about soundcloud

thank you, muted

dang why is there so much spamming on soundcloud? i can't post anything without a shirtless brazilian man who is unknown to me liking it and then offering me "real soundcloud followers"
do i really have to block them all individually?

ha, really? i get spambot followers sometimes but they're harmless, no weird comments or messages.

well they're the only comments/likes/whatevers i get, so it's more noticeable :-/

also it happens every single time i post something

my fav thing is people who tag their soundcloud profiles in huge letters on highway overpasses, I've never gone to one though but I understand

Happens every time to me as well, usually within minutes, sometimes seconds, of posting something new. V annoying.

Sorry to hear about your spamming woes. As for me? Never been spammed, not a once. STEVE HOLT!

what am i doing wrong to attract all of the spammors?

Wrong? More like we're doing something so right that They are trying to discourage us. Getting too close to the truth.

right, that must be it
people can't get enough of the magic in my "big bird" drum track

i quite enjoyed when i uploaded a track that somehow self-generated in ableton from a midi error, and immediately had it liked and shared by a bunch of bots. who needs humans.

errors making music for bots to spam humans who need drugs to make music for bots to ignore

ok so i think it's because of what i'm tagging? i put up the most ridiculously unlikeable piece of crap and within minutes an account called BUY FOLLOWERS reblogged it
i don't get any actual real people listening to these things, but i'd really rather have it say 0 than this

any ideas for stopping the spam aside from blocking the spammers after they strike?

i think i worked out how to avoid spam likes: publish your track as private, wait until the coast is clear of shirtless skrilltards then go to the track's edit page by clicking the little pencil icon and change the settings to public

I never tag

I just don't know why they don't just make Soundcloud better overall. There's so much potential for a really great music-based social network with customisable designs, video options, seller options, radio playlists. I know Bandcamp offers a lot of this, but I don't feel like they're quite there yet with the community aspect either.

All that sounds terrible, cluttered, busy

Community aspect works well as it is I think

It would only be cluttered if it were made so. I'm thinking back to the days when people could meet and collaborate on MySpace and the way you can fall down rabbit holes on Wikipedia etc (but with music). Soundcloud's Easyjet aesthetic doesn't seem to make this happen when I go on it. Also their Android app is useless.

You can do all that now

oh right. hadn't noticed. I take it you have to pay to get extra features? Not sure if it's changed since I last did this but it feels like whenever I land on a SC page, I find I have trouble getting any more information about what I'm listening to other than the artist name and their location. Sometimes there are a few notes about the track, but I just feel like there could be more to it. Could you point me to an example of a good soundcloud page?

http://soundcloud.com/norulespodcast

I wouldnt use a tag like they've done - no need for descriptions!

Maybe I'm missing something here, but from the looks of it that link looks very much like the other Soundcloud pages I've visited. Generic orange and white layout, no artist information, no links to further listening, not to mention those ugly unnecessary waveforms instead of a nice-looking player option. I don't see any social network stuff (other than the 'HELL YEAH!' comments which are probably 50% spam) , no video content, no way for the artist to promote their work within the Soundcloud universe (as opposed to linking to their account from other areas like FB/Twitter that is). Or am I not looking hard enough?

Those comments are from the community you were looking for

hmmm...

They also have pages

If you like the music in those two mixes there are many followers and commenters to follow. But perhaps enjoy the music first and worry about other things a different day

maybe the music that is handed to you on a plate with tracklisting and videos and informations and pictures isnt satisfying to you because its no good and needs all that other stuff and the good music is right there but doesnt come to you on a plate with a press release and a write up

I wouldn't say that. Often I get sent to a Soundcloud or Bandcamp page, listen to a track, like it, and then I'm like 'now what?'.

Even if I were looking at a CD in a shop, there'd at least be more artist information on the sleeve than an orange and white circle with "Napalm Death - Meridan, UK" written on it.

You are like why doesnt the person that found this do some more research and send me another thing

What more do you want to know about the artist? You can google Patrick Specke if you really want

Even if I were looking at a CD in a shop, there'd at least be more artist information on the sleeve

It would have the artist name and the label in the record middle, what else?

The facilities are there, but it's up to acts to make use of them. I'm fully used to seeing press releases appended to tracks and sets, with a bio on the left hand column, where there should also be links to the act's other social media presences: FB, Twitter, YouTube, Bandcamp, Instagram etc.

Generic orange and white layout

Are you sat there looking at the page when its playing?

I'm at work, so I can't play it. What do you mean?

The facilities are there, but it's up to acts to make use of them. I'm fully used to seeing press releases appended to tracks and sets, with a bio on the left hand column, where there should also be links to the act's other social media presences: FB, Twitter, YouTube, Bandcamp, Instagram etc.

― mike t-diva, Wednesday, April 9, 2014 12:31 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I still think the whole thing looks rather ugly and inflexible. All the pages look exactly the same, there's little in the way of design options. The comments section is mostly just people going 'This is good'. It's good that there's a small section for an artist bio, but I just think they could do more with what they have, make the whole experience more self-contained. It just feels a bit bare-bones to me when you could have this whole universal music service where artists can share and collaborate with each other, link to other stuff they like, and where fans can spend hours discovering new artists and create their own customised areas which they can then share with their friends etc...

