This articles has some basic misunderstandings about what artists and DJs use Soundcloud for, and how money is made in the underground music world.<p>Consumers buy tickets to a DJ&#x27;s show, DJ pays indie label, label pays artist. So three things should be clear: first, DJs aren&#x27;t on Soundcloud to get signed to a major label, they are trying to drive ticket sales; second, unknown DJs don&#x27;t use Soundcloud to promote themselves because ticket buyers must be local.<p>Finally, amateur artists don&#x27;t care about developing a following like YouTube stars because their music is sold to DJs, not to listeners. Part of the appeal of a DJ is that you hear great tracks at their events that you never heard before, so they aren&#x27;t going to want to buy viral Soundcloud hits that the audience has already heard.<p>In short, the mainstream music economy is driven by MP3 sales&#x2F;streams directly to listeners. The underground music economy is mostly about event ticket sales, and Soundcloud is valuable to artists if it can drive ticket sales. That&#x27;s why its current monetization strategy is mostly about telling artists which cities their fans are in. Frankly, if I were Soundcloud, my next step would be to build a ticketing platform.