# Soundcloud is going down....



## gsilbers (Jul 13, 2017)

(maybe) 

http://www.businessinsider.com/soundcloud-only-enough-funding-last-50-days-reports-2017-7

any thoughts on the what to use to embed on websites...

also... politics.. i guess? (if you want to talk about soundcloud business model)


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## Desire Inspires (Jul 13, 2017)

So do you want us to be happy or sad?

I just don't get the idea of making the tough tims of a company a poltical thing. The people that are being laid off don't give a damn about politics or agendas. They have families to take care of and now they are losing their income. That matters to people like me who have been through layoffs and have had family members laid off. People's jobs and incomes matter, no matter how much we want to project our angst with the "big corporation". 

I feel sad for such foolish people who pretend to be open-minded but at the same time put down others and how they are making a living.


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## Zhao Shen (Jul 13, 2017)

gsilbers said:


> (maybe)
> 
> http://www.businessinsider.com/soundcloud-only-enough-funding-last-50-days-reports-2017-7
> 
> ...



It's simple - SoundCloud thrives off of its huge community of artists, and started to take them for granted while milking the listeners for more money.

I'm not happy that they're going away (if reports are true) because it's pretty widely accepted and used by musicians and clients everywhere, but in the long term it might help to have them replaced with a better service that can learn from their mistakes.


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## dannymc (Jul 14, 2017)

they are not perfect but i'd hate to see them go. one of the most effective ways for submitting your music to potential clients. 

Danny


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## Paul Grymaud (Jul 14, 2017)

http://globaldanceelectronic.com/end-era-soundcloud-enough-money-last-another-50-days/


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## Alex Fraser (Jul 14, 2017)

I'd be massively upset if they go. (I have 16k followers.)
It's incredibly frustrating. It's such a simple concept: YouTube for audio. Upload, share.
They've just made so many daft decisions over the years and started to treat the original customer base as a second thought. They've made user hostile decisions with the embedded widget player. There are strange bugs everywhere: On the Soundcloud website, on the widget.

I'm still loath to switch to a different audio provider as the widget remains useful, there's still an audience and the Soundcloud profile page is useful for SEO. I just can't help feeling that the management took their eyes off the ball and started spraying money around as if they were on the same level as Google or Facebook.

Surely there remains a viable business there?


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## J-M (Jul 14, 2017)

I have my songs both on Youtube and Soundcloud. My newest piece has over 600 plays on Soundcloud while on Youtube it's around 20. Not that it really matters to me, since I don't currently (planning to change that) make any money out of my music, but it would be sad to see Soundcloud go.


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## markleake (Jul 14, 2017)

I have hardly any followers (because I have hardly any music up there!), but I still really like SoundCloud. I find the interface a bit annoying and non-intuitive sometimes, but it's still miles ahead of other options for me.

I've often wondered why they structure their website the way they do -- it seems designed to not make much money from adds. Don't know why they haven't learnt from FB or YouTube on how to do that.

SoundCloud has been having financial issues for years now, so it's not like much has changed I guess. I will miss it when it is gone.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jul 14, 2017)

Honestly: I was over 5 year a pro subscriber and paid every year money for the service. But I stopped last year doing that because fuck them. They changed so many good things, just throwed them over board, and incooporated unessecary bullshit just to piss off the customer. At least in my opinion. You reap what you sow, screw them. Shitty greedy ass platform imo, shall they sink, I hope deep and dirty. They started of back then with great intentions though. Sorry for the rant here, but I don´t have any good thoughts actually on soundcloud. A shame because I once loved their concept.


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## Desire Inspires (Jul 14, 2017)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Honestly: I was over 5 year a pro subscriber and paid every year money for the service. But I stopped last year doing that because fuck them. They changed so many good things, just throwed them over board, and incooporated unessecary bullshit just to piss off the customer. At least in my opinion. You reap what you sow, screw them. Shitty greedy ass platform imo, shall they sink, I hope deep and dirty. They started of back then with great intentions though. Sorry for the rant here, but I don´t have any good thoughts actually on soundcloud. A shame because I once loved their concept.



What a terrible and miserable person you must be!


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## JonSolo (Jul 14, 2017)

Desire Inspires said:


> What a terrible and miserable person you must be!



Actually I see a pot AND a kettle, ha. 

Seriously, I understand being salty about a service such as Soundcloud, and I can understand being salty about layoffs. The truth is big business is a fact of life, and survival or failure depends on a strong backbone with a good structure. It requires vision, but also an understanding of how to reach that vision. If reaching that vision requires leaching from the people it intends on serving, then eventually that vision will die and, as said, greed will overcome and destroy it. In the process the people being served will struggle to find a new home, while the people who trusted the vision will struggle to stay in their homes.