It does all the above - and the "barebones approach" facilitates this! the page i linked above, of the commenters nearly all will have pages of their own with great stuff things on. And you see the same people from that first page on other pages - exactly the definition of community. Those people didnt get there by accident

And doing it this way where you have to find for yourself means you dont get bombarded by nonsense recommendations you just see what people you follow comment on or like

The best things dont need to advertize

ie what makes soundcloud good is the fact that soundcloud, mostly, stays out the way

Totally agree. Play a track, go to the act's main profile page (while the track keeps playing), look for their re-posts or likes (RHS of profile page), see who they're following, etc. Or play a track, click on the re-post count, see who's re-posted it (generally this will be fans), go to their profile, see what else they've re-posted etc. Forget the comments - there are plenty of other ways to jump around. And personally I'd rather have a clean, easy-to-follow standard interface than a hideous quasi-Myspace cludge - and in any case, most self-managed acts are busy enough maintaining all their separate-but-interlinked points of presence, without feeling obliged to take on more design work.

I only use it as a storage system. If you want to know more (and you don't, but let's imagine you did), that's what my tumblr is for. I don't have enough songs for bandcamp yet. When I do, I'll collect the good (lol) stuff there.

The best things dont need to advertize

Sorry, but that's just not true.

Agree that MySpace was hideous in many respects. I just wish the Soundcloud site let artists customise their pages a bit beyond what is there. I've never seen the aspects Miketd is talking about. Is that paid accounts only? I've got, like, three Soundcloud accounts and I don't think I was aware you could use it in the way you mention but I'll give it a go tonight and see how that pans out.

What I'm saying is though, why have a Tumblr and a Facebook and a Twitter and a Spotify presence and whatnot when you could have everything all contained in one place specifically for music and music fans? Obv it would take a while to replace all these different media, but none of the above methods seem to be designed with the promotion and enjoyment of music in mind. As an amateur musician and promoter I always feel like I'm struggling to use things like Facebook to promote my sounds because there are restrictions on, say, who you can invite to an event. Everything seems to have to be hosted from outside and it's just an unwieldy bit of kit for the job. An all-encompassing music service with its own social network function (plus the ability to integrate easily with Tumblr, Facebook &c) would be awesome, and I still don't believe the existing options are quite there yet.

i looooove the self-contained nature of soundcloud, and how it's focused on the audio. so glad that artists can't make general status updates (unless they record a message!) or spam their followers...there are enough places to do that, and i like that it's straight-forward and a little opaque.

like anvil said, it's easy to add links to other places in your profile, although i'm not sure you can do it with a free account. i've definitely made more connections and had the most fun/success on SC compared to any other network, there's just too much noise on fb/twitter/tumblr/etc.

jordan and anvil otm, soundcloud is really refreshing in terms of tuning out extraneous noise

i must be using it wrong.

Advertising is not marketing. All things need to market.

okay?

i must be using it wrong.

How many people are you following? Do you trust what they like?

Advertising is not marketing. All things need to market.

soundcloud does this already, no words or links needed

I still don't believe the existing options are quite there yet.

and when it gets to this utopia people will go somewhere less intrusive again

just because you cant see something doesnt meant its not there

Advertising is not marketing. All things need to market.

soundcloud does this already, no words or links needed

I totally agree.

You're agreeing with your own posts Sicko?

Can you tell me about the success you've had marketing your own music without words or links please?

one thing about soundcloud is that it seems there's a real community there for electronic music, but i feel bad for, say, singer-songwriter friends who have a solid following irl but nothing on sc.

one quirk of BC is that you kinda judge how someone else's album is doing by the number of those little squares, but those only show up if someone has a BC account (fan or artist) afaik. not that it matters, but sometimes i wonder if only 10 people have actually bought a certain album, or if the number is a lot higher but most people don't bother to sign up for an account.

the way I experience Soundcloud is more to sample single tracks, mixes, radio shows, remixes, etc. I don't go there to hear (or buy) whole albums. Make no mistake, I use Soundcloud as well, but since I use Mixloud for mixes, and Bandcamp for full albums, my needs at SC are fairly limited. To me, the biggest advantages there are that a) people can comment on specific parts of a track, and I can easily track downloads/streams, and b) I can see the waveform.

big spam mail outs today from various wannabe soundcloud obviously thinking the news may make more people jump ship.

https://www.orfium.com/welcome/

it would be a real pain for me if SC went down as it has become a pretty integral part of what i do but i'd no doubt get over it. i have a strong feeling it won't fail or some bigger company will eventually buy it.

in some ways i feel like my SC page is the only semi-tangible evidence of all the time i've spent making music over the last 6 years. or at least the most comprehensive, since it's my best way to collect & present tracks that were released on different labels.

same! only minus the label stuff and -3 yrs

The chances of some tech giant buying it must be pretty high, regardless of losses.

I'm not good enough to try to sell stuff on bandcamp yet. Hopefully SC will eke it out until I get there.

