110-532: SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG . The service enables its users to upload , promote , and share audio . Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming services in the world and is available in 190 countries and territories. The service has more than 76 million active monthly users and over 200 million audio tracks as of November 2021. SoundCloud offers both free and paid memberships on
220-408: A network for playback using a media player . Media is transferred in a stream of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downloading , a process in which the end-user obtains an entire media file before consuming the content. Streaming is presently most prevalent in video-on-demand , streaming television , and music streaming services over
330-454: A SoundCloud Go subscription will be more valuable to an artist, supposedly benefiting smaller independent artists with fans who listen to their music frequently. Little is known about how beneficial fan-powered royalties have been for artists, beyond SoundCloud's claims, over the traditional pooled royalties model, which most competing services such as Spotify continue to use. In December 2021, SoundCloud Chief Financial Officer, Drew Wilson, said
440-431: A SoundCloud artist, explained in a Rolling Stone article how the first songs he created and put on the platform were not recorded using a real microphone. The DIY nature of SoundCloud made it so millions of artists were able to put out their work without any studio equipment usually needed to make music. The freedom to upload on the platform allows for many SoundCloud rappers to post tracks impulsively or post many tracks at
550-509: A bandwidth of 1.4 Mbit/s for uncompressed CD audio , while raw digital video requires a bandwidth of 168 Mbit/s for SD video and over 1000 Mbit/s for FHD video. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, users had increased access to computer networks, especially the Internet. During the early 2000s, users had access to increased network bandwidth , especially in the last mile . These technological improvements facilitated
660-498: A football game). Streaming media is increasingly being coupled with the use of social media. For example, sites such as YouTube encourage social interaction in webcasts through features such as live chat , online surveys , user posting of comments online, and more. Furthermore, streaming media is increasingly being used for social business and e-learning . The Horowitz Research State of Pay TV, OTT, and SVOD 2017 report said that 70 percent of those viewing content did so through
770-473: A higher degree of diversity in its content. The Verge found that, excluding existing content uploaded by users, the service's initial library of songs is smaller than those of its closest competitors. The service was initially priced at US$ 10 per month. On 28 February 2017, SoundCloud renamed its main Go plan SoundCloud Go+ , adding a secondary tier titled SoundCloud Go at a US$ 5 price point, which does not include
880-544: A media player known as ActiveMovie in 1995 that supported streaming media and included a proprietary streaming format, which was the precursor to the streaming feature later in Windows Media Player 6.4 in 1999. In June 1999, Apple also introduced a streaming media format in its QuickTime 4 application. It was later also widely adopted on websites, along with RealPlayer and Windows Media streaming formats. The competing formats on websites required each user to download
990-464: A method called true streaming . True streaming sends the information straight to the computer or device without saving it to a local file. On-demand streaming is provided by a method called progressive download . Progressive download saves the received information to a local file and then plays it from that location. On-demand streams are often saved to files for extended period of time, while live streams are only available at one time only (e.g., during
1100-410: A minor stake in the company, and its publishing division to collect royalties for songs they have chosen to monetize on the site; meanwhile, the other labels remained skeptical of the company's business model. By December 2014, SoundCloud had shared ad revenue with about 60 other Premier Partners. Concerns over the amount of revenue from the program led Sony Music Entertainment to pull its content from
1210-469: A music streaming platform offering subscription-based services to over 4.5 million users as of January 2017 . The music industry's response to music streaming was initially negative. Along with music piracy, streaming services disrupted the market and contributed to the fall in US revenue from $ 14.6 billion in 1999 to $ 6.3 billion in 2009. CDs and single-track downloads were not selling because content
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#17328522826921320-423: A new pay model for artists, entitled "fan-powered royalties", which went into effect on 1 April 2021. Under this new model, royalties come directly from the subscription and advertising revenue that listeners earn for SoundCloud, instead of allotting a certain portion of the total "pool" of revenue earned by SoundCloud to each artist based on streams. This means that a fan who listens to more advertisements or pays for
1430-472: A new program known as "On SoundCloud", which would allow "Premier" partners to monetize their content through pre-roll audio ads, channel sponsorships, mobile display ads, and native content. The company announced deals with a number of content partners (including Comedy Central and Funny or Die ), independent labels, and YouTube multi-channel networks , and that it was in "active and ongoing, advanced discussions" with major record labels. In December 2014, it
1540-495: A non-technical option for listening to audio streams. These audio-streaming services became increasingly popular; music streaming reached 4 trillion streams globally in 2023 -- a significant increase from 2022 -- jumping 34% over the year. In general, multimedia content is data-intensive, so media storage and transmission costs are still significant. