SoundCloud will be shutting down (probably.. or get bought out) *UPDATE* 8-12-17

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EnochLight
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29 Mar 2017

I know this has been discussed here before (such as in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7499126&p=309588&h ... ud#p309588 ), but after reading a recent article on Gizmodo, I'm afraid that it's going to be happening sooner than later.

http://gizmodo.com/streaming-music-serv ... 1793612699

In a nut-shell:
On Thursday, the streaming music service mostly known as a place to hear podcasts and remixes from unknown DJs confirmed that it had taken $70 million in debt funding—basically a loan from various investors—in order to stay in business.

It’s never a good sign when venture-backed companies have to raise money from debt financing groups, because it indicates that traditional investors don’t have much hope for the company. This appears to be the case for SoundCloud, as TechCrunch reports that the debt funding was raised because the company couldn’t close a $100 million round of funding. Back in February, when SoundCloud released its 2015 financial information, we found out that the company had lost $55 million for the year and was at the risk of running out of cash.

Yet, while having an extra $70 million is certainly helpful, it’s probably not going to be enough to save SoundCloud from the fate of Rdio, Grooveshark, MOG, and other failed music streaming services.
Anybody use it here regularly? I know most of the PropShop audio examples (from Props as well as RE devs, Refill houses, etc) use SoudCloud to host/stream their examples. This could be messy....

*UPDATE* 8/12/2017

Looks like they got bought out, similar to Propellerhead's Verdane investment:

http://www.factmag.com/2017/08/11/sound ... ment-deal/
Last edited by EnochLight on 12 Aug 2017, edited 1 time in total.
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raymondh
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29 Mar 2017

I use Soundcloud a lot and I hope it remains viable. Yesterday I received their promotion for Soundcloud Go which is their attempt to compete with Spotify. Not interested in that (or Spotify) but I hope they succeed.

I don't agree with the article concluding that debt funding means nobody is interested. It may be true, but in many ways, debt is cheaper than equity. Venture Capital comes with plenty of strings.


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Benedict
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29 Mar 2017

Thing is that while I find Soundclound a bit useful for showing bits and pieces (and my ReFill demos), I wouldn't be too upset if it disappeared as, nothing against any of the artists who use it, I find it to be a bit of a junk pile. This must be a great part of why they find it hard to make a good income stream.

:)
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EnochLight
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29 Mar 2017

raymondh wrote:I don't agree with the article concluding that debt funding means nobody is interested. It may be true, but in many ways, debt is cheaper than equity. Venture Capital comes with plenty of strings.
Debt funding was one of the contributors to the US Subprime Mortgage Crisis of 2007-2009, but there's certainly money to be made in it.

I use SoundCloud sometimes, but rarely these days. I'd like to see it survive somehow, though. Its novel approach of illustrating a wave file as a scrubbable playback transport has always been kinda' cool to me.
joeyluck wrote:Do you all remember when mp3.com went away?

It was a bummer :(
Oh hell yes - I remember mp3.com! Hahah!
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joeyluck
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29 Mar 2017

EnochLight wrote:
joeyluck wrote:Do you all remember when mp3.com went away?

It was a bummer :(
Oh hell yes - I remember mp3.com! Hahah!
Back in the day! I had stuff I uploaded to mp3.com and didn't do a good job backing it up anywhere else... :puf_unhappy:
It was a great site and community.

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Gorgon
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29 Mar 2017

Lots of DJ's dumped Soundcloud because they kept taking down mixes. So the mixes now go to Mixcloud and are not coming back.
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selig
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29 Mar 2017

EnochLight wrote:I know this has been discussed here before (such as in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7499126&p=309588&h ... ud#p309588 ), but after reading a recent article on Gizmodo, I'm afraid that it's going to be happening sooner than later.

http://gizmodo.com/streaming-music-serv ... 1793612699

In a nut-shell:
On Thursday, the streaming music service mostly known as a place to hear podcasts and remixes from unknown DJs confirmed that it had taken $70 million in debt funding—basically a loan from various investors—in order to stay in business.

It’s never a good sign when venture-backed companies have to raise money from debt financing groups, because it indicates that traditional investors don’t have much hope for the company. This appears to be the case for SoundCloud, as TechCrunch reports that the debt funding was raised because the company couldn’t close a $100 million round of funding. Back in February, when SoundCloud released its 2015 financial information, we found out that the company had lost $55 million for the year and was at the risk of running out of cash.

