
Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads - pje
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/business/media/popular-and-free-soundcloud-is-now-ready-for-ads.html
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felixbraun
From the official blog:

> At the Premier partner level, creators will have the opportunity to make
> money from their tracks through advertising.[...] Every time you see or hear
> an ad, an artist gets paid.

[http://blog.soundcloud.com/2014/08/21/introducing-on-
soundcl...](http://blog.soundcloud.com/2014/08/21/introducing-on-soundcloud/)

This is huge: Soundcloud has a way better connection to artists/labels than
Spotify or Rdio -- which means that the best content will be on Soundlcoud
first.

Given that users follow the content, I think it is safe to suggest that
Soundcloud will be bigger than Spotify in a few years.

~~~
narag
There is also MixCloud: http//mixcloud.com/ with a very similar service. I've
read that a lot of DJ types migrated to MixCloud when SoundCloud started to
block content because of IP issues.

MixCloud doesn't let you download (which SoundCloud does sometimes) although
it's not difficult to find out the streaming URL.

I use both services, but I'm not really happy with the playlist systems of
neither. Recommendations, contrary to what other commenter said, are very
good.

I don't really use them with the phone: too much traffic, also train tunnels
are bad. I wish it could cache, downloading while on wi-fi and listen later.

~~~
91edec
It does cache songs you have listened to on your phone. When I get the tube in
London I can still listen to tracks I've played already. Not sure how long
it's cached for or how many tracks it caches all together though.

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JonnieCache
I've just spent £35 to renew my pro subscription. If this means people are
less likely to come and listen to my music, being bombarded with adverts on a
page that I have paid for, I will be most displeased. I'll have to stop
wearing my soundcloud tshirt to raves for a start, or everyone will be looking
at me like like I'm about to sell them something.

Bandcamp, anyone?

~~~
dts
Hey there, I work at SoundCloud. One thing that might not be totally clear in
our messaging about this right now is that ads will only play against tracks
premier members have chosen to monetise. If you aren't monetising your tracks,
your listeners won't be affected.

~~~
abraxasz
If so this should really have been made clearer in the press coverage because
it is very different from the way I and probably other people understood it. I
understand that soundclound would need a way to make money, and what you
describe seems like a very reasonable way to proceed. However, a youtube-like
or spotify-like ads system would likely be much harder to sell to users.

~~~
tripzilch
I guess they haven't made it clear because while this is how it works _now_ ,
but they don't want to set any expectations of that not changing for the
future.

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fecklessyouth
I've slowly been shifting my music listening from Spotify to Soundcloud.

Music discovery on Soundcloud is much easier, thanks to its news feed. With
Spotify, I usually end up digging through "related artists" for artists I
already like--which can be effective, but is also time consuming. With
Soundcloud, I can follow a few record labels, and discover lots of new music,
easily.

Because of this, Soundcloud serves as a great platform for trending music. A
song can be posted there and spread solely within the site, without much
outside help, thanks both to the liking/reposting of songs and Soundcloud's
"trending" section. With Spotify, you either have to already follow the artist
or hope one of your Facebook friends is listening.

Which is another advantage of Soundcloud--it's nearly impossible to find other
users with the same tastes. In essence, you're limited to Facebook friends.

~~~
cheepin
I find that for me, Spotify is really only good if I already know exactly what
I want to listen to. Also, it's ads are incredibly loud compared to the music
sometimes. Hopefully Soundcloud doesn't follow that aspect.

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Oculus
I'm not sure this model will work like it did with Youtube. You don't put
Youtube on in the background/at a party while friends are over. You sit down
and watch a video (hence you're willing to sit through an advertisement).
Music streaming that is broken up by advertisements is why people dislike
radio and are moving to online services.

The reason artists like Soundcloud is it gives a way to distribute music
directly to the fans for free. Anything that gets in the way of that (e.g.
ads) is a step in the wrong direction. Instead of attempting to monetize
ears/eyes, I'd instead suggest for a premium subscription for artists that
gives them enhanced tools to monitor/distribute/track/etc. their music on the
platform.

~~~
Tiksi
I'm not sure I agree with the first part of your comment. Spotify already does
this, and in my experience plenty of people leave spotify on as background
music and/or at a party.

My old roommates did this pretty frequently, and while it was annoying at
first to hear ads between songs, as long as they're short enough, you
eventually just tune them out.

If anything I'd say that the youtube style ads that play before your content
are more aggravating, since you are delayed from actually seeing the content
you are trying to watch, much like a loading page is generally a worse
experience than a loading content area.

~~~
tripzilch
If I was over at my friends' and they'd play ads at me, I'd complain and ask
them to put on some real music. They'd ask the same of me.

(though I wouldn't _insist_ , if someone doesn't know how, or just really
wants to hear radio with ads, I'm a guest after all)

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onedev
Their website and apps are really bad....but what keeps me coming back is the
incredible incredible content. I've found so many great remixes as well as
obscure but extremely talented musicians on Soundcloud. It's amazing.

The site/apps and just general design really are embarrassing though. I hope
they're doing something about it.

