SoundCloud: A German Startup Case Study
When Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss founded SoundCloud in 2007, their idea may have not seemed very unique. However, their desire to create a simple music-sharing platform took advantage of a huge opportunity in the growing array of social network websites. By focusing on music sharing, these two young founders honed in on untapped potential, which has today become a very successful, and continually growing, company. Similar to the stories of other startups that have focused on specific markets, SoundCloud followed in the footsteps of twitter, facebook, flickr, and vimeo. Each specialized their website and therefore attracted specific groups of people looking for their services. SoundCloud is a very good example of a startup that was able to address a need of a specific market, and consequently expand to include the general population.
SoundCloud: Addressing Music Artists
Founder Wahlforss describes how SoundCloud was founded to fulfill a very basic need felt by himself, among others, “To make a long story relatively short, SoundCloud was born out of a need that both Alex (Ljung, ed.) and I felt. … Alex was doing music scores for movies, and I had produced some electronic music and released an album. But we both felt that there was a clear deficiency in the tools that were available – a gap in the market for getting a piece of audio from point A to point B to any number of recipients. That was the embryonic idea, let’s say. We went from that kind of niche market to a more generic audio infrastructure for the web.” (Weverbergh). The basis of the company was founded on the idea that there was no easy way to share music and receive feedback. Pre-SoundCloud artists could upload music to...
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...refore the subscription they sell is still based on the niche market they started with. Unlike Pandora or Spotify, free users can stream music without interruptive advertisements, and they can also upload a limited amount of music.
Since 2007, SoundCloud has grown from a tiny German startup to a massive music sharing based website. By integrating music sharing with a social-network type platform they have outshined their competitors and continue to grow each day. The company is continually expanding the SoundCloud brand through their own mobile application, as well as integrating with many other websites and mobile applications.. SoundCloud depicts a company that very successfully took advantage of an unmet need and created a worldwide brand. Only time will tell if they will be able to continually expand and fulfill the demands of music enthusiasts everywhere.
The music industry has changed in more ways than we could imagine. At first we started with artists just selling singles, then it transformed over to people buying albums, and then on iTunes started to sell songs for just cents. In the year 2005, Pandora was launched on the Internet and later they created a mobile app. Most of the artist’s music can be found on YouTube. Free downloads have affected this industry as well.
Chaos rose when Napster provided free music to virtually everyone. The idea of free music exploded among college students. Downloading is even easier from inside a dorm room because colleges are on networking systems, which means instant Internet connection. Unlike a modem that has to connect every time we sign on the Internet, a network is always connected to the Internet and runs very fast. This networking factor destroyed the music industry's distribution to college students.
Spotify’s Time. (n.d.). Music Business Journal Berklee College of Music RSS. Retrieved May 21, 2014, from http://www.thembj.org/2014/05/spotifys-time/
Before the 1990’s, if people want to listen to music, they just visit a music store and pick up a CD and then put it into a stereo equipment. However, the development of MP3 file format gradually changed the way people listen to music. This format lets everyone download music easily and it can be converted to CD as well. But, there is still a problem: searching MP3 files on the internet is maddening and people seldom can find the music they want. Therefore, the birth of Napster solved this problem, creating a virtual music community in which music fans could use the Web as a “swap meet” for music files. More importantly, Napster is easy to use and it’s free, which expands the range of audience in age. Bandwidth also contributed to Napster’s success. The greater the bandwidth, the faster the file can be transferred. So, Napster really changed the way people listen to music, discover music and interact with music.
Changing the music industry, SoundCloud is well known for all the famous rappers that made it from this app, The quality is a big factor in music though. Soundcloud provides great quality of sound for a published song. An app with an easy publishing operation had people finding out ways to get their music
The music industry is an ever-evolving revolutionary entertainment industry for the masses. Music provides entertainment to all different masses due to the variety of genres produced. Music is a very profitable and complex industry. Music has expanded to a worldwide industry for musical artist to express their art through the form of song to the masses. Music not only appeals to the ears but to every aspect of a person. Music allows for individuals to explore and let their imagination expand as they here a song. Throughout the years the industry has undergone dramatic changes. Whether it is genres, forms of how it is distributed, or even the impact the artist have had. The industry is diverse and ever changing as the years continue. In the past 20 years the industry has changed with help of the technological breakthroughs and adoptions.