Yet, while having an extra $70 million is certainly helpful, it’s probably not going to be enough to save SoundCloud from the fate of Rdio, Grooveshark, MOG, and other failed music streaming services.
Anybody use it here regularly? I know most of the PropShop audio examples (from Props as well as RE devs, Refill houses, etc) use SoudCloud to host/stream their examples. This could be messy....
maybe they should post examples on Allihoopa instead? ;)
Selig Audio, LLC

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Karim
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29 Mar 2017

selig wrote:
EnochLight wrote:I know this has been discussed here before (such as in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7499126&p=309588&h ... ud#p309588 ), but after reading a recent article on Gizmodo, I'm afraid that it's going to be happening sooner than later.

http://gizmodo.com/streaming-music-serv ... 1793612699

In a nut-shell:
On Thursday, the streaming music service mostly known as a place to hear podcasts and remixes from unknown DJs confirmed that it had taken $70 million in debt funding—basically a loan from various investors—in order to stay in business.

It’s never a good sign when venture-backed companies have to raise money from debt financing groups, because it indicates that traditional investors don’t have much hope for the company. This appears to be the case for SoundCloud, as TechCrunch reports that the debt funding was raised because the company couldn’t close a $100 million round of funding. Back in February, when SoundCloud released its 2015 financial information, we found out that the company had lost $55 million for the year and was at the risk of running out of cash.

Yet, while having an extra $70 million is certainly helpful, it’s probably not going to be enough to save SoundCloud from the fate of Rdio, Grooveshark, MOG, and other failed music streaming services.
Anybody use it here regularly? I know most of the PropShop audio examples (from Props as well as RE devs, Refill houses, etc) use SoudCloud to host/stream their examples. This could be messy....
maybe they should post examples on Allihoopa instead? ;)
Maybe... but what about FL Studio, Live, Cubase, Logic, S1 users? [emoji3]. Or simply a band that use Tape Recorders?

Inviato dal mio SM-G925F utilizzando Tapatalk
Karim Le Mec : Dj/Producer/Label Owner ( :reason: 11.3+ R12  IMac 2016 21")
FOLLOW Karim Le Mec
https://www.youtube.com/user/lemecdj
https://karimlemec.weebly.com/
https://soundcloud.com/karimlemec
https://t.me/reasonstudiosworld

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selig
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29 Mar 2017

Karim wrote:
selig wrote:
EnochLight wrote:I know this has been discussed here before (such as in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7499126&p=309588&h ... ud#p309588 ), but after reading a recent article on Gizmodo, I'm afraid that it's going to be happening sooner than later.

http://gizmodo.com/streaming-music-serv ... 1793612699

In a nut-shell:
On Thursday, the streaming music service mostly known as a place to hear podcasts and remixes from unknown DJs confirmed that it had taken $70 million in debt funding—basically a loan from various investors—in order to stay in business.

It’s never a good sign when venture-backed companies have to raise money from debt financing groups, because it indicates that traditional investors don’t have much hope for the company. This appears to be the case for SoundCloud, as TechCrunch reports that the debt funding was raised because the company couldn’t close a $100 million round of funding. Back in February, when SoundCloud released its 2015 financial information, we found out that the company had lost $55 million for the year and was at the risk of running out of cash.

Yet, while having an extra $70 million is certainly helpful, it’s probably not going to be enough to save SoundCloud from the fate of Rdio, Grooveshark, MOG, and other failed music streaming services.
Anybody use it here regularly? I know most of the PropShop audio examples (from Props as well as RE devs, Refill houses, etc) use SoudCloud to host/stream their examples. This could be messy....
maybe they should post examples on Allihoopa instead? ;)
Maybe... but what about FL Studio, Live, Cubase, Logic, S1 users? [emoji3]. Or simply a band that use Tape Recorders?

Inviato dal mio SM-G925F utilizzando Tapatalk
I was responding to the mention of Prop Shop examples, so the other examples don't apply - was somewhat being cheeky, but also serious! ;)
Selig Audio, LLC

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Karim
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29 Mar 2017

selig wrote:
Karim wrote:
selig wrote:
EnochLight wrote:I know this has been discussed here before (such as in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7499126&p=309588&h ... ud#p309588 ), but after reading a recent article on Gizmodo, I'm afraid that it's going to be happening sooner than later.

http://gizmodo.com/streaming-music-serv ... 1793612699

In a nut-shell:
On Thursday, the streaming music service mostly known as a place to hear podcasts and remixes from unknown DJs confirmed that it had taken $70 million in debt funding—basically a loan from various investors—in order to stay in business.

It’s never a good sign when venture-backed companies have to raise money from debt financing groups, because it indicates that traditional investors don’t have much hope for the company. This appears to be the case for SoundCloud, as TechCrunch reports that the debt funding was raised because the company couldn’t close a $100 million round of funding. Back in February, when SoundCloud released its 2015 financial information, we found out that the company had lost $55 million for the year and was at the risk of running out of cash.

