> But as VC money flows into SoundCloud it will become crappy like ...

I hear you, but I'm quite confident the site is going to stay good for a while. Then, given that storage and bandwidth might become cheaper, we would see some startups emerge and target those who would have been "abandoned" by this hypothetical evil, VC-funded Soundcloud. Musicians would then leave Soundcloud like they left Myspace, so let's not worry too much and enjoy Soundcloud for the moment, because it's still a good product.

Let's not forget that we're talking about D series, and if they could keep this focus so far, I'd say we can at least try to have a bit of faith in them.

Youtube has become very commercialized, true, but you can still use it exactly like SoundCloud, can you not? Just ignore the ads and recommendations and it's basically the same experience.

Although, it does seem like SC is a cleaner, more targeted audio platform.

YouTube is good for previewing but the audio quality is horrible. 128 and the algorithm for compression makes a lot of things sound washed out.

As I mentioned below, SC is limited to 128 mp3. Put youtube in 720p and the audio is decent-bitrate AAC, pretty much transparent. This is SC's most glaring and easily-fixed problem.

The low quality is actually a boon to established artists, it gives people an incentive to buy the record rather than streaming it again and again. For unknown people trying to promote their sound, not so much.

Part of the problem is Google's stinginess over bandwidth. They keep hiding the stream quality option more and more (referring to Google Play Music as well as Youtube) and they are literally RUINING the music. I've had to put HOURS of manual effort into changing stream quality on Google's products.

For YouTube there are great greasemonkey scripts for this. I use "YouTube Auto Buffer & Auto HD" and "YouTube Player Size Options"

I wouldn't say it's the same experience. Youtube is cluttered and music is a side offering, primarily in the form of music videos. Song-only videos have been notorious for being posted by somebody other than the owner and not existing reliably (copy infringement). Soundcloud makes a home for your song that can be shared forever, is pleasant to visit, and links you to tons of related music and explore the musical interests of other people that like that music.

This is definitely not true for the EDM scene where even successful artists want to get on the big promotion channels (no music videos, just sound).

Hmmm. I've been in the trap scene myself lately, and this is the trend I see. Soundcloud just works so much better because of the community, the ease of linking artists together (I love how rappers will feature other rappers, then you can go listen to that other rapper and explore an entire new world of music), the overall presentation of audio with waves, similar to an audio player (Google tries to do this more with Google Play Music rather than Youtube). Souncloud is just a much more polished experience for music.

I agree SoundCloud is better in many aspects but for trap I follow two really good channels on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/trapandbass

https://www.youtube.com/alltrapmusic

It's these kind of promotion channels I'm missing on SoundCloud, even though it has started popping up some good ones.

Having a cleaner more targeted platform goes a long way. The bandwith consumption is a lot less on mobile and content specific communities often provide a more-targeted user-centric experience. They are quite similar, but sometimes being a little different, a little more focused, and more niche can go a long way.

edit: I also do not think these services are mutually exclusive.

Ignore the ads? Why the heck are there ads? Why aren't you being responsible and using Adblock?

I consider SoundCloud to be more like Vimeo than youtube. Always about the creator and viewer. Remember, SoundCloud, like Vimeo, has paid plans.

> But as VC money flows into SoundCloud it will become crappy like YouTube, Deezer, Skype, Tumblr, and most other start-ups that end-up loosing the original spirit of their founders.

Wow that got negative quick.

It's pretty simple. Greed = desire for largest market = lowest common denominator.

True.

I think that this mania for getting bigger with no bounds (a company never being happy with their revenue) leads to destroying all consumer-friendly values in the end.

In older times, companies could run for decades, and build steadily. They would also be content to have certain constant revenue/profit.

I wish there were more people content with running a steady web business -- something like 37 Signals, instead of "aim for the sky" startups. Nowadays it's all about getting from $10 millions a year to $100 millions or a billion, as quick as you can, and screw your original services and customers.

We'd have far more depandable and non hostile web services that way.

I agree about SoundCloud and use it for most of my music listening but I don't agree about YouTube. If you're into EDM YouTube is great as long as you follow the channels that promote the music you listen to. Very similar to SoundCloud actually.

Youtube has a much higher diversity than SoundCloud, regarding both mainstream and non-mainstream music. Obviously there are some really good niches they work in, Drum&Bass for example, but in other categories they kind of suck.

Not really sure why one would prefer a music platform that celebrates low diversity.

the long standing problem of such new media companies such as soundcloud is a revenue model. What is their revenue model? ads? sale of music (ala itunes style)? Mix of both? sponsorship from artists trying to promoting themselves?

As an artist SoundCloud is something you want to pay for. You get better stats (location, source if it's an embed, soundCloud users who have listened to you), customisable embed widgets, and more storage space for your uploads (them limit if by time, not file size). If you see a SoundCloud user with a little orange star beside their name they are a paying member and there seem to be quite a lot based on what I see when using it.

Uploads are limited unless you buy a premium account.

You also get access to more stats. To get access to the referers of your listeners, you must pay for the top account. This is the key IMO.