Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
> 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...
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.
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.
They give no indication of what content in a mix is infringing, 30 seconds of an hour mix includes something owned by Universal? sorry your whole mix is rejected.
Bandcamp, anyone?
Also, what is a "premier track?"
If a user (currently US only) is listening to their stream and they start playing a track a premier member has decided to monetise an ad will play in front of it. There are some other factors that will influence ad frequency obviously, but that is the general behaviour.
Just because ads are a horrible way to monetise a web endeavour.
Subscriptions and rev shares are generally far less friction than charging up an account and explicitly giving a micropayment to an artist. I think SoundCloud already is a "marketplace" where independent artists can function without labels (if they want to do all the other work that labels cover), just that currently all transactions happen outside of the platform. That said, I don't have any more info about how a premium subscription for users would function.
If you must have ads then you should have content restrictions like google did with Adwords. Allow no music, no sound effects, no time effects, just a vocal sales pitch with ordinary dynamic range and -12dB peak loudness. The extremely limited options for Adwords presentation are what makes them bearable, in contrast to the hideous animated mess of typical internet banner ads.
This is a one-time opportunity to establish standards that will support rather than undermine your brand. If you let advertisers have free reaign over what to do with their slots then you'll get disrupted in turn. I already hesitate to embed Soundcloud clips because the embeds don't have any volume control and the play/volume controls on the site have been moved to the opposite end of the screen from everything else, a depressing example of a user-hostile 'dark pattern'.
"Carefully-controlled? The ads will only be seen and heard in the US for now, on SoundCloud’s own website and mobile apps – not in tracks embedded elsewhere on the web and/or listened to elsewhere in the world."
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.
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.
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.
(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)
Yes you do and is the only reason I started using AdBlock. I was willing to put up with everything the internet would throw at me. But then I visited the US once and Youtube had pre-roll ads and mid-playlist ads and whatnot.
Installed adblock immediately after it happened the first time. Now the whole internet doesn't have ads. Good job Youtube.
I think most people are accepting of ads, especially for a free service. There's always the vocal minority, but free is free.
Although I disagree that that's why artists like SoundCloud this won't change that. Ads will only play if you choose to monetise a track. Don't want ads on your track? You don't have them.
Of course you do. For many people (myself and my family included) this is number one place to go to find music. UX is perfect for a party - you find a random playlist and leave it like that, and any time someone wants to show a particular music piece or video to the group, the YouTube tab is there waiting.
Of course, first thing people do is nuking the pre-roll ads with AdBlock - because those make YouTube annoying and useless at parties.
They are already doing that.
And ? DJing is about mixing music sources seamlessly, wherever they come from.I wouldnt trust the network during a gig though ,but there is nothing shocking in getting your music from Youtube.
If you're going to profit from someone elses work without paying them, try not to make it sound like shit as well.
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.
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).
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.
Maybe part of it is that some of it is so well executed (the content, sure, but things like the comments are great), that it really makes the not-so-great stuff stand out. Still, I'm hopeful they'll keep iterating and improving!
http://thisisadynasty.tumblr.com/post/87945465547/brb-deleti...
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
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!
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)
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.
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.
Hopefully these terms are published while being worked out.
I don't care how good the music is. If I'm grooving and hear an ad for redbull, the mood is lost.