Soundcloud is a digital discovery platform mostly. And a centralized free library that artists can release music on. It solves many problems for small-time artists and underground listeners.

Bandcamp found a similar market for physical music collectors and somehow monetized it well. SoundCloud is much more accessible though in terms of UX/UI.

Seems they should try to push for album/track monetization by artists. (Purchases made on SoundCloud / SoundCloud takes 1% fee etc)