TAXI.com

Hey everyone, I just got an email from SoundCloud saying that my Pro account is set to expire in two weeks. They're giving me a discount from the regular annual price (although in the email it doesn't say exactly what the discount is... might be $5, might be half off..... from what I see, there's no way to tell).

But regardless, with all the news about SoundCloud recently, should I even bother renewing? I've found it to be a priceless tool for my own business model and the way I share and shop my music around. But every new article read seems to say that SoundCloud is on it's last legs. That it's hemorrhaging money. And most alarmingly - that it won't last through 2017. Of course, people have been saying that about SC for a few years now. "Experts" also "predicted" the demise of hard-copy newspapers too, saying they wouldn't last beyond 2010, and well, they're still printing 'em.

Any thoughts? Anybody else up for renewal and having the same decision to make?

~~Matt

I say renew. I'm of the belief that SoundCloud's demise is greatly exaggerated.

Hey, Professor. Good question - even though I still cling onto the free one (does that make me a Klingon? )

Yesterday, in a phone call with a Soundcloud collaborator (not a Taxi-ite), I listened to the tale of this one's account being so badly hacked that they not only stole ALL of the music material - the 'infection' wiped out (her) computer, too. I don't know how it was discovered, but somehow it was revealed that the thieves
had made copyright claims to her stuff.

If Soundcloud goes belly-up - what's the alternative for those of us who want/need to get our music out - to a population that's moving away from the physical CD market?

I hope some good light can be shed onto the question you pose. A lot of us are probably in the same boat.
Cheers.

yeah probably renew.

On the other hand - if you are mostly using it to display your reels there is ReelCrafter

and it seems like the Artists Union is gathering steam too.

Hey Matt,

I was due to renew on the 30th July but I've held off for the moment. I didn't want to pay, and then watch them go belly up a month later. If they sort out their mismanagement, I'll renew then. Ultimately, they've chosen to be a business rather than a music community so potential investors or debt funders are going to want to see profitability or a sale of the business. They can only be propped up for so long.

In the meantime, try checking out Orfium, Hearthis.at and as Andy mentioned, Reelcrafter.

Hmmmm, thanks for the heads-up on those other services, Andy and Rob. I just saw the thread in these Forums about Reelcrafter posted by Dave, and just checked out their site & service. Looks really cool! And the pro plan - at $17 per month with 2 months free if purchased annually - actually comes out to be very close in price in SoundCloud.

Looks very sleek and sophisticated. Just a nice player that seems easy to embed into a website. Which is nice, because I don't need all those "social media'ish" bells & whistles like commentary and a bunch of automated bots trying to sell me inflated play counts. I just need something to showcase my music where I can group things into sets to send off for pitches and to play for the random listener who pops onto my website.

I may jump the SoundCloud ship and try out Reelcrafter. Gonna do a bit more research first, but I like what I see so far.

~~Matt

Likewise - I appreciate the sharing of info for other sites that are music-community friendly.
It's probably too much to ask or hope for: but wouldn't it be cool if TAXI (for its members) had its own music-sharing platform?
I would dig that - as well as TAXI RADIO.

Not sure where you're at in your decision making process, Matt, but this might be worth looking at:

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/0 ... -24-hours/

Looks like it was saved:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/11/soundcloud-saved/

davekropf wrote:Looks like it was saved:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/11/soundcloud-saved/

Great news, thanks Dave. Looks like a Renew is in order Matt!