7 ms·

It's been a downhill trend ever since trending likes were replaced by reposts. Trending likes actually showed which tunes my friends found most interesting. R

It's been a downhill trend ever since trending likes were replaced by reposts. Trending likes actually showed which tunes my friends found most interesting. Reposts allowed a single user to spam a feed with their personal taste. Then repost bots were allowed to require repost to unlock a free download and now discovery on SoundCloud is almost dead. My friends who are successful producers but refuse to play the bot and pay-for-repost game are completely drowned in the noise. My bet is that since trending likes are a Graph DB problem, SoundCloud just chose not to solve it once it became too hard on their database. They famously had issues with early Mongo adoption so this would fit right in. Their most recent frontend HTML5 rewrite always winds up my CPU and hasn't changed in a couple years. SoundCloud to me has always been a great idea with some great design that got ruined by some poor engineering choices from the top. And at the end by a desperate grab for stats and cash. I think producers would have paid more, better subsidizing free plans, if discovery hadn't gone downhill. I ran the numbers once on how CDbaby and Bandcamp became successful (based on stats trickled out over the years) while SoundCloud could never turn a profit. There's still plenty of room for someone to do this right.

draw_down 9y ago
I haven't been using it long enough to have an opinion, but I did notice that the hosts of podcasts I enjoy would repost when they guested on another podcast, which I otherwise would not have noticed, and did appreciate. I only use it for podcasts though, never music.
- doublerebel 9y ago
  Trending likes solved this, because even an upvote brigade required the user to have multiple friends in the brigade. All I had to do was follow a few key influencers on a topic and the post would show in my feed.
legohead 9y ago
I used to go to SC every day. When reposts started becoming a thing I loved it, since the people I followed would repost stuff I would have never found. But I guess I quit in time, as I never saw bots or what you are describing. That's too bad :(
- acchow 9y ago
  What caused you to quit SC?
  - RickS 9y ago
    Cultural and product focuses that emphasized engagement quantity rather than engagement quality. Comments would be littered with things like "hey, great, check out my stuff!" That type of shallow "like for like" culture is absolutely cancerous for what was previously a very maker-heavy audience.
    - sockcymbal 9y ago
      What would be your solution to this?
    - tragic 9y ago
      > Comments would be littered with things like "hey, great, check out my stuff!" > That type of shallow "like for like" culture is absolutely cancerous for what was previously a very maker-heavy audience. Man, I've been in there since day one practically and it was always like that, as has been every service of that kind I've ever used (hands up anyone who ever maintained an MP3.com playlist). Music runs on shameless self promotion. Players gonna play. Etc.
      - spynxic 9y ago
        Ideally, promoters would always be trusted experts. Question is: How do those experts, without engaging other promoters, discover potential tracks for promotion?
        wbl 9y ago
        The slush pile or spending an ungodly amount of time in low end venues.
  - legohead 9y ago
lcnmrn 9y ago
That’s the reason I’m using Hype Machine to listen to those "trending likes" tracks on SoundCloud. I almost find a nice new song to listen every single day.
- zmitri 9y ago
  Yeah me too, Hype Machine is fantastic for that. Such an undervalued service nowadays. If you haven't subscribed as a supporter I'd recommend it http://hypem.com/supporters http://hypem.com/supporters
  - phreeza 9y ago
    Got my supporter stickers in the mail today, they even printed a special postcard with a bunch of titles I have loved over the years. Love the site.
- chiefalchemist 9y ago
  One out of how many? I'm just curious about the signal to noise ratio. I could use a new discovery tool, with not too much noise.
  - lcnmrn 9y ago
    Between 1/10 and 5/20 or sometimes more from http://hypem.com/popular/noremix http://hypem.com/popular/noremix
    - chiefalchemist 9y ago
      Sounds tryable. Thank you.
mgurlitz 9y ago
I wasn't a fan of the UI refresh for the same reason, so I made my own alternate homepage which sorts the feed by artist and de-emphasizes reposts (http://gurlitz.org/soundcloud-digest/ http://gurlitz.org/soundcloud-digest/). Unfortunately like you said, content also dried up around the same time.
bluetwo 9y ago
Iterface not changing in years makes me think it's ripe for an acquisition from Barry Diller's IAC. They specialize in sites that don't update their interfaces for years at a time. (Apologies to those that work for one of those companies.)
