A Losing Battle: The Problem With Soundcloud

Soundcloud: the music publishing platform that not only shaped my personal music taste as a preteen but also helped many notable artists build their signature sounds and dedicated audiences. Artists like Ari Lennox, Nipsey Hussle, and Chance the Rapper all found themselves uploading their music to the platform hoping to reach the masses and become the “next big thing.” A platform like this has a tremendous opportunity to connect listeners to new artists in the most authentic way, and it used to; however, that has all changed…

All good things (and free things) must come to an end eventually. Soundcloud went from a 100% free publishing service to a streaming and publishing platform with the occasional advertisement to an ad-heavy music platform trying to compete with high profile platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. These transitions have only worked against the original model of the platform. Soundcloud almost filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and was saved by a $170 million investment by former Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor who wanted to help the platform return to its community roots. Has that been done? Not quite.

Soundcloud was essential to forming my love for music. The keyword is “accessibility.” Soundcloud allowed me to spend hours searching through an endless library of diverse music, favoriting what I liked, leaving comments for the artist to respond to, and making playlists to share with my friends. The platform no longer works like that today. Soundcloud’s primary focus is increasing revenue. There are two premium versions for Soundcloud with benefits like ad-free streaming, better music quality, and its largest benefit: access to music by top artists. Now truthfully, I don’t know anyone who pays for Soundcloud because there is no point in paying for a platform where its original purpose was to listen to artists on the rise, not already established artists. Listeners can already enjoy music from their favorite established artists for free on other platforms, so Soundcloud is, therefore, fighting a forever-losing battle and has sacrificed the thing that made the platform stand out for a faulty business model. To make matters worse for Soundcloud, Spotify is focusing on promoting newer artists through curated playlists and making it easier for newer artists to put their music on the platform. Spotify is essentially doing what Soundcloud is trying to do, but 10 times better. So after all of that, where does Soundcloud go from here?

Soundcloud still has an opportunity to make a comeback in the aforementioned forever-losing battle. Soundcloud’s advantage over every streaming platform is its roots in the community. Music is a tool for bonding. No other streaming platform lets artists interact with listeners in real-time. Listeners can leave comments on a song at the exact moment they hear a note they like or a special moment in the production that catches their attention. Listeners can follow their favorite artist on the rise and get updated anytime there’s new music from that artist. Finally, there’s no way to get bored with the music because Soundcloud has the opportunity to constantly push new music to listeners with every refresh of the app. Sure, other platforms can do the same thing, but they don’t. Streaming platforms pour more energy into the mainstream, and Soundcloud can dominate a side of the music industry that is nearly untouched.