would happily become a premium++ subscriber if money went to artists, something like humble bundle... but the paid plan is brain dead and offers no value ┐(￣ヘ￣;)┌
hope it survives or morphs into a decentralised platform that artists can thrive on.
I have somewhat mixed feelings about Soundcloud. On the one hand I've discovered a load of cool stuff through them, as well as uploaded a few tracks of my own.
On the other I received a takedown notice from them after a complaint from Sony about one of my remixes - my most popular track by miles and, at the time, the third most popular remix of Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up (long story) - which left something of a bitter taste in my mouth. To add insult to injury the notice arrived on my birthday last year. Haven't really touched Soundcloud much since.
And how come I have to pay for the artist album through Bandcamp after listening on Soundcloud? Is there no way to implement a payment straight from Soundcloud?
Also, there is an obvious return of the podcast scene: here again, plenty of ways to make money from that.
SoundCloud is far from 'failed' the service is still the go-to website for new music and I do not see a replacement at this time.
Soundcloud is an incredibly valuable property. They have obviously had a few managerial cock-ups, but in reality they have massive user buyin, huge network effect, and anyone who can get some equity in them during this current time of massive negative sentiment is going to do VERY WELL. I wish I had a way to buy in at this point.