SoundCloud's Collapse
SoundCloud could have been a nice business if they hadn&#x27;t got greedy. From the beginning (or close to it) there have been various paid accounts for artists which a lot of people used. SoundCloud was the best place to discover new music from unsigned artists. There were unsigned artists with tracks on it that blew up and eventually got picked up by major labels.<p>But:<p>- SoundCloud neglected the platform.<p>- Then they did one of the worst redesigns of any site I&#x27;ve seen (try reordering a track in your spotlight [paid feature] in Chrome. Crashes the tab and has done for years. I need to open another browser to do that.).<p>- Then it became overrun with major label artists.<p>- Then they started offering features just to the big artists - various UI&#x2F;branding options - (forgetting about the artists that got them to where they were).<p>- Then they did the whole paid streaming mess which they were never going to succeed in. Anybody could have told them that, I really don&#x27;t believe anyone in that company thought &#x27;Go&#x27; would work. I think they just needed to do something.<p>I&#x27;m not sure if they&#x27;ve taken so much money now that this isn&#x27;t possible anymore but if I were CEO I would take it back to it&#x27;s roots. Focus on the unsigned artists. Fix the site. Offer a distribution system (like CDBaby&#x2F;TuneCore) so that SoundCloud can be a one-stop show for unsigned artists. Now you&#x27;ve got paid accounts (for stats&#x2F;spotlight&#x2F;unlimited upload space) and a small cut of distribution on all paid platforms.<p>I don&#x27;t understand how in a world where more artists are getting big without label help nobody is offering a great platform for them. SoundCloud got very close in the past. BandCamp has gotten close too (although it lacks the social&#x2F;sharing&#x2F;viral aspect of SoundCloud). If SoundCloud does end up shutting down it&#x27;s due to greed and poor management. Instead of focusing on what they do well and what people use them for they&#x27;ve tried to go after the money and they were much too late making that move to get any of it.