If the vision is pure, so are the results. We don't live in a pure world. But as artists, we surely do dream that we do.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jul 14, 2017)

Desire Inspires said:


> What a terrible and miserable person you must be!



Thank you, much appreciated.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Jul 14, 2017)

Desire Inspires said:


> What a terrible and miserable person you must be!



He _did _apologize for the rant in the OP- perhaps you missed that part?


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## Jetzer (Jul 14, 2017)

I think in a few years we will look at Soundcloud as a poor version of something really great that hasn't been invented yet (or isn't popular yet but will be). So much room for improvement.

Facebook, soundcloud, youtube...it doesn't really matter if they go down or not. New platforms will arise.


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## Alex Fraser (Jul 14, 2017)

But there's actually a need for Soundcloud - that's the bit I can't wrap my head around.

For example, if you want video on your website, you can muck around with your own picture server solution... or you can just throw it up on YouTube, not worry about browser compatibility and collect some social media juice in the process. Your video can also be streamed and included in every app under the sun. It's easy to do and everyone does it, including most of the companies we love here on VI control.

It's the same with audio. If you want a (mostly) consistent player experience across all devices, browsers and apps, Soundcloud has been one of the best ways to go. Again - how many companies on VI control use this solution?

So there's a need. There's an obvious base of thousands (millions?) of content creators who will gladly upload music and audio. Some of them (like me) will even pay for the privilege.

So there's a disconnect somewhere. Maybe the costs of hosting have spiralled out of control. Maybe there aren't enough paying content creators. Or maybe - just maybe - the management splurged out and spent the money unwisely. It's telling that you can get rid of 1/3rd of the workforce, yet claim to be able to still run your company with a view to making more money.

But who knows? Those guys built it. We didn't, I guess. Fingers crossed. There's a lot of people depending on Soundcloud in my little corner of the industry...


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## rgarber (Jul 14, 2017)

Huh, I had no idea Soundcloud was in such tough shape which makes hosting music kind of tough and a bit a roulette game since I redesigned my website around those guys just last year. Looks like I'm going to be doing it again here shortly.

So what about alternatives? I also host my music on Soundclick.com which I think the folks there are terrific but I hardly know them even though it's been almost fifteen years I've been with them. There seem to be the same options as Soundcloud but take what I say with a grain a salt, I was only looking for something to host my tunes.

And what about that old fella, mp3.com And there's another one I was with who went through this same kind of restructuring, something like musicpage.com? Sorry if this sounds opportunistic but I've only been with Soundcloud a year or two and though I like the service, I hardly know what else they do or did, especially with Alex's post earlier, that could've made somebody so mad at them. - Rich


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## dgburns (Jul 14, 2017)

google got me to here -

http://lifehacker.com/5812138/cloud...service-for-streaming-your-library-everywhere

wondering if Subsonic might work, of course there is always Vimeo


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## ceemusic (Jul 14, 2017)

The demise of another music parking lot. Not surprised or disappointed, it's been happening since the mp3.com days.

As an alt. try Bandcamp or host music on your own website.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jul 14, 2017)

I just mention now a few of many many other things here, just to cement my standpoint, allright. Back then you had total control over your settings, for instance you were able and foremost easily with a few clicks to adjust them, then they changed the design and then certain things like the control center where you can define your automatic subscription model was really hard to find and I tell you: It was a pain in the butt, in the end I bookmarked that link. Such things were imo done purpose just to make it harder and there is no logical reason behind, besides: Yeah..lets keep the cashflow coming. Besides that: In my old settings I never had an automated paypal purchase model activated, they just activated such thing after their big redesign.. The first time I noticed it where they automatically took of money from my pp acount to renew the subscription. Normally it would be fine, but I DON`T LIKE it when setttings I once have setted in a certain way are changed.
Ok, lets take another thing: Copyright Infringement, yeah, one of my tracks were taken down a while ago because it contained due to their opinion *material of Sony BMG classical recording*. What a Bullshit: It was a mockup Mozarts Little Night Symhony done with samples. Yeah, must be a shitty-good Mockup that their retarted algorithm machine detects a copyright infringement. I filed in a support ticket to hopefully get that problem solved. After weeks no answer. That musictrack was blocked over months, due to their shitty restrictions it was also eating up my upload minutes and I even was not able to delete the file. Somehow after a while it magically dissapeared from my list. Not by this day, I got ever a response and know why and what happened to my support ticket. Then the groups. Yes why they removed that good feature to share music? Groups were a good thing, why..oh yeah they said the groups "were not a strong driver to help users share their new tracks to the most users effectively"..again..bullshit. money money money..
And why the hell do they cooporate with the universal music group who has the right..and now comes:"to take down any songs what they want?" It should be only in the hands of souncloud to decide what songs to take down for whatever reason, but not another company who buys in. But yeah..money money money.
I could write a lot more and I even didn´t talked about any of our music copyrights and the way how soundcloud deals with that. Anyways that is just my experience and opinion and everybody else is entitled to have their own opinion, but please do me favor: Don´t call me names just because I don´t like their policies and tell them to go and F*** Off. And maybe some other people also didn´t like what I say here "cancelled" their subscription to tell them to go and FOff.


