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Music hosting biz SoundCloud, having just axed 40 per cent of its staff, is now trying to ward off rumors that it will go broke in less than two months.
The song-sharing service was rumored to be in crisis mode and had to shut its doors, with just 50 days of funding left before it ran out of cash. A spokesperson insisted Thursday, however, that this is not the case, and that following last week's layoffs, SoundCloud is going to be able to turn a profit soon.
[...] This comes as SoundCloud struggles to get its advertising and subscription revenues up high enough to push the music-sharing service into the black. Since 2008, the company has relied on VC funding to stay afloat and, after nine years, is still trying to turn a profit.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/13/soundcloud_insists_not_dying/
Previously:
SoundCloud is Cutting Nearly 40 Percent of its Staff
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kaszz on Saturday July 15 2017, @08:25AM (2 children)
Users are all to well aware of not-your-computer-syndrome *zap*. So it will be very hard to tell people that all is good when the signs point far in the opposite direction. And burning VC capital 2008-2017, nine years without a profit. What makes VCs think that they will turn a profit?
Almost like the company had some other purpose like finding talent before anyone else does or so..
Fuckedcompany will probably make an exception and take a new contestant. ;-)
Trust, hard to get - Easy to loose.
(Score: 2) by lx on Saturday July 15 2017, @09:41AM
The most probable exit strategy is being bought out by Spotify, Apple Music or similar.
Spotify is still not financially sound so let's all keep an eye on that big mountain of cash Apple has stored in the Cayman Islands and try not to drool too much.
(Score: 2, Touché) by fustakrakich on Saturday July 15 2017, @03:06PM
What makes VCs think that they will turn a profit?
What makes you think they want to 'turn a profit' [wikipedia.org]?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 15 2017, @08:35AM (1 child)
Eds! Some semantic separation is a good idea! Are we talking about fish, or frequency? I know it is not always all about that bass. [youtube.com] No treble! Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to to the top! We talking about you, Runaway! All about that Bass!!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kaszz on Saturday July 15 2017, @08:42AM
More Bass.. Treble 'N Bass [youtube.com] ;-)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 15 2017, @10:26AM (3 children)
You know, after Napster was allegedly "shutdown", I lost nothing? So why when these, um "legal" music services go down, do their "clients" lose everything? Another case where piracy is the better consumer strategy. You pose risks like this, no one wants to do business with you. Do you hear me, Bloomberg?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Saturday July 15 2017, @11:01AM
Ownership is to 20th Century; renting or leasing is where it's at!
If the artists/ clients upload music, are they also smart/cynical enough to also have multiple redundant backups, or is the "best version" on Soundcloud also the *only* one?
For "listeners" (consumers?), if your iPhone has moved all 'your' music to the cloud, and your phone data allows "free" streaming, then you quite used to not having a copy of 'your' music on your device..
Then you get a rude shock when the people with 'your' music threaten to take it away.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by mth on Saturday July 15 2017, @01:01PM (1 child)
As far as I know the majority of content on SoundCloud is in fact legal and put there by the people who made it. It is used by musicians and podcasters, for example. In both those examples, I wonder about profitability though.
For musicians, Bandcamp offers a way sell tracks and albums, while it also gives them a dedicated space on the site that they can style and that only contains their music.
For podcasters, RSS/Atom would be the preferred distribution method, so SoundCloud would only be hosting the audio files and not be getting any page views. Or am I the only one who still loves RSS/Atom?
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Saturday July 15 2017, @03:56PM
I've read that SC was having a hard time finding revenue sources because a lot of the stuff on SC is fan-made medleys that aren't quite legal. Want me to try to dig up the article?
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday July 15 2017, @10:59AM
*cough*
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 16 2017, @08:11AM (1 child)
I hope they go die.
After taking down a parody without review and without a way to retrieve the original upload, claiming to be copyright of the original song and having no easy way of communicating or making an appeal they can get fucked.
I never used it ever since.
Most of the content there is over compressed cut down 'demo' versions of tracks anyway that are only 30 seconds long.
mixcloud.com is better.
(Score: 0) by fakefuck39 on Sunday July 16 2017, @01:25PM
Alright... Maybe I'm the one not getting this, since both you and the article are saying the same thing. I'm going to assume you and the article writer are complete fucking morons though instead, since that's easier. Now I'm going to diss you and maybe you can calmly set me straight about a site/product I've never used and know little about.
What the fuck to do mean "without a way to retrieve the original upload?" Do you know what the fuck an upload is? Let me guess, when you send an email with an attachment to someone, and you later want to look at that file again, you ask them to email it back? Fucking retard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @02:55PM
Another site I won't be using. Well, enjoy bankruptcy.