
The Agony and Ecstasy of Building an Online Music Business - thedarkginger
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/09/05/why_online_streaming_services_like_soundcloud_struggle.html
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thedarkginger
For anyone more knowledgeable in the online music industry than I, what's the
deal with this?

> “For music streaming start-ups, 70 to 80 percent of revenue, in the best
> case scenario, goes to rights holders from the word go,” Mulligan said. “If
> the streaming service is acquiring users but not monetizing them yet because
> they have free users without a scaled ad business, then those costs still
> need to be paid even though there is no revenue.”

My understanding was that Soundcloud's core product is delivering more
independent and self-created content (Chance the Rapper dropping Acid Rap) vs.
allowing a user to find a Kanye West track (Spotify, Apple Music, formerly
Tidal).

If that is the case, then why do the Soundclouds of the world have a licensing
rights issue at all?

~~~
dguo
SoundCloud Go launched last year, which is much more along the lines of
Spotify (access to major record label content).

[https://soundcloud.com/go](https://soundcloud.com/go)