First of all it’s successfully fighting against piracy, and turns former pirates into music consumers. Because there’s no reason why one would steal music when it can be easily “taken” for free in an absolutely legal way that benefits not only music consumers but artists too. And even though you can use Spotify for free more and more people are getting premium membership and paying the $9.99 monthly fee in return to get add free music streaming and the availability to listen to music offline. But some major labels are pushing Spotify towards limiting freemium membership, to convince more people to pay monthly fee, Ek refuses to do it, for obvious reasons – people will always find ways to get music for free, so if they won’t get it on Spotify they will find other places to do it and most likely in an illegal way. But still quite a few well known artist like Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Taylor Swift, Johnny Marr and many others who are against Spotify, stating that it’s paying pennys for artist and that they are giving up their music for free, and staying with iTunes rather than Spotify. iTunes, in my opinion, is good for short term income, as when people buy a song they can listen to it as many times as they want and artist don’t get any more income from that song after someone have bought it, where as if an artist have their songs on Spotify even after 20 years
Social media is shaping the music industry and is needed to spread the word and engage with listeners. With the amount of listeners joining so...
The story really begins with Napster and its free software that allowed users to swap music across the Internet for free using peer-to-peer networks. While Shawn Fanning was attending Northeastern University in Boston, he wanted an easier method of finding music than by searching IRC or Lycos. John Fanning of Hull, Massachusetts, who is Shawn's uncle, struck an agreement which gave Shawn 30% control of the company, with the rest going to his uncle. Napster began to build an office and executive team in San Mateo, California, in September of 1999. Napster was the first of the massively popular peer-to-peer file sharing systems, although it was not fully peer-to-peer since it used central servers to maintain lists of connected systems and the files they provideddirectories, effectivelywhile actual transactions were conducted directly between machines. Although there were already media which facilitated the sharing of files across the Internet, such as IRC, Hotline, and USENET, Napster specialized exclusively in music in the form of MP3 files and presented a user-friendly interface. The result was a system whose popularity generated an enormous selection of music to download. Napster became the launching pad for the explosive growth of the MP3 format and the proliferation of unlicensed copyrights.
Spotify recognizes that their competitors offered streaming music but not on-demand. Similar sites let you listen to playlist determined by the users taste. Users of these type of services could not simply listen to their favorite song whenever they wanted. The competitor sites are similar to listening to a radio station. Spotify decided to take that to the next level, giving the user the ability to choose any song they want at any time for a similar subscription price. This made them the preferred web-based music streaming subscription among
The music industry impacts the lives of people from around the world. With the implementation of technology, the influence of the music industry has spread to affect anyone with access to technology. Streaming services have contributed to the increased popularity of music. While there are positive effects to being able to stream music and have multiple ways of listening to it, the music industry suffers from the lack of revenue and illegal activity associated with technology. Technology has had both positive and negative effects on the music industry by affecting how people access music and how music is produced
Sometimes the advertisements deal can result in negative feedback from the audience. Finally, by signing a deal the artist no longer has control over their own music. Becoming a successful artist is already a complicated task itself. Musicians have to work in order to profit off of their creations. However, music streams on apps like Spotify or YouTube are it as profitable as having their music downloaded.
There is strong competition with other companies that offer video streaming at no extra charge. Additionally, Netflix and its competitors are attempting to enter the digital world. Digitally offering television shows is an area of competition that has previously been controlled by
STARTUP.com is the story of two best friends since a very young age coming up with an idea of basically paying traffic tickets and registering vehicles online! Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, a savvy business man who left his job at Goldman Sachs felt this idea would be the one that would fulfill his need of money for the rest of his life, and decided to do whatever he could to try and make this idea into a realization. He would later become in charge of all business aspects of the company and C.E.O. Tom Herman, the other half of this project was just in need of money and fast, for he had a daughter that he was unable to take care of. Tom would later become in charge of the technical aspect of the company and C.E.O. This product idea would soon attract a couple of other people to the point where they would even invest their own money just to see this happen. The product would later be named Govworks.com. ...
Spotify is operating on “mixed advertising/freemium business model”. The freemium business model is based on idea that the company offers simple and basic services for free for the user to try and more advanced or additional features at a premium [3]. One important role in Spotify’s business model is having advertisers who generate revenue that is used to finance costs of free subscription. In other words, without ads, there would be no free music.