Eric Wahlforss

Soundcloud reaches number 10!

23 January 2012

There was an article last week by Matt Burns on Techcrunch regarding the closedown of Megaupload and what this meant for the whole “store & share” industry, from similar services to niche apps like Grooveshark and our beloved Souncloud. Apparently the US government doesn’t need new SOPA / PIPA legislation to close down websites like Megaupload… well… there’s a few subtilities we should take into account here, like the location of the servers and the jurisprudence of the law.

We highly doubt the U.S. government would be legitimate in anyway to close down something like Souncloud, but anyway, the debate is served… and it is scary without a doubt.

So when I got the souncloud e-mail this morning reminding us, users, how great we are and how grateful Alex & Eric were to have reached 10 million users, well… I couldn’t stop thinking “what if” SC has to close someday?

The Youtube for sounds (or more like the Vimeo for sounds) is already 3 and a bit years old, and hasn’t stopped growing to the point of being considered by many the best European start-up of the past few years, and transforming the way people listen and share music on the net. Berlin is the capital of sound innovation (maybe Cologne…?), so it makes sense two people like Alexander Ljung & Eric Wahlforss came up with such service.

Now, the question remains whether SC will one day be threatened by any local (highly improbable given the “laissez faire” German jurisprudence) or European legislation…. most of us see it as a place where big & small labels, artists, sound engineers and amateurs upload, share and exchange around their passion: music.

But maybe big labels & lobbies don’t. You’ll see a lot of indie labels with their own account, but few of the big if not none. On the other hand, you’ll easily find many many times full-album uploads and leaks way before these are announced or marketed (I still remember Daft Punk’s Tron Legacy soundtrack laying around weeks  in advance).

The original soundcloud team which has now exponentially grown
The original Soundcloud team which has now exponentially grown

The debate is getting more and more interesting, but with all due respects MrGrassley, closing down websites isn’ the way forward, especially if they prove helpful to a massive community like in the Souncloud case.

Coming back to the 10M hit… Alex & Eric just published a nice recap of the SC history on one of their latest apps which combines the sound platform with one-another massively popular app: Instagram… released via their SCLabs page: Story wheel. Congrats! Another ten for when?

Alex&Eric Soundcloud Storywheel
Alex&Eric Soundcloud Storywheel

 (oh, you may have noticed I accidentally introduced 2 tracks by Lilacs & Champagne, so you get the picture of how useful this platform is. Enjoy!)

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