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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: 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?