What Next for Soundcloud?
I heard some mildly distressing news recently about Soundcloud and how some ex-employees have given it days before they have to fold.
Sad times
I loved Soundcloud since I first signed up 3 years ago. I've discovered some great artists and I always found a certain sense of accomplishment in finding out that the demo of a track that I loved hits the radio a year later.
I genuinely don't know of another place that I'll be able to find such a massive & eclectic mix of underground tracks or the top quality recommendations from content curators I managed to seek out in the time I spent there.
I've also uploaded a number of tracks I've written/recorded over the years to share with friends and loved how easy it was to use.
Where did it go wrong?
It's not the first time that Soundcloud have made news from their inability to generate enough revenue. Similar stories appeared in 2014 as their overheads far outstripped their income and again in 2016 before they managed to turn things around for a while.
A couple of things I noticed in their evolution just didn't seem to make sense to me.
Social network
Soundcloud is essentially a social network for music and its functioning in a greatly diminished fashion these days.
The mobile app used to allow you to comment, send messages & see who liked your tracks. Each of these social features have been removed from the mobile app for some time & show no signs of making an appearance any time soon, leaving the social element in the desktop domain.
Subscriptions
Soundcloud have explored subscription options since 2013 with a number of options for users to expand the amount of storage of their creations and functionality like offline play.
The tiers for these subscriptions have always been a little confusing and their lineup (Pro, Unlimited, Plus & Go) are no exception.
They claim to be able to compete with the likes of Spotify, Apple Music etc. but I can't help but feel like they're playing catch up with very well established competitors with larger catalogues of mainstream music & better user interfaces.
Is it doomed?
The writing may be on the wall for Soundcloud but I'm still holding out hope for them to stick it out a while longer - who knows, some big investment & new strategy could turn it around for good next time.
In the meantime, I'll be taking note of the artists that I've grown to love.
Where else am I going to find this kind of stuff?
(Header Image belongs to Soundcloud.com, modified by me)
Thanks for the news, from what they are saying, soundcloud isn't going anywhere despite the massive layoffs. Regardless things honestly don't look good at the company and it really does look like they are trying to buy time while preventing the valuation of the company from sinking too deeply.
If it helps it to run for longer then it's a good decision but you're right, it does feel like they're circling the drain.
It would be such a shame to lose it. Perhaps it will be a buyout? The other media based social networks are part of larger corporations where the success of an individual platform is not necessarily important.
Food for thought.
I hear ya man... Technology is great so long as its free and works until it suddenly doesn't because it was free... We've got to check our reality every now and then in order to put such basic logic into tangible perspective... BTW, that first track, "Love Never Felt So Good" was totally awesome.... Totally too good to be free but who am I to complain - after-all, I loved it! Therein lays the circular conundrum... The only thing to reconcile such quandaries is the true unadulterated free market of supply & demand - and not the "everything is free" click here model of likes and popularity.... just my two cents...
I've happily paid for SoundCloud when I've gone through cycles of wanting to find new music. You can't realistically expect to stream 8 hours a day for free!
No such thing as a free lunch and all that, sadly not a popular mentality on the web.
It's an incredible cover right? I'm not particularly fond of the original but I've listened to the cover to death :)
Thats unfortunate i hear great things of sound cloud. Maybe someone will buy them out
I think this is the most likely scenario. The other successful media based social networks belong to larger entities who don't need each part to be profitable independently.
Keeping my fingers crossed!
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