It is not just a music streaming platform; it is the heartbeat of the music sharing music community. For the past two years, SoundCloud has been in financial distress due to a lack of profitability. The implementation SoundCloud Go was their greatest attempt to flood in revenue by offering a paid subscription to unlock tracks and block ads, which has failed to grow revenue. Updates were given yesterday eluding to the applications fast approaching demise. The music streaming community was petrified. The beautiful thing about SoundCloud is that it comes without rules and restrictions; anyone who has something to share is free to share. The diversity in music and artists that SoundCloud fosters is unparalleled by any other streaming site. Some of today’s most inspiring artists got their start on SoundCloud.
In the hopes of saving face, SoundCloud came out with a less-than reassuring statement saying “To clarify, SoundCloud is fully funded into the fourth quarter. We continue to be confident the changes made last week put us on our path to profitability and ensure SoundCloud’s long-term viability.” The 4th quarter is a mere 5 months away and that leave’s fans with one question: then what? Only 5 more months of EDC sets and an unlimited amount remixes? We would not be okay without the Cloud.
Great news and evidence as to how invested the users are on this site can be seen in a recent tweet made by Chance The Rapper stating, “I’m working on the SoundCloud thing.” The world renowned Hip Hop artist paved his journey to winning a Grammy by sharing his music on SoundCloud. His newest twitter post may break the internet. Soundcloud seems to have been saved thanks to him. Just a few hours ago he tweeted “Just had a fruitful conversation with Alex Lijung. @SoundCloud is here to stay”. In order to show just how confident he is in the streaming service, Chance has released a new single, “Big B’s” exclusively on Soundcloud, and it’s already surpassed 1.3 million plays in two days, which must be worth something in the streaming biz. And the song, available exclusively on SoundCloud, ironically features the two MCs boasting about the fruits of their labor. Whether Chance is “saving SoundCloud through a track,” as one commenter asked halfway through his verse, or simply finding clever ways to self-promote, it’s a jamming proclamation!
