Dead Media Beat: streaming music services

*Music can't last forever, ESPECIALLY not on "the Internet,"and especially on for-profit dot com enterprises on the Internet that are mortgaged up to the eyeballs.

https://slim-weight.info/2016/02/music-cant-last-forever-not-even-on-the-internet/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cdiv%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cp class="paywall">by Klint Finley

(…)

"If a streaming music company goes under, a stockpile of important cultural artifacts could go with it.

"SoundCloud lost $44.19 million dollars in 2014–even as it increased revenue to $15.37 million.
Fears that exactly this could happen erupted this week when a financial statements from popular audio hosting site SoundCloud surfaced online. The company, which has become a vital resource for independent musicians and podcasters, lost $44.19 million dollars in 2014 even as it increased revenue to $15.37 million, according to the regulatory document filed with the UK government. The revelation led to immediate speculation that SoundCloud could go offline, taking with it the 110 million audio tracks it hosts.

"It wouldn’t be the first time a massive trove of digital music disappeared. In 2003, CNET shut down the original version of music publishing service mp3.com, which once hosted 750,000 song files. Three years later, the Internet Underground Music Archive, consisting of over 680,000 songs, went offline as well.

"Threat to the Underground

"SoundCloud says those fears are overblown. The financial document in question is now more than a year old, and it doesn’t reflect the $77 million dollars in funding the company secured last year. “We’re focusing on enabling creators to get paid for their creativity,” a spokesperson said in a provided statement. “And on building a financially sustainable platform that our community can enjoy for years to come.”

"It’s too early to write the obituary for SoundCloud, but it isn’t the only audio service struggling to make ends meet. Last November, Rdio confirmed that it would file for bankruptcy sell its assets to Pandora.

"'It’ll be the majors losing their access to the next generation of hitmakers too.'
Now Pandora itself is rumored to be for sale. Spotify, meanwhile, may be looking for a $500 million cash infusion. Losing SoundCloud, however, would be a bigger cultural blow than losing another of the major streaming sites.

"While those services all host a similar catalog of music, SoundCloud has become home to countless unsigned musicians and independent broadcasters. Although unsigned artists can upload their music to services like Apple Music and Spotify, they generally have to pay a middleman like CD Baby or Tunecore to do so. SoundCloud enables musicians to publish their work directly and for free, without the need for a lengthy approval process. Meanwhile, more established artists can use it to preview tracks or connect directly with fans.

" “If the service goes the way of Grooveshark, it won’t just be underground artists like Plastician that lose their access to a wealth of undiscovered talent,” FACT Magazine wrote last year of the company. “It’ll be the majors losing their access to the next generation of hitmakers too.”

"Saved From Oblivion

"Fortunately there are alternatives to SoundCloud, such as Bandcamp, which a spokesperson told us has been profitable since 2012, and YouTube, which has become an increasingly important part of Google’s overall strategy. But SoundCloud users would have to re-upload all of their work—if they even still have copies of it. Much of what lives on SoundCloud today would likely vanish forever…."