4 ms·

It's a huge shame that SoundCloud is likely dying, because large segments of the music industry and literally entire genres of music are solely on SoundCloud. T

It's a huge shame that SoundCloud is likely dying, because large segments of the music industry and literally entire genres of music are solely on SoundCloud. This may sound hyperbolic, but I feel like them shutting down would be the "burning of the Library of Alexandria" of 21st century music

latencyloser 9y ago
Agreed. Anecdotal, but I was in a "band" in high-school. We recorded our music and that music was and is solely hosted on soundcloud. I like to go back and listen to it occasionally as a part of my life that's fun to kind of laugh about, but also appreciate the good memories I have of it. It's both sad and strange to see that part of my life is fading from the world already.
danbolt 9y ago
So true. I feel like I'm frantically bookmarking all the Facebook/Bandcamp pages of musicians that I've found on the service.
ghaff 9y ago
Largely already happened previously with MP3.com Not to say "we" couldn't do better but there's always been a huge amount of content, music and otherwise, from amateurs and mostly amateurs in particular that isn't preserved in any systematic way.
- epa 9y ago
  MP3.com and SoundCloud are not as comparable. SoundCloud has really re-defined how new music is released and how new artists promote their music.
  - thirdsun 9y ago
    > SoundCloud has really re-defined how new music is released and how new artists promote their music. For promotion Soundcloud undoubtly serves its purpose, but actually releasing the music has to happen somewhere else. And in my opinion the actual re-defining service in that regard is Bandcamp. After all, you can't buy music on Soundcloud, can you?
    - ARCarr 9y ago
      You can buy music on Soundcloud.
      - thirdsun 9y ago
        Where? As a long time Soundcloud listener and artist I have never seen an option to buy or sell music on Soundcloud. Unless you mean the "Buy"-link which you can setup to redirect your listeners to actual stores and purchase options.
        ARCarr 9y ago
        Oh, you're right. I'm mistaken. For some reason I assumed there was a buy link on the preview tracks people put up.
- rocky1138 9y ago
  Another one was RCRD.LBL. Loved their daily mp3s in my inbox.
bogomipz 9y ago
>"This may sound hyperbolic, but I feel like them shutting down would be the "burning of the Library of Alexandria" of 21st century music" Except that all the original content still exists and could be made available somewhere else.
- moomin 9y ago
  could won't
  - bogomipz 9y ago
    Do you believe that if Soundcloud goes out of business in a couple of months artists affected will never again make those tracks available on the internet? Why would you believe that?
    - plorkyeran 9y ago
      A large number of them never will. Any archive of user-created content ends up dominated by "zombie" works from creators that have moved on from that sort of thing or aren't terribly concerned with ensuring that their older works remain accessible (if they even still have their own copies).
      - bogomipz 9y ago
        >"Any archive of user-created content ends up dominated by "zombie" works from creators that have moved on from that sort of thing or aren't terribly concerned with ensuring that their older works remain accessible (if they even still have their own copies)." Except when they are artists and that content is their art and that art is their passion and/or career. It's also how they build awareness and get gigs. We are talking about music not animated gifs and memes. Its unlikely that most artists no longer have the original tracks. The music industry has always had works that have gone out of print often because the record company goes bankrupt. And those out of print works are then reissued often with enhancements. In fact there are record labels whose whole business model is reissues. And at the extreme there are cases where the original master tapes were lost and reissues were cut from secondary sources. It would be unfortunate if SC were to disappear but if it did I doubt any appreciable amount of music would simply be "lost to the dust bin of history."
jfoster 9y ago
It's difficult for me to believe that they would actually go out of business. Somewhere between the price they would want and going out of business, I feel that a Google/Apple/Netflix/Amazon acquisition is a near-certainty. Not sure how that would work if they don't have sufficient runway for due diligence & acquisition closure, but I'm sure the above companies could deal with that scenario if necessary.
api 9y ago
That's the cloud for you.
AndrewUnmuted 9y ago
The Alexandria analogy already occurred this year. When what.cd was shut down.
cr1895 9y ago
As another mentioned, the Alexandria analogy is best applied to what.cd being shut down last year. Here's an article describing it. https://qz.com/840661/what-cd-is-gone-a-eulogy-for-the-greatest-music-collection-in-the-world/ https://qz.com/840661/what-cd-is-gone-a-eulogy-for-the-great... I wasn't ever a member, but it's clear to me that an immense body of knowledge was lost when it was shut down. Much more so than SoundCloud shutting down, unfortunate as that may be. edit: anyone who was familiar, how did the categorization and documentation of what.cd compare to Discogs now? I find Discogs invaluable and immensely useful, but it certainly doesn't have the rigorous QC that what.cd had. Anyone can edit entries, and it's not infrequently that I encounter something incorrect.
- kough 9y ago
  The private torrent sites (What, and others that I won't name here) all tend to refer to Discogs as the authoritative source of catalog information. The difference is that while Discogs knows about metadata, it doesn't have any music. I think I was depressed for a week when What shut down.
- draw_down 9y ago
  But that involved people (say it with me now) steeeealing!
- macawfish 9y ago
  I don't know, Soundcloud actually does have an extraordinary amount of independent content ("folk music") that what.cd wouldn't have ever been able to facilitate. I'd argue that they are both quite prolific, just different.
empath75 9y ago
I almost feel like they should go non-profit a la wikipedia.