I'm guessing you probably need to take stuff off SC for people to buy it on Bandcamp, at least based on my experience with not doing that.

The end is nigh

http://variety.com/2017/music/news/soundcloud-has-enough-money-to-survive-only-50-days-report-claims-1202494582/

goddamnit

i gotta grab my shit off there

loved soundcloud

Yeah, back up your own stuff, and download whatever else is up there that is great. In fact, people want to turn this into a rolling recommendations thread, they should.

Oh, hell.

arse, but, not totally unexpected to be honest.

i use it a lot via sonos app to check out new stuff, makes it so easy to hear stuff via my hi-fi as opposed to crappy laptop speakers.

how bad does this fuck up the whole podcast industry? seems like a of big podcasts get a lot of their listens through Soundcloud

it's a pretty small piece of the picture tbh

i'm kind of mad at soundcloud actually. they created, basically, tumblr for music, totally failed to get their music rights in order, and now they're letting it die even though people love it :/

I'll be very sad if it folds, it's the platform I've had the most success with in pretty much all respects (finding music, connecting w/people, and getting my own work out there).

Yeah, same. :(

i continue to see things expire before i figure out what they are or if i have use for them

I am kind of glad this means I won't have to make an account once I get my one-man-band back together

Also, completely on the same page as Morbius here!

I mean I knew I should be taking advantage of it, but then I would go look at all the little iconified comments on time stamps along the bottom and just NO NOT

Frequently maddened by inability to download podcast episodes. No, i do not want to listen to this on my desktop.

pour one out

Chance to the rescue:

https://blavity.com/soundcloud-saved-chance-the-rapper

!!

Even more impressive than a money phone!

Still seems pretty nebulous: http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/chance-the-rapper-says-soundcloud-is-here-to-stay-in-cryptic-tweet-1202496118/

Chance’s manager had not responded to Variety’s requests for comment at press time, and a rep for SoundCloud told Variety that the rapper is essentially spreading good vibes about the company during a challenging time and that if he is making a more material commitment to the service, she is unaware of it.

Soundcloud still says they're here to stay, though.

Companies that are run badly by incompetent/inexperienced people are not, usually

In the space of a week I have gone from knowing nothing about Alex Ljung to learning that he is very bad at business and terrible with money

Any company that hires about a zillion people and pays for them all to move to Berlin despite not having a business plan has got its work cut out

I love Soundcloud but, yeah, no, I never saw how it could be financially viable. Would make a great public utility.

https://www.axios.com/soundcloud-asks-investors-to-support-rescue-deal-2471398461.html

Axios has obtained a circular sent to existing shareholders on Tuesday, which requires them to accept or reject a reorganization proposal by the end of Friday. If accepted, then the new investment -- $169.5 million at a $150 million pre-money enterprise valuation -- also closes tomorrow. If rejected, then CEO Alexander Ljung suggests the company would not be able "to continue as a going concern."

I'm assuming stay of execution at best.

http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2017/08/soundcloud-saved-emergency-investment/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/magazine/if-soundcloud-disappears-what-happens-to-its-music-culture.html

What was the streaming-download site that Facebook promoted in its early years? Garageband?

A lot of music of highly variable quality, freely available, then it disappears from the internet. It's like Manhandled Birds never existed :-(

Do you guys think the bleak and anhedonic sound of so called soundcloud rap is the “future” of rap in the coming years? n.b. I’m not sayint it would be good or bad either way; i love a lot of music that fits this bill, like xo tour lif3, a bunch of lil peep songs, even that juice wrld track with the sting sample which is such an earworm, but something about the scene bums me out.

Maybe it’s not even a “scene” as such but there a notable mood of hopelessness in a lot of rap being released by very young artists. It’s weirdest to me when that dark, super downbeat sound with the low-affect vocals appears in songs where the lyrics don’t seem to warrant it, like “gucci gang.” It’s not that these are sad or angsty or even nihilistic songs—which wouldn’t be new in rap—there is this drift toward numbness that seems notable. People on ilm have probably noted it

I think like most developments in music it's more likely to be a trend that will eventually become a sub-genre the mainstream can borrow from

my songs on SC have got way more views than my BC albums.

This has kind of gone to shit recently. In the last couple of years the tracks I've uploaded to SC have got a handful of plays each at best.

Oops.

https://pitchfork.com/news/soundcloud-announces-layoffs-impacting-nearly-20-percent-of-workforce/

in the three years since this thread was updated it has really gone downhill as a platform, the hyperactive copyright enforcement on samples, the awful search functionality, the autoplay of seemingly random tracks

otm. need to move over to mixcloud soon.

soundcloud engagement is continuously dwindling away but i'm not sure mixcloud is picking up any of the slack.

personally speaking, all the listens i have 'lost' on my label soundcloud have simply transferred to my bandcamp, though of course that is no use for mixes etc.

Mixcloud has it’s own set of problems IMO, not least the inability of rewinding if you don’t have a subscription.

mixcloud and bandcamp do two different jobs, and soundcloud tried unsuccessfully to do both, I have had uploads rejected from mixcloud for being too short, "but that's literally every recording from 1860" I said, they didn't seem to know what to say to that.