- mitchellshow 9y ago
  *IAC Unfortunately for SC, IAC tends to price acquisitions based on historical revenues...
  - bluetwo 9y ago
    Thanks. Fixed.
awkward 9y ago
I signed up years ago, but only became a user in the past year or so. It's never really appealed to me for music discovery but it's been great for checking out new podcasts.
- _kyran 9y ago
  Any reason you don't make use of iTunes or the charts in other podcasting applications?
  - awkward 9y ago
    I use pocket casts on mobile and soundcloud on the desktop. Soundcloud's better for discovery and it lets me listen without going through a subscription workflow.
- CharlesW 9y ago
  > …it's been great for checking out new podcasts. For anyone confused by this: SoundCloud can't play podcasts, but a small percentage of podcasters host their show on SoundCloud, and the app can (naturally) play those. However, SoundCloud has probably seen the peak of its podcast-driven business. Podcasters have been wary of SoundCloud's fortunes for some time, and most have a Plan B in place. Today's news has likely expedited plans to find alternatives among at least some podcasters.
skinnymuch 9y ago
How successful are CBbaby (nowadays) and Bandcamp? I know people who use Bandcamp but I don't know how much of a bubble I'm in.
- coldtea 9y ago
  Insignificant in the grand scheme of things. The music industry is a shade of what it once was, and both CDBaby and Bandcamp are tiny slithers off of that.
  - hasbroslasher 9y ago
    Bandcamp is fine, but it's not on the level that Soundcloud was for browsing music (or for hosting your own). It's still really limited on the social side - the only way you get "likes" is when people download your stuff, the discovery tools are limited to "what's popular in this tag today" and random curated content. There's no "feed" like Soundcloud had. Also, possibly the most irritating part of the site is that fan profiles and artist profiles are distinct entities. So if you want to buy someone else's music but you're signed in, you have to sign out, get on your other account, purchase, and then log out/in again. Super clunky. Last, there's no way to communicate with other people, other than the email that you send when you buy things. I used to legitimately befriend like minded musicians through SC messaging and we'd collab or remix each others stuff. Not a thing on Bandcamp, or not as much. Everything lives outside of their network - in Facebook chats or Reddit threads or some random forum. However, despite its shortcomings, Bandcamp is where cutting edge music lives in an age without Soundcloud. Labels like PC Music, Mall Music and Dream Catalogue have all pushed independent music to bizarre new limits in the last 4 years alone. Orchid tapes, an indie outfit, made their name off of Bandcamp releases. Alex G, Katie Dey, Elvis Depressedy, and a slew of other musicians have been recognized for their indie releases and now enjoy moderate indie popularity. As long as no one else is beating them, Bandcamp will continue to run on its skeleton frame and empower artists who use it.
    - jtmcmc 9y ago
      I think bandcamp didn't take money - so they can operate as they want. I totally agree with you with respect to bandcamp being where cutting edge music lives.
maxdemarzi 9y ago
Trending Friend Likes is a Trivial GraphDB problem. We could help them offload that to a separate service if they'd ask. MATCH (u:User {Id:123})-[:FRIENDS]->(f)-[:LIKED_ON_2017_07_08]->(t:Track) RETURN t, COUNT(f) ORDER BY COUNT(f) DESC LIMIT 25
_kyran 9y ago
Agree on the reposts issue. I used to spend 30 minutes plus a day finding new music, then stopped after that change. I made this if it helps anyone: https://github.com/kyranb/SoundCloud-Feed-Cleaner https://github.com/kyranb/SoundCloud-Feed-Cleaner
- aspenmayer 9y ago
  Maybe there's an incompatibility with another extension or they have changed the site, but I can't get the Uploads Only tab to show up.
  - _kyran 9y ago
    What browser are you using? Care to take a look in Chrome's console for any errors and submit your findings as an issue?
    - rtisdale 9y ago
      Howdy, I investigated your issues page and the previous comment may be related to the following issue. https://github.com/kyranb/SoundCloud-Feed-Cleaner/issues/10 https://github.com/kyranb/SoundCloud-Feed-Cleaner/issues/10 After loading a fresh copy of the page, the tab appeared. With that said I opened an additional issue. Chrome console log did not appear to provide any relevant information. https://github.com/kyranb/SoundCloud-Feed-Cleaner/issues/11 https://github.com/kyranb/SoundCloud-Feed-Cleaner/issues/11
chiefalchemist 9y ago
I originally went to SC to find new music. If that's even possible, I haven't been able to crack that code. I've given up, and typically only end up from a link. Rarely by choice.
kakarot 9y ago
Meanwhile Bandcamp is killing it with discovery, something they used to be notoriously bad at.

