The difference between free and essentially free does become significant when you consolidate all of those essentiallies in one place. I couldn&#x27;t find how much they spend on the distribution infrastructure itself, but if their 250 million monthly users were to bring in an average of 2-3 cents per month, they would net a profit, even after all the legal and administrative expenses on top of the actual cost of distribution.<p>I&#x27;m kind of baffled that SoundCloud isn&#x27;t already raking in profits. Presumably their stakeholders simply haven&#x27;t pushed for profitability yet.