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SoundCloud disappearing would be a shame. There's nothing that currently exists that replaces it. Consumer-oriented streaming platforms are a dime a dozen these

by mjr00 3y ago

SoundCloud disappearing would be a shame. There's nothing that currently exists that replaces it. Consumer-oriented streaming platforms are a dime a dozen these days, sure, but there's no real alternative for a musician-oriented platform; specifically, a platform where musicians can connect with other musicians, with zero overhead for sharing music. Just upload and done. Unlike commercial platforms like Spotify, there's a culture of bootlegs, edits, mashups and DJ sets where musicians turn a blind eye to copyright complaints, thanks to the inverted payment approach (with Spotify, they pay you for being on the platform; with SoundCloud, you pay SC to be on the platform). IMO, from my naive outside perspective, it seems like they were trying to be yet-another generic music streaming platform and that was a losing move. SoundCloud's legacy and current relevance is essentially "a social network for musicians". Positioning themselves as yet another subscription service where Joe Average can listen to Taylor Swift is a huge misplay.

hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago
I’m all for turning a blind eye to bootleg so long as it’s not just the original with a minor edit, but how do Soundcloud circumvent any dmca type behaviour that would prevent YouTube effectively offering the same service? I have noticed with YouTube that DJ sets often have muted gaps - I assume they’re legally allowed to play the muted music but the channels don’t want to deal with combatting copywrite for their content - it’s a damn shame seeing as I cannot find unmuted versions of some sets I’d like in full.
- mjr00 3y ago
  my understanding is that SoundCloud does have a content ID system similar to YouTube, but most artists and non-major labels don't opt into it. Occasionally copyright strikes do happen, which is why a lot of artists will have secondary bootleg channels to avoid getting their primary account axed.
adriand 3y ago
Their platform is just so badly designed once you do pay them as a musician. I signed up for an electronic project I was working on and I found the entire thing incredibly confusing. The design, the naming of things, the way some things connected with other things and not others, it all felt like a mishmash. The last straw for me was when I couldn’t master a track. The plan included IIRC three masters per month. After working on a new track and uploading it, I was unable to find any way to master it. The buttons just weren’t there. The only reason I could come up with was that it had been flagged for a copyright violation, which ostensibly disables mastering. But it wasn’t yet public, and it was entirely original content, and there was no visible explanation. I was left mystified and frustrated and I canceled. Post-cancellation, I thought maybe there’d be some follow up to find out why. A survey or something. Nope. Not a peep. The whole enterprise gives the impression that it’s from ten or fifteen years ago. I still use it everyday. But the fact it’s struggling is not surprising at all.
- mjr00 3y ago
  The fact that they even have an AI mastering service--which, to be blunt, is an exploitative scam to bilk hobbyist/newbie musicians out of their money--just shows how much shit they've been throwing at the wall, hoping it sticks. Mastering services, distribution services (SoundCloud for Artists, which lets you also post on Spotify), making some tracks eligible for streaming payouts, Next vs Next Pro vs Go vs Go+ vs... They've acted like a company on their last legs for a while. The Insights view is the most frustrating; they half-rolled it out a few years ago, sending out an apology email because it was half-baked and didn't have the same feature set as the old statistics viewer, but now they've removed the old one and the new Insights still sucks. Just smells of a half-completed project that no longer has the engineering or product support it needs to actually be good.
  - adriand 3y ago
    Yes, this is exactly what I am talking about! It's all feels very random. And it's all such a series of missed opportunities because they still have so much credibility in the hobbyist, underground and "urban" music scenes... The front-end is another example, the UI has barely changed in years, and yet, there are so many opportunities for improvement there too.

by mjr00 3y ago

hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago

I’m all for turning a blind eye to bootleg so long as it’s not just the original with a minor edit, but how do Soundcloud circumvent any dmca type behaviour that would prevent YouTube effectively offering the same service? I have noticed with YouTube that DJ sets often have muted gaps - I assume they’re legally allowed to play the muted music but the channels don’t want to deal with combatting copywrite for their content - it’s a damn shame seeing as I cannot find unmuted versions of some sets I’d like in full.

mjr00 3y ago
my understanding is that SoundCloud does have a content ID system similar to YouTube, but most artists and non-major labels don't opt into it. Occasionally copyright strikes do happen, which is why a lot of artists will have secondary bootleg channels to avoid getting their primary account axed.

adriand 3y ago

Their platform is just so badly designed once you do pay them as a musician. I signed up for an electronic project I was working on and I found the entire thing incredibly confusing. The design, the naming of things, the way some things connected with other things and not others, it all felt like a mishmash. The last straw for me was when I couldn’t master a track. The plan included IIRC three masters per month. After working on a new track and uploading it, I was unable to find any way to master it. The buttons just weren’t there. The only reason I could come up with was that it had been flagged for a copyright violation, which ostensibly disables mastering. But it wasn’t yet public, and it was entirely original content, and there was no visible explanation. I was left mystified and frustrated and I canceled. Post-cancellation, I thought maybe there’d be some follow up to find out why. A survey or something. Nope. Not a peep. The whole enterprise gives the impression that it’s from ten or fifteen years ago. I still use it everyday. But the fact it’s struggling is not surprising at all.

mjr00 3y ago
The fact that they even have an AI mastering service--which, to be blunt, is an exploitative scam to bilk hobbyist/newbie musicians out of their money--just shows how much shit they've been throwing at the wall, hoping it sticks. Mastering services, distribution services (SoundCloud for Artists, which lets you also post on Spotify), making some tracks eligible for streaming payouts, Next vs Next Pro vs Go vs Go+ vs... They've acted like a company on their last legs for a while. The Insights view is the most frustrating; they half-rolled it out a few years ago, sending out an apology email because it was half-baked and didn't have the same feature set as the old statistics viewer, but now they've removed the old one and the new Insights still sucks. Just smells of a half-completed project that no longer has the engineering or product support it needs to actually be good.
- adriand 3y ago
  Yes, this is exactly what I am talking about! It's all feels very random. And it's all such a series of missed opportunities because they still have so much credibility in the hobbyist, underground and "urban" music scenes... The front-end is another example, the UI has barely changed in years, and yet, there are so many opportunities for improvement there too.