Will SoundCloud Go Burst the Streaming Music Bubble?
The streaming music bubble may be ready to burst — and SoundCloud could be the needle that pops it. The German-based music company finally released its long-awaited streaming service, known as SoundCloud Go.
Until recently, Soundcloud was primarily known as a site that artists and amateur musicians post original work, as well as remixes and mashups of their songs (often less than legally). Bloomberg once called the service the “YouTube of audio tracks, thanks to a huge library of free, exclusive remixes, b-sides, and DJ sets that pulled in far more listeners than Spotify, Apple Music, or Pandora.”
Entering a crowded market, Soundcloud is emerging at a time when the industry has reached “too big to fail” status: In 2015, the digital music business was a nearly $6.9 billion empire, and streaming brought in 32 percent of that total. That’s a 28 percent increase from the previous year. If that trend continues, the streaming business will account for more than half of all industry revenue in two years.
Source: Daily Dot