and check it out when I get home and see what's really going on with them.

a reply to: Liquesence

Thank you very much.
We just kind of threw it out there with one member choosing the platform.
We should definitely explore the worth of each as it would get our music out there to more people.

originally posted by: Stinklehorn
a reply to: Asktheanimals

I've been using bandcamp for many years as a songwriter, It may not have quite as wide an audience, but you have access to a lot of really useful stats, and it's still free.

Bandcamp! I had forgotten about them.
Thanks for the valuable tip!

a reply to: Liquesence

You're on the money here. I can see how as acconsumer, SoundCloud is easier and more intuitive but from the artist side, Bandcamp is free, much less of a hassle to deal with and I actually get paid in real time when people purchase downloads. I'm not sure who those random angels are, but I appreciate the hell out of them because most people are just streaming the he'll out of music or eating up my 200 free downloads per month. I tried using SoundCloud and wasn't a huge fan whereas BC and Reverb Nation are just easier to deal with on my end when I'm already stretched thin and doing 99% of band business myself.

a reply to: peter vlar

That's one thing I never really looked into...The cost from the artist side. At one point when I was mixing tracks I thought about paying to keep more of my mixes up, but decided in the end to rotate them.

For me I guess it all comes down to the fact SoundCloud has content I would struggle to find elsewhere. Not only that but after 10 years of searches, follows, and plays it knows me well now and actually suggests stuff I like. I can go to the discover tab and pick a mix and walk away...4 hours later a few mixes in it's still playing stuff I'm diggin. I can't even begin to count the number of small or obscure artist it has introduced me to.

While I do agree Bandcamp and may other sites will be better for the artist I'm not sure any of those other sites can boast 175 million users which puts SoundCloud in the ranks of amazon, YouTube, and Spotify as one of the top 4 as far as users go.

Seems like they take all my favorite sites away. First myspace, now soundcloud! Having had the soundcloud for some years and managed to get a decent amount of plays on it, this would, straight up ..suck! I also have a Bandcamp page, two actually....that I've never really used. One was for a beat tape I did years ago which I never did anything with or followed through..the other is mostly in waiting until when I release an album with my band.
I wish facebook would stop being so crappy and allow us to edit their sites like Myspace did. And , here is the important part...if you could have a music player on your fb page, that would make all the difference in the world.

As for soundcloud and how they operate I've never really understood it perfectly. Seems like they have a monetizable outlet on there for artists but it's only the elite that get access to that and of course, get this..people who are located in the Usa. So that's the rest of us out.
What I've done a few times, and works imo...is fb ads. That way, you can drive further traffic to your soundcloud post. A pretty good way to generate more exposure, it costs but...it's worth it.
I've never registered on spotify though....seems like, you have to reach ten billion streams and do jay-z numbers to get payed on there. Not gonna happen for artists like myself...

But with all of that said, I've been introduced to and collabed with several artists from all over the world through soundcloud and just online as a whole. That's the priceless part to me.

originally posted by: Asktheanimals

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
a reply to: RickyD

why does a website need 4 physical offices ?? - theres your problem

To deal with international publishing rights, advertising and analytics I would suppose.
My band JUST posted our demo a couple days ago on Soundcloud and we were mulling over whether to buy a premium account that allows you to track listeners and get other stats.

Definitely sign up for premium. I did and the extra stats can be pretty useful. Also overtime, it can be fun to see where your music has been played the most. I was checking my overall stats recently and I've been heard in countries I didn't know existed. Premium also gives you way more time. I think the avg. time for free account is 2 hours, then time goes on and you have more than two hours worth of music on the site , that's when the headache kicks in and have to remove songs. So yeah, Premium!

a reply to: Verse

I actually wrote a paper on that very subject in college. The opportunity it afforded especially when it was new, was priceless. It was around before Bandcamp and reverb Nation and a lot of the other sites. It gave artists a means to skip getting screwed by labels and get heard without being granted an opportunity by the labels. It also gave listeners a chance to find music rather than being given only what the labels wanted to promote. In a sense they helped pioneer the way music is distributed these days...They would be sorely missed!

a reply to: RickyD

Yes indeed. Pages like soundclick, soundcloud and myspace have been a real pioneer in modern music distribution. It was amazing to me, being from Iceland...it really helped getting the music out there and not only that, it exposed other like minded artists to my music. I did my first song with an artist from the Usa in 2002, via the internet...so this has always been a pretty useful tool to me.
As for soundcloud right now though, the question is, what happens now? Remember when Tom sold myspace to Fox , they completely ruined it. Everybody jumped ship and went to facebook. With soundcloud looking to be a goner, we have to wonder what site will be the lucky one to get all the departing users if soundcloud goes the same way. (both listeners and artists)
It's similar to when my old barber shop downtown quit. It was located at the perfect spot and in the house across the street there was another barber shop. Similar places, both had been there for decades and people (including myself) were forced to go the other one, which probably got 100% more traffic afterwards.
I also think, there could be a possible business opportunity here if someone were to start the new soundcloud right now. But most likely the soundcloud traffic will eventually migrate to an already established site. I just know for me, there are so many sites always popping up and you never know which one´ll stick and which ones fade away so you don't want to take the chances on a new site as a user. Let alone, pay for it...

Still, having said all that, I'm kind of in denial about soundcloud leaving us...really hope they don't. Because the more I think about it, I don't really see any good alternatives.

my advice to anyone on soundcloud right now get your # up on youtube. when soundcloud either shuts down, or the traffic is so low that people stop using it (it's already there and getting worse and worse each day), all the traffic is going to go to youtube. did you know that youtube pays as much per stream as apple music and tidal? and you can use samples. and you're not limiting your audience to paid subscribers, anyone can listen for free. seems like a no brainer to me. it's sad that soundcloud will be going because it really was the best place to blow up artists that we've ever seen. the way the feed was and how music was shared was a great formula for this, they just made too many mistakes and pissed off too many people too many times, now it seems to be coming to an end. trying to cater to the big industry labels was their biggest misstep. so was their streaming service. until the next thing comes with that formula that will help independent artists I really think youtube will be the spot, it's just not nearly as good of a formula for putting new artists on as soundcloud was :'(


edit: tl;dr get on youtube and learn about SEO