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This is what happens when a startup fails. The problem with SoundCloud is that Spotify ate their lunch. I'm not sure this is solvable -- it's like being second

This is what happens when a startup fails. The problem with SoundCloud is that Spotify ate their lunch. I'm not sure this is solvable -- it's like being second place to eBay. Trainor might not be able to do much unless he pivots the company Jobs-style, which isn't an easy feat. I have to wonder why the VC sunk more money into SoundCloud. Do they see an opportunity we don't? Or is it politicking? Hard to tell.

tomphoolery 9y ago
Soundcloud and Spotify fill very different niches in the music streaming market. Spotify is slightly more difficult to break into, you have to either be signed to a label or start your own label and get set up with a distributor to put your music on it (just like Tidal or any of the download stores). With Soundcloud, you can upload anything you want, and the barrier to entry is very low. It's important to those of us who are discovering new artists for whatever reason (DJ, record label, promoter, management, etc.), because artists can put their music on Soundcloud for the world to hear without already being involved in the industry. Soundcloud Go turned them into a competitor with Spotify, but that was never their forte in the first place. They just saw it as a way to possibly make money. I think they need to focus on the community aspect of things, and see themselves as more of a social networking tool centered around music rather than yet another music store/streaming service.
- jmreid 9y ago
  It absolutely isn't hard to get music on Spotify. DistroKid (distrokid.com) is $20 a year to upload unlimited tracks to all the music services. But, you're point about being able to upload "anything" to SoundCloud stands. It was a place for remixes, demo tracks, podcasts, etc. You aren't able to upload just anything to the music streaming services. (need album artwork, etc) And your last paragraph is spot on. I'm surprised we didn't see them release their own mobile OS and phone /s
- virgil_disgr4ce 9y ago
  jmreid is right, it's not hard at all to get music on Spotify (I've used CDBaby for 3 albums so far). But yes, you're absolutely right about focusing on a 'sound-oriented social networking tool'. If that was the direction, then I'd see no real monetization opportunities outside of advertising (and premium to remove ads).
nxsynonym 9y ago
Honestly they handed their own lunch to spotify and then cried when it got eaten. They were completely different services for different artists and different audiences, until SC tried to force a premium service. That's when Spotify comparisons started and drew users away. An anecdote - I won't pay for more than one music subscription on a monthly basis. I won't even choose apple music or tidal or amazon music (if it wasn't included with prime) over Spotify. Why would I pick soundcloud when it has a smaller catalog and a worse UX?
- virgil_disgr4ce 9y ago
  Same here. I pay for Spotify and I'd never start paying for an additional one. SC has to refocus on what people originally went there for: in-progress works, experiments, remixes, one-offs, etc etc.
dep_b 9y ago
I still go to SoundCloud to listen to new music from Techno artists. I guess that's what it started with. Nowadays I find mixes on SoundCloud and MixCloud. I find YouTube has plenty of material found nowhere else but not always that particular kind of stuff.
- lucaspiller 9y ago
  For a lot of the stuff I want to listen to, YouTube has it too so there isn't really much difference. However on iOS you can't have YouTube running in the background (there are some tricks to make it play a single video, but not a playlist), so SoundCloud wins for that - and the bandwidth of audio is less than video.
- dave7 9y ago
  Thank you for mentioning MixCloud, I was not familiar with it and from a quick browse it seems great for my tastes (EDM live sets).
spacelizard 9y ago
The problem with Soundcloud is that grew too big and as a result aren't building a site for their core customer: indie artists. Take a look at the front page, all it shows is tracks and artists that are already hugely popular. The features they are focusing on seem to be a hodgepodge of things taken from Spotify and Last.fm, but without any real value-adds for someone who's just uploading music. I recently made an account for a new project I'm working on and all the organic traffic I'm getting is just spam. Bandcamp is now the place for unsigned artists to go to promote/sell indie music.
smitherfield 9y ago
I'm not sure this is solvable -- it's like being second place to eBay. Kinda a funny example, since nowadays I mostly think of eBay as an also-ran to Amazon.

tomphoolery 9y ago

Soundcloud and Spotify fill very different niches in the music streaming market. Spotify is slightly more difficult to break into, you have to either be signed to a label or start your own label and get set up with a distributor to put your music on it (just like Tidal or any of the download stores). With Soundcloud, you can upload anything you want, and the barrier to entry is very low. It's important to those of us who are discovering new artists for whatever reason (DJ, record label, promoter, management, etc.), because artists can put their music on Soundcloud for the world to hear without already being involved in the industry. Soundcloud Go turned them into a competitor with Spotify, but that was never their forte in the first place. They just saw it as a way to possibly make money. I think they need to focus on the community aspect of things, and see themselves as more of a social networking tool centered around music rather than yet another music store/streaming service.

jmreid 9y ago
It absolutely isn't hard to get music on Spotify. DistroKid (distrokid.com) is $20 a year to upload unlimited tracks to all the music services. But, you're point about being able to upload "anything" to SoundCloud stands. It was a place for remixes, demo tracks, podcasts, etc. You aren't able to upload just anything to the music streaming services. (need album artwork, etc) And your last paragraph is spot on. I'm surprised we didn't see them release their own mobile OS and phone /s
virgil_disgr4ce 9y ago
jmreid is right, it's not hard at all to get music on Spotify (I've used CDBaby for 3 albums so far). But yes, you're absolutely right about focusing on a 'sound-oriented social networking tool'. If that was the direction, then I'd see no real monetization opportunities outside of advertising (and premium to remove ads).

nxsynonym 9y ago

Honestly they handed their own lunch to spotify and then cried when it got eaten. They were completely different services for different artists and different audiences, until SC tried to force a premium service. That's when Spotify comparisons started and drew users away. An anecdote - I won't pay for more than one music subscription on a monthly basis. I won't even choose apple music or tidal or amazon music (if it wasn't included with prime) over Spotify. Why would I pick soundcloud when it has a smaller catalog and a worse UX?

virgil_disgr4ce 9y ago
Same here. I pay for Spotify and I'd never start paying for an additional one. SC has to refocus on what people originally went there for: in-progress works, experiments, remixes, one-offs, etc etc.

dep_b 9y ago

I still go to SoundCloud to listen to new music from Techno artists. I guess that's what it started with. Nowadays I find mixes on SoundCloud and MixCloud. I find YouTube has plenty of material found nowhere else but not always that particular kind of stuff.

lucaspiller 9y ago
For a lot of the stuff I want to listen to, YouTube has it too so there isn't really much difference. However on iOS you can't have YouTube running in the background (there are some tricks to make it play a single video, but not a playlist), so SoundCloud wins for that - and the bandwidth of audio is less than video.
dave7 9y ago
Thank you for mentioning MixCloud, I was not familiar with it and from a quick browse it seems great for my tastes (EDM live sets).

spacelizard 9y ago

The problem with Soundcloud is that grew too big and as a result aren't building a site for their core customer: indie artists. Take a look at the front page, all it shows is tracks and artists that are already hugely popular. The features they are focusing on seem to be a hodgepodge of things taken from Spotify and Last.fm, but without any real value-adds for someone who's just uploading music. I recently made an account for a new project I'm working on and all the organic traffic I'm getting is just spam. Bandcamp is now the place for unsigned artists to go to promote/sell indie music.

smitherfield 9y ago

I'm not sure this is solvable -- it's like being second place to eBay. Kinda a funny example, since nowadays I mostly think of eBay as an also-ran to Amazon.