draw_down 9y ago

I haven't been using it long enough to have an opinion, but I did notice that the hosts of podcasts I enjoy would repost when they guested on another podcast, which I otherwise would not have noticed, and did appreciate. I only use it for podcasts though, never music.

doublerebel 9y ago
Trending likes solved this, because even an upvote brigade required the user to have multiple friends in the brigade. All I had to do was follow a few key influencers on a topic and the post would show in my feed.

legohead 9y ago

I used to go to SC every day. When reposts started becoming a thing I loved it, since the people I followed would repost stuff I would have never found. But I guess I quit in time, as I never saw bots or what you are describing. That's too bad :(

acchow 9y ago
What caused you to quit SC?
- RickS 9y ago
  Cultural and product focuses that emphasized engagement quantity rather than engagement quality. Comments would be littered with things like "hey, great, check out my stuff!" That type of shallow "like for like" culture is absolutely cancerous for what was previously a very maker-heavy audience.
  - sockcymbal 9y ago
    What would be your solution to this?
  - tragic 9y ago
    > Comments would be littered with things like "hey, great, check out my stuff!" > That type of shallow "like for like" culture is absolutely cancerous for what was previously a very maker-heavy audience. Man, I've been in there since day one practically and it was always like that, as has been every service of that kind I've ever used (hands up anyone who ever maintained an MP3.com playlist). Music runs on shameless self promotion. Players gonna play. Etc.
    - spynxic 9y ago
      Ideally, promoters would always be trusted experts. Question is: How do those experts, without engaging other promoters, discover potential tracks for promotion?
      - wbl 9y ago
        The slush pile or spending an ungodly amount of time in low end venues.
- legohead 9y ago

lcnmrn 9y ago

That’s the reason I’m using Hype Machine to listen to those "trending likes" tracks on SoundCloud. I almost find a nice new song to listen every single day.

zmitri 9y ago
Yeah me too, Hype Machine is fantastic for that. Such an undervalued service nowadays. If you haven't subscribed as a supporter I'd recommend it http://hypem.com/supporters http://hypem.com/supporters
- phreeza 9y ago
  Got my supporter stickers in the mail today, they even printed a special postcard with a bunch of titles I have loved over the years. Love the site.
chiefalchemist 9y ago
One out of how many? I'm just curious about the signal to noise ratio. I could use a new discovery tool, with not too much noise.
- lcnmrn 9y ago
  Between 1/10 and 5/20 or sometimes more from http://hypem.com/popular/noremix http://hypem.com/popular/noremix
  - chiefalchemist 9y ago
    Sounds tryable. Thank you.

mgurlitz 9y ago

I wasn't a fan of the UI refresh for the same reason, so I made my own alternate homepage which sorts the feed by artist and de-emphasizes reposts (http://gurlitz.org/soundcloud-digest/ http://gurlitz.org/soundcloud-digest/). Unfortunately like you said, content also dried up around the same time.

bluetwo 9y ago

Iterface not changing in years makes me think it's ripe for an acquisition from Barry Diller's IAC. They specialize in sites that don't update their interfaces for years at a time. (Apologies to those that work for one of those companies.)

mitchellshow 9y ago
*IAC Unfortunately for SC, IAC tends to price acquisitions based on historical revenues...
- bluetwo 9y ago
  Thanks. Fixed.

awkward 9y ago

I signed up years ago, but only became a user in the past year or so. It's never really appealed to me for music discovery but it's been great for checking out new podcasts.