Yet, while having an extra $70 million is certainly helpful, it’s probably not going to be enough to save SoundCloud from the fate of Rdio, Grooveshark, MOG, and other failed music streaming services.
Anybody use it here regularly? I know most of the PropShop audio examples (from Props as well as RE devs, Refill houses, etc) use SoudCloud to host/stream their examples. This could be messy....
maybe they should post examples on Allihoopa instead? ;)
Maybe... but what about FL Studio, Live, Cubase, Logic, S1 users? [emoji3]. Or simply a band that use Tape Recorders?

Inviato dal mio SM-G925F utilizzando Tapatalk
I was responding to the mention of Prop Shop examples, so the other examples don't apply - was somewhat being cheeky, but also serious! ;)
in some point of view "Mors tua vita mea". Can be a big advantage for Props.
and maybe I will seriously consider at last to pubblish in Alihoopa over other dull services.. I have to convince my followers too...

Inviato dal mio SM-G925F utilizzando Tapatalk
Karim Le Mec : Dj/Producer/Label Owner ( :reason: 11.3+ R12  IMac 2016 21")
FOLLOW Karim Le Mec
https://www.youtube.com/user/lemecdj
https://karimlemec.weebly.com/
https://soundcloud.com/karimlemec
https://t.me/reasonstudiosworld

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Carly(Poohbear)
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29 Mar 2017

Karim wrote:
selig wrote:
Karim wrote:
selig wrote:
EnochLight wrote:I know this has been discussed here before (such as in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7499126&p=309588&h ... ud#p309588 ), but after reading a recent article on Gizmodo, I'm afraid that it's going to be happening sooner than later.

http://gizmodo.com/streaming-music-serv ... 1793612699

In a nut-shell:
On Thursday, the streaming music service mostly known as a place to hear podcasts and remixes from unknown DJs confirmed that it had taken $70 million in debt funding—basically a loan from various investors—in order to stay in business.

It’s never a good sign when venture-backed companies have to raise money from debt financing groups, because it indicates that traditional investors don’t have much hope for the company. This appears to be the case for SoundCloud, as TechCrunch reports that the debt funding was raised because the company couldn’t close a $100 million round of funding. Back in February, when SoundCloud released its 2015 financial information, we found out that the company had lost $55 million for the year and was at the risk of running out of cash.

Yet, while having an extra $70 million is certainly helpful, it’s probably not going to be enough to save SoundCloud from the fate of Rdio, Grooveshark, MOG, and other failed music streaming services.
Anybody use it here regularly? I know most of the PropShop audio examples (from Props as well as RE devs, Refill houses, etc) use SoudCloud to host/stream their examples. This could be messy....
maybe they should post examples on Allihoopa instead? ;)
Maybe... but what about FL Studio, Live, Cubase, Logic, S1 users? [emoji3]. Or simply a band that use Tape Recorders?

Inviato dal mio SM-G925F utilizzando Tapatalk
I was responding to the mention of Prop Shop examples, so the other examples don't apply - was somewhat being cheeky, but also serious! ;)
in some point of view "Mors tua vita mea". Can be a big advantage for Props.
and maybe I will seriously consider at last to pubblish in Alihoopa over other dull services.. I have to convince my followers too...

Inviato dal mio SM-G925F utilizzando Tapatalk
The problem with Allihoopa is you grant everybody free rights to anything you put up there... :shock:

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Gorgon
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29 Mar 2017

The whole idea about comparing Allihoopa to Soundcloud is ridiculous to begin with.
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deepndark
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29 Mar 2017

I pay 3 Euros a month to Soundcloud which is rather cheap, but anyway... if their business is making dept, why they don't make changes that make their business worthful?

deepndark
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29 Mar 2017

I wish I'd have better skills to code websites and enough money to start a business. Right now there's a clear empty slot in music hosting.

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Last Alternative
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29 Mar 2017

About mid last year I canceled my soundcloud subscription. I was paying for something I wasn't using enough to justify the cost and disagreed with the direction they were going, not to mention never understood why their coding was so poor and they did nothing about it. It served me well for a few years though and I hope they succeed.
Bandcamp is the way to go. Hopefully they're doing okay.
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Soft Enerji
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30 Mar 2017

I reckon Soundcloud have brought about their own downfall. They used to be about the "little guy" but that has changed in the last few years. When the "new" Soundcloud was introduced (about 5 years ago?) that was the start of the fall. They stopped listening (maybe they never did) and changed then way the site worked. It was pretty much evident they were targeting professional artists to market their music through SC at the expense of the folks that helped build them to where they were at at the time. I've been considering leaving for a while, dropped from Pro Unlimited subscription to Pro..............almost dropped to unpaid standard user back in Feb but couldn't decide which toons to lose :-).

Time to re-invent my Bandcamp page methinks.............