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## Alex Fraser (Jul 14, 2017)

To be fair, I never had any issues with any copyright infringement cases. They were always solved quickly. I guess everyones experience is different. That's fair.

Anyway, I found this article with some harder numbers. The consensus appears to be buyer or bust.
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide....ployees-soundcloud-really-path-profitability/


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## SirkusPi (Jul 14, 2017)

I quit Soundcloud a few years ago, back when they abandoned being a genuine repository for independent music and started trying to negotiate major label deals in order to become yet another Spotify (and, I believe, to try to keep the DJ Mix crowd business that, absent label licenses, was engaged in blatant copyright infringement). 

I agree there's a need for the independent music hosting and services that Soundcloud _used to _provide. But I can't lament the passing of what Soundcloud has actually _become _(assuming it does shut down).


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## Paul T McGraw (Jul 14, 2017)

Anyone have any thoughts about ORFIUM?

https://www.orfium.com/welcome/


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## ceemusic (Jul 14, 2017)

Alex Fraser said:


> To be fair, I never had any issues with any copyright infringement cases. They were always solved quickly. I guess everyones experience is different. That's fair.
> 
> Anyway, I found this article with some harder numbers. The consensus appears to be buyer or bust.
> https://www.musicbusinessworldwide....ployees-soundcloud-really-path-profitability/


When I started using them I wasn't allowed to upload & use my own music. I had to use their forms to prove I was the copyright owner.


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## dannymc (Jul 14, 2017)

i'll miss all those fake pornstars becoming new followers. 

Danny


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## AllanH (Jul 14, 2017)

Today, I think SoundCloud has a unrealistic business model. They essentially rely on artists giving up performance payments in return for free exposure. As such, SoundCloud has become the place to upload vendor demo tracks and remixes and not really really a place for original music. As such, the idea of a subscription model is not realistic, imo.


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## ysnyvz (Jul 14, 2017)

They featured me on "Soundcloud Local: Istanbul" a few years ago. It was a nice surprise. My follower numbers exploded. But I started get a lot of spam comments and messages. It was a nice website at the beginning, but slowly got worse and I cancelled my pro plan.


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## AlexRuger (Jul 14, 2017)

Desire Inspires said:


> What a terrible and miserable person you must be!


Ah, that reminds me. Back to the ignore list for you.


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## passsacaglia (Jul 14, 2017)

Can't Trump invest a couple of zillions or some Big Pharma company and save our souls? 
Making Online Music Streaming Great Again,,,no?!  It'd suck if Soundcloud would go down I think, I like their interface and their kind of old Winamp player/CDJ players track info and the orange GUI...


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## I like music (Jul 14, 2017)

Since June 2014, I see an approx 25% decline in visitors to the site. And it is a steady decline (month on month). Haven't followed much in terms of where they are as a company, but given their lifecycle you'd expect them to be growing either their visitors, not the numbers I have. Having only used it as a free service, and even that only recently, to listen (don't have my own account), it looked like a useful platform to me.


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## rgarber (Jul 14, 2017)

I got a solution! By golly it was before me very eyes the whole time. Let's get Mike Greene to buy Soundcloud. I know for a fact he's been in a buying mood of late.  - Rich


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## Valérie_D (Jul 14, 2017)

AlexRuger said:


> Ah, that reminds me. Back to the ignore list for you.


Seriously Desire Inspire, yes you bring some insight on the table and you contribute to the forum but for the past year, about a third of the comments you made are generic and personal attacks with a cliché sarcastic facebook quote feel, please stop. (I know I'll get flames but I had to say it).


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## Alex Fraser (Jul 14, 2017)

http://variety.com/2017/digital/new...-is-here-to-stay-in-cryptic-tweet-1202496118/

Twitter is pleased anyhow.