_kyran 9y ago
Any reason you don't make use of iTunes or the charts in other podcasting applications?
- awkward 9y ago
  I use pocket casts on mobile and soundcloud on the desktop. Soundcloud's better for discovery and it lets me listen without going through a subscription workflow.
CharlesW 9y ago
> …it's been great for checking out new podcasts. For anyone confused by this: SoundCloud can't play podcasts, but a small percentage of podcasters host their show on SoundCloud, and the app can (naturally) play those. However, SoundCloud has probably seen the peak of its podcast-driven business. Podcasters have been wary of SoundCloud's fortunes for some time, and most have a Plan B in place. Today's news has likely expedited plans to find alternatives among at least some podcasters.

skinnymuch 9y ago

How successful are CBbaby (nowadays) and Bandcamp? I know people who use Bandcamp but I don't know how much of a bubble I'm in.

coldtea 9y ago
Insignificant in the grand scheme of things. The music industry is a shade of what it once was, and both CDBaby and Bandcamp are tiny slithers off of that.
- hasbroslasher 9y ago
  Bandcamp is fine, but it's not on the level that Soundcloud was for browsing music (or for hosting your own). It's still really limited on the social side - the only way you get "likes" is when people download your stuff, the discovery tools are limited to "what's popular in this tag today" and random curated content. There's no "feed" like Soundcloud had. Also, possibly the most irritating part of the site is that fan profiles and artist profiles are distinct entities. So if you want to buy someone else's music but you're signed in, you have to sign out, get on your other account, purchase, and then log out/in again. Super clunky. Last, there's no way to communicate with other people, other than the email that you send when you buy things. I used to legitimately befriend like minded musicians through SC messaging and we'd collab or remix each others stuff. Not a thing on Bandcamp, or not as much. Everything lives outside of their network - in Facebook chats or Reddit threads or some random forum. However, despite its shortcomings, Bandcamp is where cutting edge music lives in an age without Soundcloud. Labels like PC Music, Mall Music and Dream Catalogue have all pushed independent music to bizarre new limits in the last 4 years alone. Orchid tapes, an indie outfit, made their name off of Bandcamp releases. Alex G, Katie Dey, Elvis Depressedy, and a slew of other musicians have been recognized for their indie releases and now enjoy moderate indie popularity. As long as no one else is beating them, Bandcamp will continue to run on its skeleton frame and empower artists who use it.
  - jtmcmc 9y ago
    I think bandcamp didn't take money - so they can operate as they want. I totally agree with you with respect to bandcamp being where cutting edge music lives.

maxdemarzi 9y ago

Trending Friend Likes is a Trivial GraphDB problem. We could help them offload that to a separate service if they'd ask. MATCH (u:User {Id:123})-[:FRIENDS]->(f)-[:LIKED_ON_2017_07_08]->(t:Track) RETURN t, COUNT(f) ORDER BY COUNT(f) DESC LIMIT 25

_kyran 9y ago

Agree on the reposts issue. I used to spend 30 minutes plus a day finding new music, then stopped after that change. I made this if it helps anyone: https://github.com/kyranb/SoundCloud-Feed-Cleaner https://github.com/kyranb/SoundCloud-Feed-Cleaner

aspenmayer 9y ago
Maybe there's an incompatibility with another extension or they have changed the site, but I can't get the Uploads Only tab to show up.
- _kyran 9y ago
  What browser are you using? Care to take a look in Chrome's console for any errors and submit your findings as an issue?
  - rtisdale 9y ago
    Howdy, I investigated your issues page and the previous comment may be related to the following issue. https://github.com/kyranb/SoundCloud-Feed-Cleaner/issues/10 https://github.com/kyranb/SoundCloud-Feed-Cleaner/issues/10 After loading a fresh copy of the page, the tab appeared. With that said I opened an additional issue. Chrome console log did not appear to provide any relevant information. https://github.com/kyranb/SoundCloud-Feed-Cleaner/issues/11 https://github.com/kyranb/SoundCloud-Feed-Cleaner/issues/11

chiefalchemist 9y ago

I originally went to SC to find new music. If that's even possible, I haven't been able to crack that code. I've given up, and typically only end up from a link. Rarely by choice.

kakarot 9y ago

Meanwhile Bandcamp is killing it with discovery, something they used to be notoriously bad at.