Why isn’t anyone talking about Soundcloud?

***Update: found THIS article in FORBES the next morning

***UPDATE 5/20: Twitter considering buying Soundcloud

Since January 2013, a shift has taken place in the online streaming sphere. Soundcloud has quietly positioned itself as the streaming elephant in the room that no one is talking about. When discussing streaming music, panels generally regurgitate the same YouTube-iTunes-Spotify-RDIO-Pandora-Grooveshark-Slacker-etc-etc-etc talking points about how these sites are all changing the way people interact and enjoy music. It also inevitably brings up the touchy subject of streaming rates and monetization (but more on that later). In February I was at SF Music Tech and not a single panel discussed Soundcloud’s new found glory. Lefsetz is still rambling on and on about YouTube and how EDM is saving the world.

What I want to know is: why isn’t anyone talking about the impact of Soundcloud? Why isn’t anyone talking about how deeply entrenched and invaluable the audio-only service has become in the Wild West of today’s music revolution?

“Where can I get new music?”

This really clicked for me when a friend, knowing I work in music, asked me for new music for her new iPhone. “Pandora!” I thought but quickly thought about ads and redundant playlists (in due part mainly to the lack of creativity and ingenuity for the common user when generating stations). Spotify? RDIO? Well, both are pay services and I don’t think they would be willing to shell out the extra money with a limited income. I guess YouTube? But then you’re stuck with these playlists of fan user-generated content with ripped audio and silly placeholder images.

“You should use Soundcloud… You can follow your favorite artists, get exclusives, demoes, live tracks, create your own playlists, repost to your networks, and much more. It’s great. I get all these free downloads direct from the DJs/artists. Check out this mix I just got…”

The Best Audio Solution

I’ve always used it to power the audio portion of my artist sites, apps, networks. It’s just easier that way. They made their API so open and useful that it just makes sense to centralize your audio and plays using Soundcloud. Why waste time uploading your entire catalog over and over and over to some new site or app when you can just connect to your account and pull in your existing songs and add to your overall plays?

But something has happened over the past 4 months. With the overhaul and relaunch of Soundcloud to emphasize more user accounts and engagement, I’ve seen my artist Slightly Stoopid go from 11K -> 160K followers… Iration go from 5K to 50K. Vokab Kompany get 40K plays from a tastemaker posting their track.

The demographic is younger people looking for FREE music direct from their favorite artists. The new platform lets anyone create sets from any songs uploaded to SC. Their repost functionality (like Tumblr) allows you to quickly share to your friends and followers’ feeds. I’ve downloaded some free, amazing, 1hr+ sets. Some recent favorites include :

Their players are sleek, plays nice with other apps/technology, and works on smartphones. Which brings me to my next point…

Soundcloud Plays Native on Smartphones

One major factor in this growth explosion is that Soundcloud plays native on smartphones. When the majority of key demographics own smartphones, it’s easy to see why this is important. Why make a a bunch of Youtube playlists from shitty user-generated uploads to play on your phone when they shut off if you leave the YoTube app or your phone locks/goes to sleep? Soundcloud plays natively in the background of my iPhone so that I can pull up that new hour long mix for bike ride across town for a meeting.

Compare the Numbers

Empire of the Sun recently released a new single, “Alive.” I’m really looking forward to this album… Originally found them on Grooveshark when they were just breaking (due to their site skin takeover on the site… one of the 1st to do so) and later saw them live at Lollapalooza and Coachella (no one believed me… they all left mid-Animal Collective to see what the fuss was all about and left amazed).

Compare Soundcloud plays (350K) to YouTube plays (250K)

Beyonce Debuts Single on Soundcloud