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## Zhao Shen (Jul 14, 2017)

Hope Chance is leveraging his wealth. Raining money down on the people who drove SoundCloud into the ground won't mean anything good.


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## NoamL (Jul 14, 2017)

Jesse Heslinga said:


> I think in a few years we will look at Soundcloud as a poor version of something really great that hasn't been invented yet.



Bingo, Jesse! just like Napster and iTunes.

There are a lot of Internet companies out there following the *"Get Big Quick"* philosophy. It has to do with the venture capitalist culture, the rise of the Internet unicorns, and also probably the example set by Amazon which has steadily pursued growth over profitability for almost 2 decades. I read some stunning statistic lately like Apple made more profit in one quarter than Amazon did in eight years, something like that.

To be fair GBQ makes sense for the Internet because so many apps and services end up as one market-dominating firm "...and the Seven Dwarves." just look at what happened to DailyMotion because they didn't GBQ as fast as YouTube.

It's very tempting to just say "We have venture capital, we have users, we are growing, therefore we are on the right track."

The problem with GBQ is you can lose touch with the idea that it eventually needs to be a business... Tumblr is the classic recent example, they're an absolute albatross around Yahoo's neck.

But also you could say that Twitter and even Uber could be undone by pursuing GBQ too violently.

It looks like that happened to SoundCloud.

I think any SoundCloud successor will have to answer the question of how to monetize without pissing off users.

Here's a company to keep your eye on: DropBox.

*Dropbox recently achieved profitability *so they have the means to maybe get in on this business. They have experience doing cloud storage of media files. All they need is a front end that's prettier than the current DropBox UI... "But DropBox doesn't have a community!" That's another issue. But it might not be where the business is, if SC has not been profitable.


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## Paul T McGraw (Jul 14, 2017)

Interesting article,

https://www.magneticmag.com/2016/12...ns-momentum---you-should-be-paying-attention/


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## ceemusic (Jul 14, 2017)

I remember this site being discussed last year. At the time you needed to upload a copy of an id or passport after uploading music. Not sure if it still applies, never signed up myself, looked like the same ole thing to me.


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## Paul T McGraw (Jul 14, 2017)

ceemusic said:


> I remember this site being discussed last year. At the time you needed to upload a copy of an id or passport after uploading music. Not sure if it still applies, never signed up myself, looked like the same ole thing to me.



I singed up for it. I was not asked for ID of any kind.


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## ceemusic (Jul 14, 2017)

They probably had to change the policy because no-one would use them otherwise.​


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## Desire Inspires (Jul 14, 2017)

Valérie_D said:


> Seriously Desire Inspire, yes you bring some insight on the table and you contribute to the forum but for the past year, about a third of the comments you made are generic and personal attacks with a cliché sarcastic facebook quote feel, please stop. (I know I'll get flames but I had to say it).



So you defend someone who wishes for the downfall of a company that employs people who will lose their jobs and health coverage?

No problem with you. I just don't want for innocent people to get hurt in this. The owners will pivot to something else. The everyday employees may not be so lucky.


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## AlexRuger (Jul 14, 2017)

Valérie_D said:


> Seriously Desire Inspire, yes you bring some insight on the table and you contribute to the forum but for the past year, about a third of the comments you made are generic and personal attacks with a cliché sarcastic facebook quote feel, please stop. (I know I'll get flames but I had to say it).


I think he deleted his account. Huh, that was easy.


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## zolhof (Jul 14, 2017)

Several news outlets are reporting that "Chance the Rapper" might have saved SoundCloud. Can't stand the clickbait titles. Here's a more down to earth article of what's going on behind the scenes.


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## Desire Inspires (Jul 14, 2017)

AlexRuger said:


> I think he deleted his account. Huh, that was easy.



I don't have any problem with you or most other people here.

I just don't think it is cool to be happy for the downfall of a company unless they did horrible things to humanity.

I admit that SoundCloud became spammy and changed its focus. But they didn't manufacture a product that hurt or killed people. Besides, if SoundCloud goes away, what replaces it?


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## zolhof (Jul 14, 2017)

Desire Inspires said:


> if SoundCloud goes away, what replaces it?









This guide is from Feb/2017 but still a solid read.


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## Desire Inspires (Jul 14, 2017)

zolhof said:


> This guide is from Feb/2017 but still a solid read.



Okay, which sites from that list would you migrate to if SoundCloud shuts down?


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## jtnyc (Jul 14, 2017)

Desire Inspires said:


> I feel sad for such foolish people who pretend to be open-minded but at the same time put down others and how they are making a living.



