4 ms·

Taking on Spotify seems like an odd choice to me. To me it would seem that Spotify has a huge fight ahead of it, even though it has raised well over a billion

Taking on Spotify seems like an odd choice to me. To me it would seem that Spotify has a huge fight ahead of it, even though it has raised well over a billion dollars at this point. They're fighting against the platforms that already exist: Apple Music & Google Play. Apple Music offers basically the same thing except with tighter integration with their hardware (and iTunes for buying the songs that artists don't allow to be streamed), as does Google Play. It seems to me that Spotify is fighting an uphill battle saddled with an enormous valuation ($10b-ish I believe?); SoundCloud really wants to fight against them for whoever is left after Google & Apple? And, through all of this, Spotify & SoundCloud are paying a huge chunk of their mobile revenue directly to their competitors (Apple/Google stores). It doesn't sound like a space that I want to be in!

tedmiston 11y ago
> And, through all of this, Spotify & SoundCloud are paying a huge chunk of their mobile revenue directly to their competitors (Apple/Google stores). I'm not so sure they are. By charging a higher price ($12.99 in app vs. $9.99 on web), I wonder if people really are paying the higher price just for convenience. I'm definitely not. Tidal is currently doing the same with their pricing structure.
- pmilla1606 11y ago
  The price difference between in-app (ios) vs. web is due to Apple's 30% fee for in-app purchase. http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/8/8913105/spotify-apple-app-store-email http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/8/8913105/spotify-apple-app-s...
snickmy 11y ago
The thing that differentiate Soundcloud from all the competitors you are mentioning is the social network that it's build on. Hence the size of the catalog that is by far (3.5x) bigger. In other words, if you want to find something completely exclusive and never heard before, Soundcloud is the place to go. If that content is good quality or not, is another topic :)

tedmiston 11y ago

> And, through all of this, Spotify & SoundCloud are paying a huge chunk of their mobile revenue directly to their competitors (Apple/Google stores). I'm not so sure they are. By charging a higher price ($12.99 in app vs. $9.99 on web), I wonder if people really are paying the higher price just for convenience. I'm definitely not. Tidal is currently doing the same with their pricing structure.

pmilla1606 11y ago
The price difference between in-app (ios) vs. web is due to Apple's 30% fee for in-app purchase. http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/8/8913105/spotify-apple-app-store-email http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/8/8913105/spotify-apple-app-s...

snickmy 11y ago

The thing that differentiate Soundcloud from all the competitors you are mentioning is the social network that it's build on. Hence the size of the catalog that is by far (3.5x) bigger. In other words, if you want to find something completely exclusive and never heard before, Soundcloud is the place to go. If that content is good quality or not, is another topic :)