Just read @hdd post about Sony’s willing to make people pay to access Soundcloud.
The end of an era ?
What a pity ! That was my #1 way to discover new music (mostly from amateurs, nowadays…)
Will this community disappear like dragons ?
I don’t think so. SoundCloud has always maintained their view of multiple income streams. Free with ads, pay with no adds.
There was a feature on cdm not so long ago. I’ll dig it up and link it.
I don’t think (hope) Sony’s gonna do this… If they’ll make it, people gonna migrate to bandcamp I think 
Well, the business is really bad. Read that again the are facing big losses and the investors are (presumably) not happy at all. However, pay for the access? I don´t think so, as it will surely kill the base that they still have.
If I’m gonna have to pay more, I’m paying for something that is not a “social network” wrapped in a sound player.
Bit later than promised.
I’m not a great fan of SoundCloud tbh. Seems too jumbled and disorganised. But I understand that they’re not a charity and the hosting/bandwidth needs they have, must be paid for.
I think you would struggle to find a service that gives you space to share your music to a large audience for free. If i am wrong, then I stand corrected!!
You cannot ask the content providers to pay for the service without shrinking the community size drastically.
Still, nice move of Sony and the other majors - limit access to spreading music (yours or otherwise) and protect their own channels. But that’s not the end-game.
But they could be planning on taking on Bandcamp.
@eesn i understand that (was more playing devil’s advocate).
Not that it affects me, but bandcamp taking 10% of merch sales is a bit shit. I can understand a cost associated with hosting etc but to take a cut of e.g. Tshirt sales seems wrong.
“Back in the day” myspace (stop laughing) putting the media player up front was great. We ended up with strings of tours booked through there, and it was the music streaming that got us the recognition.
@eesn i understand that (was more playing devil's advocate).@steveoath Bandcamp still have to handle the transaction, manage your mailing list, notify everyone you’ve put a new product up. These are little things in addition to the core music hosting&selling features that put the artist on the market. Bandcamp don’t want to sell your t-shirts, but even as a penalty, this % is incredibly low. Try a physical store’s markup… In this light, the second part of your comment gives you Bandcamp’s focus. Maybe Soundcloud’s in a not-so-distant future.Not that it affects me, but bandcamp taking 10% of merch sales is a bit shit.