More unnecessary disrespectful name calling, all because the OP dared to say "also... politics.. i guess? (if you want to talk about soundcloud business model)". 

So because you have been through a layoff, nobody is allowed to discuss the politics of their business model without receiving a lashing from you? 

Total nonsense.


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## zolhof (Jul 14, 2017)

Desire Inspires said:


> Okay, which sites from that list would you migrate to if SoundCloud shuts down?



Probably Orfium or hearthis.at - clean look, they both offer the ability to easily embed a track or playlist to your website, cool social features. You might want to read their guidelines if you are with a PRO or publisher, though it should be something similar to SoundCloud.


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## GonzoFB (Jul 14, 2017)

Paul T McGraw said:


> Anyone have any thoughts about ORFIUM?
> 
> https://www.orfium.com/welcome/


Just signed up. Although I have no releasable music at present it seems a rather nice setup.


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## Desire Inspires (Jul 14, 2017)

zolhof said:


> Probably Orfium or hearthis.at - clean look, they both offer the ability to easily embed a track or playlist to your website, cool social features. You might want to read their guidelines if you are with a PRO or publisher, though it should be something similar to SoundCloud.



Oh cool. I might check them out.


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## Valérie_D (Jul 14, 2017)

Desire Inspires said:


> So you defend someone who wishes for the downfall of a company that employs people who will lose their jobs and health coverage?
> 
> No problem with you. I just don't want for innocent people to get hurt in this. The owners will pivot to something else. The everyday employees may not be so lucky.



This is not about this thread, I am talking to you about the way you respond to people. Not all the time, I'm not generalizing, but calling a person miserable with that typical lecturing tone of yours was, of course, in my personal opinion, unacceptable.


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## jononotbono (Jul 14, 2017)

AlexRuger said:


> Ah, that reminds me. Back to the ignore list for you.



Cut Throat Alex. 

LA has changed you man haha


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## Desire Inspires (Jul 14, 2017)

Valérie_D said:


> This is not about this thread, I am talking to you about the way you respond to people. Not all the time, I'm not generalizing, but calling a person miserable with that typical lecturing tone of yours was, of course, in my personal opinion, unacceptable.



All is good. Thanks.


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## JonSolo (Jul 14, 2017)

Ampcast. Yea. Or Mp3.com. Those would be great. Ha.


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## Kony (Jul 14, 2017)

rgarber said:


> I got a solution! By golly it was before me very eyes the whole time. Let's get Mike Greene to buy Soundcloud. I know for a fact he's been in a buying mood of late.  - Rich


Or maybe SC should have a raffle ... I'll get my coat....


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## AlexRuger (Jul 14, 2017)

jononotbono said:


> Cut Throat Alex.
> 
> LA has changed you man haha


It's made me very impatient of (avoiding colorful language so I don't get banned, it's happened before!) _people who really suck. _Wastes of time and energy.


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## ghostnote (Jul 15, 2017)

Soundcloud will be around as long as there won't be an alternative. I don't get why people keep comparing bandcamp to soundcloud, they are too different. I've tried Orfium and hearthis and don't think they'll get big enough to replace SC. The only competitive player in this game is Youtube. You even can monetize your videos, which is as far as I know not possible with Soundcloud nor all the other community based platforms.

Maybe I'm just an optimist here because I recently reactivated my subscription, but I think a platform as important and established as soundcloud will survive. Hopefully with a new mamagement tough.


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## dannymc (Jul 15, 2017)

> Maybe I'm just an optimist here because I recently reactivated my subscription, but I think a platform as important and established as soundcloud will survive. Hopefully with a new mamagement tough.



i'd actually agree with you here. i don't think they will be let go to the wall as i think there is value there and certain investors will see that. i think the likely outcome is new investors coming in but the business model of the platform will be dramatically overhauled. 

Danny


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## Voider (Jul 15, 2017)

Is there a way to download your own SC tracks all at once?


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## Alex Fraser (Jul 15, 2017)

ghostnote said:


> Soundcloud will be around as long as there won't be an alternative. I don't get why people keep comparing bandcamp to soundcloud, they are too different. I've tried Orfium and hearthis and don't think they'll get big enough to replace SC. The only competitive player in this game is Youtube. You even can monetize your videos, which is as far as I know not possible with Soundcloud nor all the other community based platforms.
> 
> Maybe I'm just an optimist here because I recently reactivated my subscription, but I think a platform as important and established as soundcloud will survive. Hopefully with a new mamagement tough.



