Is Soundcloud still the 'go to' music hosting site?

[Raver john]

As above really. Have been reading a few negative comments about SC recently, what with them getting sued for illegal content etc.

Any of you lot using anything else?

Or general thoughts on SC?

[slpwlkr]

I still use it because it's the only platform I find comfortable to use. People are trying to push mixcloud, but I really think it's an abomination.

[Lost to the Void]

Hearthis seems the only viable alternative.
Or mixcloud if you just want to host mixes.

[Mslwte]

well i think soundcloud is just about holding on because it has not completely alienated just yet (but its close) but hearthis is the only alternative atm. though its clincky as fuck

[The_G]

Nobody in my scene (synthwave) is on hearthis, so it's kind of useless for me as far as promotion and linking up with other producers go. But as someone who listens to a lot of techno, it's solid--if clunky.

Soundcloud sucks but it's still a necessarily evil for me.

[Mslwte]

that's it, hear this is the only viable option as far as i know. but its still a piece of shit and no one uses it.

[Planar]

There's no (real) money to be made as a site with emphasis on content creation, hence why SC is increasingly scratching around to increase revenue. I don't see any serious competitor appearing anytime soon.

[Lost to the Void]

There's no (real) money to be made as a site with emphasis on content creation, hence why SC is increasingly scratching around to increase revenue. I don't see any serious competitor appearing anytime soon.

Surely the content provider subscription fees filled their pockets?
I think it's a typical case of cash grab, expanding too much, and not understanding your original model.

[Planar]

There's hardly any money in their original model and hence why they've been losing money increasingly year on year. Their free service will use more resources than their subscribers will be able to cover. So as they get more and more free users, they lose money as their infrastructure needs to scale to accommodate them. Meanwhile their subscriber base will be a reasonably static number of people- I don't think there is a huge market for paying for this kind of service when they offer a decent free option (or even if not, really). Them attempting to increase revenue is understandable in this context, they're a business. However, their attempts to do it have been cack-handed at best.

[Wiu]

Maybe Myspace will rise from the ashes to conquer all again.....

[wormcode]

Maybe Myspace will rise from the ashes to conquer all again.....

Haha, they tried it not too long ago and relaunched once or twice. I think the last time they changed their name to "My__" or "My[ ]" and were clearly focused on musicians only. It could have been good, but the problem is most people won't switch once they're on one. I think that's the only way FB got incredibly popular. Myspace went to shit and Facebook was there to to pick up their slack avoid their mistakes. Actually last I checked you could log into Myspace using your FB account hah.

Soundcloud's big downfall seems to be its popularity and resulting shift to a more social networking type place. A large portion of people on SC don't even make music, they just use it to host their music collection to embed music onto their blogs etc. Surely that cost SC lots of time & money too in different ways trying to combat that, and also put them in legal crosshairs.

I've only heard about hearthis from this forum tbh. Checked it out now but the site is a mess and that was a turn off, otherwise seems like a very close SC clone with an odd name. It's something to watch though yeah.

I still like Bandcamp and its design however. Depending on what exactly someone wants to achieve I think it's a good alternative. But really I think using them all to your advantage is the way to go.

[PixelKind]

Hearthis is doing a pretty good job in recreating the "old" soundcloud. Problem is that nobody is really using it. And there is no other alternative so far

[Revaron]

Well, I think for me at least, Soundcloud can officially fuck off. Logged on just now with the intention of putting on some music while I was doing some other stuff, went to check on a few of my favourite groups - and there are no groups anymore! I know a lot of people might not miss them that much, and many of them were nothing but spam, but I was a member of a handful where the quality was consistently high. They were mostly smaller groups with moderated submissions or just flew under the spam radar I guess, but either way I'll miss them greatly. Found some good artists that way, and also got some genuine feedback on my own stuff that way. Seeing as there are now adverts as well, I can't really see myself using SC much anymore. I know this has been much discussed, but this latest change has really taken away one of the few remaining things I enjoyed SC for. Wankers.

[Dust Layer]

About mixcloud, is there any download option?

[Barfunkel]

About mixcloud, is there any download option?

No, that kinda goes against the philosophy of that site, ie. they supposedly pay the artists featured in DJ mixes. You wouldn't know who and how much to pay, were there a download option.

[Dust Layer]

About mixcloud, is there any download option?

No, that kinda goes against the philosophy of that site, ie. they supposedly pay the artists featured in DJ mixes. You wouldn't know who and how much to pay, were there a download option.

Thanks, that's a big negative point for me.

[1nfinitezer0]

Recently discovered Orfium. It's a barren wasteland for content at the moment, but the founder worked in YouTube rights management, so they've got all sorts of licensing options built right in: direct to artist, via label, free, or just stream. Layout and site seem to be decent start anyways.

[Constructs]

I'd say soundcloud and bandcamp are your go to and that will likely not change for a while.

[msl]

Still the only game in town, definetly not what it used to be, way less friendly for artists now, BUT its the only site with any traffic worth talking about. Heartis is peanuts in comparison.



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[Mslwte]

yes its still the better option. hearthis is the only other option just not up to scratch yet.