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ionly
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30 Mar 2017

Hohum, time to give my old Myspace page a dust-off

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EnochLight
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30 Mar 2017

deepndark wrote:but anyway... if their business is making dept, why they don't make changes that make their business worthful?
Well, their business has never been about making debt - it's been about generating revenue like any successful business would. The problem is (and was) similar to what Allihoopa and other "free" services like it face: how do we generate enough revenue to be successful for a normally free service?

It's one of two ways usually: by selling ads or selling a product users will pay for (and pay for in spades). They haven't been successful at either, I'm afraid. This boils down to this sort of business model (or "product") being unsustainable, pretty much. Google gets away with it because they sell billions in ad revenue.

SoundCloud just doesn't have that sort of business, I'm afraid. Not to digress, but Allihoopa's business model (as far as I can tell) is a free service meant to drive new users to Reason/the Reason ecosystem. Whether or not that's been successful enough for Props/Allihoopa to keep running the service remains to be seen. I'll say this much: bandwidth is not free, and neither is running servers nor paying the staff to maintain it and do the R&D needed to keep it relevant. Hopefully it'll all work out, though, as the idea of Allihoopa is pretty cool IMHO.

But then again, so was SoundCloud... :/
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Oquasec
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30 Mar 2017

Youtube is the end all be all.
I'd be glad if soundcloud wasn't a thing anymore, logamp & orfium however...those need to grow.
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Marco Raaphorst
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30 Mar 2017

Nothing beats SoundCloud. The struggle is hard but it's hard for anyone. Twitter not making profit for many years. Spotify not making profit.

SoundCloud is currently without doubt the best audio host and the best podcasting host too. Even Spotify doesn't come close (Spotify still uses Flash for their webplayer... !!!).

Modern technology SoundCloud.

I am sure the Props one day will put everything on Allihoopa though.

deepndark
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30 Mar 2017

EnochLight wrote:
deepndark wrote:but anyway... if their business is making dept, why they don't make changes that make their business worthful?
Well, their business has never been about making debt - it's been about generating revenue like any successful business would. The problem is (and was) similar to what Allihoopa and other "free" services like it face: how do we generate enough revenue to be successful for a normally free service?

It's one of two ways usually: by selling ads or selling a product users will pay for (and pay for in spades). They haven't been successful at either, I'm afraid. This boils down to this sort of business model (or "product") being unsustainable, pretty much. Google gets away with it because they sell billions in ad revenue.

SoundCloud just doesn't have that sort of business, I'm afraid. Not to digress, but Allihoopa's business model (as far as I can tell) is a free service meant to drive new users to Reason/the Reason ecosystem. Whether or not that's been successful enough for Props/Allihoopa to keep running the service remains to be seen. I'll say this much: bandwidth is not free, and neither is running servers nor paying the staff to maintain it and do the R&D needed to keep it relevant. Hopefully it'll all work out, though, as the idea of Allihoopa is pretty cool IMHO.

But then again, so was SoundCloud... :/
Most musicians want to get their music heard by audience (not only by other musicians) and lots of them also want to make money, neither Allihoopa or Soundcloud don't provide music selling possibilities. Ok, there's a way to get your music to iTunes, Spotify etc. but like I said, I don't feel non of the music hosting sites much enough atm. Soundclick is my current primary host, and I can't believe that the owners don't make a new fresh look for it. Bandcamp seems a nice place and I might make an account there and see how it goes.

siln
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30 Mar 2017

Soft Enerji wrote:I reckon Soundcloud have brought about their own downfall. They used to be about the "little guy" but that has changed in the last few years. When the "new" Soundcloud was introduced (about 5 years ago?) that was the start of the fall. They stopped listening (maybe they never did) and changed then way the site worked. It was pretty much evident they were targeting professional artists to market their music through SC at the expense of the folks that helped build them to where they were at at the time. I've been considering leaving for a while, dropped from Pro Unlimited subscription to Pro..............almost dropped to unpaid standard user back in Feb but couldn't decide which toons to lose :-).

Time to re-invent my Bandcamp page methinks.............
the new soundcloud was like :
1390485_10151843699979230_2075661139_n.jpg
1390485_10151843699979230_2075661139_n.jpg (4.58 KiB) Viewed 2270 times

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Oquasec
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30 Mar 2017

As a guy who never paid for pro soundcloud ever...I'm glad I'm not contributing to it with my own money.
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plaamook
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30 Mar 2017

I never paid a penny. Once I managed to convince them my music was actually mine I put one song up, got a booking, played a gig. Now three years later I just deleted my account. With the same song sitting there. I'm boring that way.
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You can check out my music here.
https://m.soundcloud.com/ericholmofficial
Or here.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73uZZ ... 8jqUubzsQg

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