Re:2.5M Installs Later, R.I.P. Downloader for SoundCloud
by smosher_ on Sunday November 09, 2014 @11:23AM
(#8580151)
> There are still plenty of SoundCloud downloaders, and as long as the data is transferred it can still be downloaded.
A while back I was fooling around with their API. The "stream" you get is just an mp3, so downloading any song is incredibly easy. It's a shitty thing to do though. The artist will only get a single play out of it... and maybe they were trying to sell you a download. You (not you in particular, anyone reading this) might not sympathize with SoundCloud, but please act in good faith toward its users. SC users are changing the music landscape.
Trivia: the stream mp3 isn't the same thing you get when you click the download link. SC streams are at a particular bitrate, but the proper downloads are of the original file which could be an aiff or higher bitrate mp3.
Data storage and file management is difficult, especially within the UX constraints on mobile devices
This is a very common excuse ("security" is the other one) to justify the increasing constraints on what mobile devices can do - when I think it's really about control over the users. On my desktop, I can double-click files to open them in the app they're associated with, and double-click apps to open them too. I can save files anywhere, including the desktop, and they'll be as accessible as apps. I can use one app to interact with files I created with another one. I have an Android phone and despite it having more processing power and screen resolution than desktops a decade ago, it is nowhere near as flexible. Apps are mostly locked into accessing only the data they've created, with the exception of external storage (which is also starting to disappear). This app-centric model means that working with files/documents is difficult; I can't easily save a file into a folder and have it show up as an icon on the home screen. From what I've read, iOS and WP isn't so different in this respect.
In the context of something like SoundCloud, the motivation for this model and their removal request isn't so obscure: DRM. Google wants services like SoundCloud and other media providers to get the impression that they are on their side, so its decisions are aimed at restricting users' ability to share and remix content freely. Ideally to them, everything must be done via an app, which Google must approve, and which cannot do anything someone else disapproves of...
Thanks for opening the source; the Play Store is not the world and the app will live on outside of it, possibly with further improvements from others. There's a huge app modding community that doesn't even need source, but they'll be glad to have it.