My thoughts too.


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## thov72 (Jul 15, 2017)

This thread shows me clearly why some people left vi-control. The language and the accusations 
are not only a "bit" off
*I feel a wee bet ashamed of spending time here *_*atm *hope that will change again.....
_


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## dathyr1 (Jul 15, 2017)

Ive only gone to Soundcloud a few times cause of the one online seller has offered free samples to us from time to time. The seller sends emails informing me about the samples. I have bought several music products from the seller in the past. I don't publish anything music wise myself. So that is my only dealings with Soundcloud. Hope Soundcloud stays around.


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## Greg (Jul 15, 2017)

They desperately need new management. I find it hilarious and depressing that they had the balls to charge artists for pro accounts and offer absolutely zero monetization.


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## Parsifal666 (Jul 15, 2017)

Greg said:


> They desperately need new management. I find it hilarious and depressing that they had the balls to charge artists for pro accounts and offer absolutely zero monetization.


4

I think soundcloud might just be a sign of the times in that regard. Today it does seem people have to learn to be happy in "just getting heard".

It can be quite estranging though, I completely agree.


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## Paul T McGraw (Jul 15, 2017)

There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

Never has been, never will be. Someone has to pay for the computers, bandwidth, employee salaries, rent, utilities and everything else PLUS a profit on investment. Either the listeners or the artists have to pay. Advertising provides some funds, but not enough. Someone is actually going to have to pay, or pay more, or no more Soundcloud. No investor is going to put in money unless Soundcloud comes up with a convincing, viable plan to earn more revenue from someone, somehow.


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## synthpunk (Jul 15, 2017)

Lots of good, well-intentioned "musicians helping musicians" left of the 14,000+ members here if there's someone you do not agree with or a troll, easy solution...Click Username-Ignore.



thov72 said:


> This thread shows me clearly why some people left vi-control. The language and the accusations
> are not only a "bit" off
> *I feel a wee bet ashamed of spending time here *_*atm *hope that will change again....._


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## Voider (Jul 15, 2017)

I really hope they gonna make it and find a way that seems more fair to both, the artists and listeners.
Because soundcloud is really wonderful and I would honestly miss it, also as listener. Lots of great music on it to discover, and the interface is really pleasant to use.


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## jononotbono (Jul 15, 2017)

AlexRuger said:


> It's made me very impatient of (avoiding colorful language so I don't get banned, it's happened before!) _people who really suck. _Wastes of time and energy.



Well this is very true. I was just merely calling you 'Cut Throat Alex" not implying you were being cut throat!


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## jononotbono (Jul 15, 2017)

Considering I pay for two different accounts there are a few things that really annoy me but I use it because people seem to accept a soundcloud link as the "norm" for checking out music. Firstly, the fact I can't order my tracks however I like is ridiculous. I mean, MySpace allowed you to do this. And yeah, cool, "but there's Spotlight". Well, now I can track order 5 and no more. It sounds like a limitation for people that don't pay money. Why on Earth is spotlight even a feature? Baffles me. And secondly, the fact that when I upload music it reencodes it to a piece of sonic dogshit at 128kbs. Even though I pay money, I can't have an option to have a wav or flac or whatever I want to use despite the fact Soundcloud allows me to upload any file, and not limited to any file size, but still re-encodes to a horrible 128kbs MP3. I went round in circles a few years ago mixing stuff at different formats, bit rates, sample rates, different MP3 encoders and in the end I just gave up and accepted the end result. It's madness considering you are paying money and they have no limit on file sizes but for some reason it's an upgrade "feature" to give you a limit of "time". I could talk about the spam but hey, if they got rid of that I'd probably only have 6 family members following!

Alternatives... Bandcamp? Reverbnation? They both suck but because they are free I can't complain. Reverbnation do something weird. They allow you to upload a wav but then they restrict how large the file size (it was 15mb last time I used it) is on upload so it results on you having to lower the quality of the MP3 depending on the track length so you end up uploading and reverbnation using its own encoded to reencode to 128kbs again. I forgive it because it's free but talk about "so close yet so far". Why is it that people always forget the one important thing when it comes to music and that's the delivery. Even when playing gigs, especially at festivals, nobody ever seems to think about the PA and sound crew. The same applies here. If Reverbnation, or Bandcamp (And I Believe that is 128kbs MP3 but haven't used it for 4 years maybe 5 so I apologise if I am wrong and they sorted this out) or Soundcloud actually gave an option to upload your music, so it was exactly as you intend, that would be wonderful and I would expect to pay for that (bandwidth etc) but the fact I pay for my music to be turned into a steamingly pixelated digital piece of Dogs Brown is ridiculous.