I guess this is one case where content really does make up for a shoddy
product. I'd be interested to know the story behind their growth and how they
managed to create the community of content creators. I'm sure at least a part
of it is lack of a better alternative but I'm sure there's some secret sauce
in there somewhere.

~~~
FatalBaboon
I find the site/app/api amazing.

You can navigate while playing a song without interruption, keyboard shortcuts
make sense, I can even play from Emacs!

The only thing I regret is the buggy login via facebook (the logo doesn't
show, or clicking it doesn't do anything).

~~~
boyaka
Here's a post about the technology behind SoundCloud from a couple of months
ago [1]. I agree that this is a great example of a cloud service. While it
might not be completely optimized for one particular platform, I am able to
hop between IOS, Android, and PC browsers with all my data being updated
flawlessly and in realtime.

My biggest peeve with SoundCloud, though, is keeping track of what I have
listened to and trying to remember a song that I thought was amazing. I didn't
have an account for the first several months I was using it, but I would just
remember the Artists I like and listen to their profiles/likes. Not being able
to remember songs and artist names motivated me to make an account and start
following them, and liking the songs I wanted to hear again, reblogging the
ones I want to share with others... In the end, even though it was frustrating
for me, I suppose this is good for SoundCloud and getting people to provide
feedback.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7878433](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7878433)

~~~
yonaguska
the getting back to old music that you like is a problem even when you do have
an account. Your likes are only stored in the order in which you favorite
them, with no real search functionality. I've been trying forever to find an
old song that I liked, but searching for it only yields similarly named songs.
I wish there was a search within only favorites..

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mbesto
This is really interesting:

[http://thisisadynasty.tumblr.com/post/87945465547/brb-
deleti...](http://thisisadynasty.tumblr.com/post/87945465547/brb-deleting-
soundcloud)

 _But it’s more than advertising. It’s sharing. If a person likes one song,
then you know what’s likely to happen? They’ll press the download arrow and
own it for free. You won’t believe what happens next! They become familiar
with the artist, and seek out other material. Maybe they buy that. Maybe they
talk about it online. Maybe they go to a show. Maybe they simply become a fan
and tell a friend.

I’m cool with that. The labels should be too. It’s exactly what they’re trying
to accomplish by funneling endless money for Facebook Likes, Twitter trending
hashtags, and totally ridiculous impotent advertising campaigns. Let the
people have the music. Or, to put it in language that makes more sense for the
ones who can only speak dollar bill - Free the music, and your cash will
follow._

[https://twitter.com/kaskade/statuses/474230686778290177](https://twitter.com/kaskade/statuses/474230686778290177)

 _Yes, so I will move forward with constructing my own portal where I can
share what I like when I like._

I wonder if there is a play here to make an artist standalone site that looks
and acts like SoundCloud, make it easy to deploy using SandStorm and voila!

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justrandomanon
Soundcloud already has a pro plan which I see a lot of artists using. Why do
they need ads? Do you they not already make enough money?

It's not the specifics of what is being proposed here that bothers me. But
something about this makes me feel that this will be soundclouds downfall. I
don't want to be soundclouds product. I want soundcloud to be the product. I
would happily pay for their service (providing they don't go down this route).

(I'm a bedroom producer that uploads to soundcloud, considering a pro plan)

~~~
pilif
_> Why do they need ads? Do you they not already make enough money?_

last I checked, they were a for-profit business. If they believe they can make
more money (and thus: profits) by playing ads, that's what they do.

As a for-profit business, it's totally within their rights to gain as much
money as they can and they have zero obligations to only have the best of the
end-users in mind.

Of course, as ads become more and more intrusive, people might switch to a
competitor with fewer/no ads, or they might convert to paid accounts, but
assessing that risk, too, is Soundcloud's problem.

My guess is that they feel they are popular enough now to be able to add ads
and still be able to keep their user base because Soundcloud is where the
artists are (which happened because they had a huge audience, mostly because
they had no ads up to now)

It's the natural progression of things.

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ffog
The problem I see is that since Soundcloud continues playing after each track,
those with ads are going to get some kind of preference in the queue.

This may not be the case, but I am guessing that I am going to start hearing
ads even tho I don't typically follow anyone who would put ads on their music.

~~~
ffog
There's already a song from Red Bull at the TOP of my feed. Bye SoundCloud as
you were :(

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walterbell
> There are so many D.J. mixes, mash-ups and other hybrid works, shared and
> remixed so frequently, that appropriate licensing terms have not yet been
> fully worked out

Hopefully these terms are published _while_ being worked out.

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crystaln
I would happily pay for soundcloud, however I will stop using the service
entirely if I start hearing ads.

I don't care how good the music is. If I'm grooving and hear an ad for
redbull, the mood is lost.

~~~
deathhand
How do you fix this? If you are "grooving" then there is a high percentage
chance that you aren't looking at the sound cloud page but rather doing
something else somewhere else. Advertisers pay for your attention so how do
you go around doing just that without being 'obtrusive'.

~~~
decwakeboarder
> I would happily pay for soundcloud

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idlewords
Hooray!

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spacefight
Same link, no paywall:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/business/media/popular-
and...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/business/media/popular-and-free-
soundcloud-is-now-ready-for-ads.html?partner=rss&emc=rss)

