Listen up, girls and boys! Class is in session. This week we talk about Soundcloud. My past 2 posts have talked about some concepts and results of online music promotion however I decided it would be a good idea to outline one of the .com companies that shaped how musicians put their sound out in the 21^st century.

So, let’s do a rewind back to Stockholm, 2007. Two engineering students, Eric Wahlforss and Alexander Ljung, had found a void in the online space that needed filled. Both had a background in music with Ljung writing scores for films and Wahlforss releasing an electronic album and through their experiences in music they had discovered that there was no simple, straightforward way for a piece of audio to travel between two points and then to any number of recipients. At the time, this type of media sharing was already established for other mediums with Flickr being for pictures and Vimeo being for video but not for music.

In 2008, Ljung and Wahlforss set up Soundcloud.com in Berlin to fill this gap. Soundcloud allows users to upload any piece of audio they want onto their own personal profile. Users can then create “tags” on their songs in order to make it easier for people to find their music through the search bar using key words such as Remix, Bass, Live etc. Soundcloud also provides statistics for users to see how many times their songs were listened to in total and within the week. A stream acts as your front page as you open Soundcloud which highlights any new songs that have been released or reposted by the artists you are following. This includes your own posts as well. Soundcloud’s free accounts allow up to 120 minutes of audio space however if you upgrade to one of its subscription services you are then allowed unlimited upload time as well as access to other statistics that the site provides.

Now some of you may be thinking “But what about Myspace?”

Hush, my little lamb. You aren’t wrong with bringing up Myspace since it was dominating the scene in 2007 and had the ability to upload audio files however the main difference between Myspace and Soundcloud was that Myspace was designed for the artist and not for the audio. Myspace was social media and Soundcloud is audio sharing.

Since setting up in Berlin in 2008, Soundcloud had successfully targeted the niche market of audio creators that they wanted to set up the platform for and due to hitting this niche, Soundcloud had bounced out into other markets that were looking for an online audio platform. Starting out with an aim to hit thousands of semi-pro audio producers, Soundcloud to date has 175 million users that range from podcast creators, kids in bedrooms with too much free time, chart topping artists and white house representatives.

It’s safe to say that Soundcloud has successfully earned both its corporate and user value over the years. It is considered “the YouTube of music” and was valued at up to $1Billion. However, times are tough for the Berlin based business. In 2015 Soundcloud’s losses grew larger than its revenues with a $22m dollar intake and a $52m haemorrhage. In 2014, Twitter was working its way towards a $1billion acquisition of Soundcloud however backed out due to a myriad of reasons including the head ache inducing copyright issue that Soundcloud was still discussing with massive music labels such as Sony, Universal and Warner.

In 2016, Spotify also were in talks of buying Soundcloud however decided to pull out as well. Currently, there are rumours floating about that Google is looking towards purchasing Soundcloud for $500m.

No matter what happens, Soundcloud is currently still losing money and is at risk of running out of funds by December 2017 if nothing is changed. What this means for artists and listeners is that they are losing the biggest and most personal audio sharing platform that the net has to offer. All those obscure remixes, hundreds of Soundcloud exclusive podcasts, and personally created playlists will return to that void which Ljung and Wahlforss had filled.

Soundcloud provided a platform when there wasn’t one and soon enough that platform might just disappear just like everyone’s best friend Tom. However, it will forever be known as the “YouTube of Music”.

Until next time, stay tuned.

Alright Boys and Girls put on your lucky underwear, strap on your seatbelts, turn the volume up to 11 and smile for the camera because on this week’s episode of “Oh yeah that song” we are going to have a discussion on “Viral Videos”. Of course, to keep in tune with my blog’s overall theme we will detail the effects of virality to the promotion of artists.

To start off with let’s just gloss over what virality is within online mediums. Taken from oxforddictionaries.com, virality is “The tendency of an image, video, or piece of information to be circulated rapidly and widely from one Internet user to another; the quality or fact of being viral.” So, for something to go viral it requires a large number of online users to share or repost a piece of media within a very short amount of time. The most common type of viral videos can be a singular video being passed around like a new born baby or it can be a theme that multiple users use to film themselves hopping onto the virtual bandwagon.

Due to the mob culture of the internet, songs and artists can become internet sensations overnight skyrocketing them into fame. Social media has provided the rocket for the rocket fuel that artists produce and have resulted in some individuals forming a successful career from it. In other cases, they have only become one hit wonders and have crash landed in the graveyard of memes that is internet pop culture.

Now that that has been addressed let’s start this rollercoaster and see some examples of virality in action. (Warning: some of these examples may trigger you and bring back some repressed memories. User discretion is advised)

First off, let’s look at a duo who have sculpted a career out of a song going viral. These two lads, Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall, comprise electronic dance sensation The Chainsmokers. Before they became household names and regulars at some of the most attended music festivals, The Chainsmokers rose to fame through the virality of their song #Selfie.

#Selfie was a song that The Chainsmokers had produced as a joke targeted at the vanity of society. The song blew up and within 4 weeks it had 12.1 million views on YouTube. In addition to the song itself, the “Let Me Take a Selfie” fad surged on Vine with 23,000 videos tagged #letmetakeaselfie. The Chainsmokers very convincingly proved that they were not one hit wonders and currently their song “Closer” featuring the siren songstress Halsey was No.1 on the UK charts for 4 weeks and is currently still in the TOP 40’s thirty-one weeks after its release.

Next, let’s look at the faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar end of the spectrum and study the vocal prowess, lyrical genius, onscreen presence and viral enigma that is Rebecca Black. This is where that trigger warning becomes relevant.

In case you didn’t know, Rebecca Black is an amateur YouTuber who back in March 2011 had a dream of being a famous singer. Now she’s famous for her singing with her chart toping debut single “Friday” currently having a staggering 2.5 million dislikes. During the time that “Friday” was invading everyone’s feeds it had more dislikes than Justin Bieber’s “Baby”.

The video was shared and posted all over the internet on sites such as Tosh.0, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and was a top trend on Twitter after being initially found by The Daily What. Black even was invited to do live renditions of “Friday” on ABC Good Morning America and NBC Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Now, I’m not saying that “Friday” is on my End of Week Party Playlist but the song generated so much discussion online which she or ARK had no control over. She was very easily the most detested “singer” during the spring of 2011 where some of the comments that were targeted towards her were well past the cyber bullying threshold.

Black, however, was only a one trick pony even after releasing a follow up single titled “Saturday”. Black however did appear on the music video for Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night” and currently is still releasing music.

As seen from these two contrasting examples, virality is the result of the astonishing rate that information can pass through the internet and due to this, careers can be made. Some more beneficial than others but the point still stands. Some other examples of songs that reached fame through trending fads are:

“What does the fox say – Ylvis”
“Harlem Shake – Baauer”
“Gangnam Style – PSY”
“We Might Be Dead Tomorrow – Soko”
“Never Goona Give You Up – Rick Astley”
“Ultimate – Denzel Curry”

Now if you must take a life lesson away from this just remember kids, be careful when posting videos of yourself rapping a few bars over Thomas the tank engine cause you might just be remembered by 300 million online users as the Thomas the Tank Engine Kid and that will be your life legacy.

Stay Tuned.