I don't think anything other than new management will happen and everyone will have their sound cloud accounts to be honest but I hope someone takes note and upgrades this nonsense.


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## zacnelson (Jul 16, 2017)

jononotbono said:


> Firstly, the fact I can't order my tracks however I like is ridiculous. I mean, MySpace allowed you to do this. And yeah, cool, "but there's Spotlight". Well, now I can track order 5 and no more. It sounds like a limitation for people that don't pay money. Why on Earth is spotlight even a feature? Baffles me. And secondly, the fact that when I upload music it reencodes it to a piece of sonic dogshit at 128kbs. Even though I pay money, I can't have an option to have a wav or flac or whatever I want to use despite the fact Soundcloud allows me to upload any file, and not limited to any file size, but still re-encodes to a horrible 128kbs MP3. I went round in circles a few years ago mixing stuff at different formats, bit rates, sample rates, different MP3 encoders and in the end I just gave up and accepted the end result. It's madness considering you are paying money and they have no limit on file sizes but for some reason it's an upgrade "feature" to give you a limit of "time".


Spot on, these limitations are ridiculous, hard to imagine how they haven't changed these things


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## TGV (Jul 16, 2017)

jononotbono said:


> Even though I pay money, I can't have an option to have a wav or flac or whatever I want to use despite the fact Soundcloud allows me to upload any file, and not limited to any file size, but still re-encodes to a horrible 128kbs MP3.


That's something hearthis.at does better.


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## dannymc (Jul 18, 2017)

i think whats probably terrifying for soundcloud now is that this rumour has spread like wild fire and whether its true or false i'd say they are now in a state of flux as most musicians are probably holding off uploading any new content or even worse people are pulling their stuff off the platform. this is the nightmare scenario for them. its a bit like when the banking system credit lines ceased up because nobody would lend to each other due to the rumours of the imminent collapse of lehman brothers.

Danny


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## passsacaglia (Jul 20, 2017)

Any updates for you guys jumped over and tried either Hearthis.at or Orfium?
Read the KVR thread and some said it was easy to import everything from you SC (playlists, tracks etc) to Orfium.

Will try it this week and see how it goes. I like the feature they say can find your tracks that've been used in ppls youtubevideos, and if you can sell music and earn some that's good.
Same goes for hearthis.at ?

Whoa, just found out I'm already having an old Mixcloud profile. 
Might just stick around there and see how it goes!


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## Desire Inspires (Jul 20, 2017)

I just found a site where you can create your own music production library site to license your own music directly. There is a free version and paid version options.

http://tunebud.com/


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## jacobthestupendous (Jul 21, 2017)

I'll be bummed when SC goes down mainly because it was a reasonably convenient and universally compatible way to share things, and it'll be a hassle to rebuild my hard-earned follower base (all 14 of them). That said, there were definitely some design decisions that could only be chocked up to SC folks being either inconsiderate of the artist base or just mean.


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## gregh (Jul 21, 2017)

I will be disappointed if soundcloud goes down - I preferred the earlier version but still find it very easy for sharing stuff. On the other hand it generates no revenue for me ... If it does go I will just use spotify etc and my own site


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## John Busby (Jul 21, 2017)

jononotbono said:


> Firstly, the fact I can't order my tracks however I like is ridiculous.





jononotbono said:


> And secondly, the fact that when I upload music it reencodes it to a piece of sonic dogshit at 128kbs. Even though I pay money, I can't have an option to have a wav or flac or whatever I want to use despite the fact Soundcloud allows me to upload any file, and not limited to any file size, but still re-encodes to a horrible 128kbs MP3.





jononotbono said:


> but the fact I pay for my music to be turned into a steamingly pixelated digital piece of Dogs Brown is ridiculous.


these are excellent points!
the encoding process tho i can understand, i mean it's a great way for SC to reach more listeners with less bandwidth for streaming - that said if you're paying for a pro plan then yea, you should be able to upload whatever you want but still maybe have an easier streaming version of the track?
i really hope SC can take a few steps back to the things that make the most sense especially enabling the ability to order and arrange tracks - i mean c'mon, who does that?
i wish SC the best and i would really hate to see this platform go


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## Polkasound (Jul 21, 2017)

gregh said:


> On the other hand it generates no revenue for me ... If it does go I will just use spotify etc and my own site



I use Soundcloud strictly for sharing 30-second demo tracks. For that, it's great, because it's so easy to customize how you embed the player into a website. For revenue, I use Spotify, Amazon, iTunes, etc., and my website. (For whatever reason, Spotify generates more sales for me than all other services combined.)



jacobthestupendous said:


> it'll be a hassle to rebuild my hard-earned follower base (all 14 of them).