latencyloser 9y ago

Agreed. Anecdotal, but I was in a "band" in high-school. We recorded our music and that music was and is solely hosted on soundcloud. I like to go back and listen to it occasionally as a part of my life that's fun to kind of laugh about, but also appreciate the good memories I have of it. It's both sad and strange to see that part of my life is fading from the world already.

danbolt 9y ago

So true. I feel like I'm frantically bookmarking all the Facebook/Bandcamp pages of musicians that I've found on the service.

ghaff 9y ago

Largely already happened previously with MP3.com Not to say "we" couldn't do better but there's always been a huge amount of content, music and otherwise, from amateurs and mostly amateurs in particular that isn't preserved in any systematic way.

epa 9y ago
MP3.com and SoundCloud are not as comparable. SoundCloud has really re-defined how new music is released and how new artists promote their music.
- thirdsun 9y ago
  > SoundCloud has really re-defined how new music is released and how new artists promote their music. For promotion Soundcloud undoubtly serves its purpose, but actually releasing the music has to happen somewhere else. And in my opinion the actual re-defining service in that regard is Bandcamp. After all, you can't buy music on Soundcloud, can you?
  - ARCarr 9y ago
    You can buy music on Soundcloud.
    - thirdsun 9y ago
      Where? As a long time Soundcloud listener and artist I have never seen an option to buy or sell music on Soundcloud. Unless you mean the "Buy"-link which you can setup to redirect your listeners to actual stores and purchase options.
      - ARCarr 9y ago
        Oh, you're right. I'm mistaken. For some reason I assumed there was a buy link on the preview tracks people put up.
rocky1138 9y ago
Another one was RCRD.LBL. Loved their daily mp3s in my inbox.

bogomipz 9y ago

>"This may sound hyperbolic, but I feel like them shutting down would be the "burning of the Library of Alexandria" of 21st century music" Except that all the original content still exists and could be made available somewhere else.

moomin 9y ago
could won't
- bogomipz 9y ago
  Do you believe that if Soundcloud goes out of business in a couple of months artists affected will never again make those tracks available on the internet? Why would you believe that?
  - plorkyeran 9y ago
    A large number of them never will. Any archive of user-created content ends up dominated by "zombie" works from creators that have moved on from that sort of thing or aren't terribly concerned with ensuring that their older works remain accessible (if they even still have their own copies).
    - bogomipz 9y ago
      >"Any archive of user-created content ends up dominated by "zombie" works from creators that have moved on from that sort of thing or aren't terribly concerned with ensuring that their older works remain accessible (if they even still have their own copies)." Except when they are artists and that content is their art and that art is their passion and/or career. It's also how they build awareness and get gigs. We are talking about music not animated gifs and memes. Its unlikely that most artists no longer have the original tracks. The music industry has always had works that have gone out of print often because the record company goes bankrupt. And those out of print works are then reissued often with enhancements. In fact there are record labels whose whole business model is reissues. And at the extreme there are cases where the original master tapes were lost and reissues were cut from secondary sources. It would be unfortunate if SC were to disappear but if it did I doubt any appreciable amount of music would simply be "lost to the dust bin of history."

jfoster 9y ago

It's difficult for me to believe that they would actually go out of business. Somewhere between the price they would want and going out of business, I feel that a Google/Apple/Netflix/Amazon acquisition is a near-certainty. Not sure how that would work if they don't have sufficient runway for due diligence & acquisition closure, but I'm sure the above companies could deal with that scenario if necessary.

api 9y ago

That's the cloud for you.

AndrewUnmuted 9y ago

The Alexandria analogy already occurred this year. When what.cd was shut down.

cr1895 9y ago

As another mentioned, the Alexandria analogy is best applied to what.cd being shut down last year. Here's an article describing it. https://qz.com/840661/what-cd-is-gone-a-eulogy-for-the-greatest-music-collection-in-the-world/ https://qz.com/840661/what-cd-is-gone-a-eulogy-for-the-great... I wasn't ever a member, but it's clear to me that an immense body of knowledge was lost when it was shut down. Much more so than SoundCloud shutting down, unfortunate as that may be. edit: anyone who was familiar, how did the categorization and documentation of what.cd compare to Discogs now? I find Discogs invaluable and immensely useful, but it certainly doesn't have the rigorous QC that what.cd had. Anyone can edit entries, and it's not infrequently that I encounter something incorrect.

kough 9y ago
The private torrent sites (What, and others that I won't name here) all tend to refer to Discogs as the authoritative source of catalog information. The difference is that while Discogs knows about metadata, it doesn't have any music. I think I was depressed for a week when What shut down.
draw_down 9y ago
But that involved people (say it with me now) steeeealing!
macawfish 9y ago
I don't know, Soundcloud actually does have an extraordinary amount of independent content ("folk music") that what.cd wouldn't have ever been able to facilitate. I'd argue that they are both quite prolific, just different.

empath75 9y ago

I almost feel like they should go non-profit a la wikipedia.