I'll miss all the fake account holders who like my tracks ten seconds after I upload them.


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## chimuelo (Jul 27, 2017)

SoundCloud isn't going anywhere.
They're fundraising.
It's always about the money.


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## mgpqa1 (Aug 11, 2017)

chimuelo said:


> SoundCloud isn't going anywhere.
> They're fundraising.
> It's always about the money.



You called it ...



Alexander Ljung said:


> I’m happy to announce that together with investors The Raine Group and Temasek we’ve just wrapped up the largest financing round in the history of SoundCloud. This financing means SoundCloud remains strong, independent and here to stay. As I said, we’re not going anywhere.


https://blog.soundcloud.com/2017/08/11/exciting-news-future-soundcloud/


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## chimuelo (Aug 11, 2017)

I'll also call the next phase.
There'll be a charge to use SoundCloud.

You say Hell No and try to download your music and quit....
But There's only an upload button on the new "app."

Premium membership allows perks like the return of the download button..

It's the smart move.


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## ghostnote (Aug 11, 2017)

chimuelo said:


> I'll also call the next phase.
> There'll be a charge to use SoundCloud.


Nonsense chim, nobody would use it. Nowadays everything is running with ads, I don't get why soundcloud can't get any profit out of that.


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## chimuelo (Aug 11, 2017)

Zen Master says we'll see.
I remember when there was no need for premium memberships.
That changed.

It's always about the money even when they say it isn't.


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## ghostnote (Aug 11, 2017)

My rational spidy senses are saying it won't happen. Too much accounts, too much hassle, too much: "I have to pay now? I'll quit!". Trust me, there's a way. Other platforms did it right and gained a lot lof revenue. Soundcloud just needs another strategy:



> I’m excited to also announce that this new partnership also brings talent to our SoundCloud family. From prior Vimeo-fame (a platform we love!) comes Kerry Trainor and Mike Weissman, two awesome leaders who will be joining SoundCloud as CEO and COO, respectively.



Great move! I hope these fockers get it right!


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## Alex Fraser (Aug 11, 2017)

All I'll say is...phew.
Now with other folk in the driving seat, hopefully it'll move forward. Crisis averted. For now.


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## DervishCapkiner (Aug 11, 2017)

dathyr1 said:


> Ive only gone to Soundcloud a few times cause of the one online seller has offered free samples to us from time to time. The seller sends emails informing me about the samples. I have bought several music products from the seller in the past. I don't publish anything music wise myself. So that is my only dealings with Soundcloud. Hope Soundcloud stays around.



dathyr1 - are you based in Scotland?


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## SirkusPi (Aug 11, 2017)

I will gladly rejoin and pay for a pro account if they restore the features they deleted and start focusing again on actually being useful to independent musicians, as opposed to catering to the DJ-mix crowd by spending tons of money to get major label licenses to cover those mixes, and then trying to recoup that investment by unsuccessfully trying to be the 538th (or whatever we're up to now) unnecessary Spotify clone.

(I mean, I'm a big Spotify fan -- which I know is also controversial, but that's for another day -- but I really think we have enough streaming options already.)


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## Replicant (Aug 11, 2017)

SirkusPi said:


> if they restore the features they deleted and start focusing again on actually being useful to independent musicians



I will never understand what drove them to removing the "groups" feature.


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## Mornats (Aug 11, 2017)

I'm pissed off that most times I open up the app I have to bypass a screen asking me to subscribe to listen to tracks when I'm a pro member and pay them to supply them with music.


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## Desire Inspires (Aug 11, 2017)

They should charge 99 cents a month for an account. 

Only 20% of users would leave. Most others would just pay and keep their music in the site. A dollar a month isn't a lot of money, but it would bring in revenue for SoundCloud.


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## JonSolo (Aug 12, 2017)

I am glad they are staying. And I agree with everyone's issues with them at this point. They really need to go back and review their mission statement. Rebuilding a model based on their older model would be a ticket for success.


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## dannymc (Aug 13, 2017)

JonSolo said:


> I am glad they are staying. And I agree with everyone's issues with them at this point. They really need to go back and review their mission statement. Rebuilding a model based on their older model would be a ticket for success.



i'm also glad they are staying. but soundcloud could be so much more if they just got a bit more ambitious and creative.

Danny


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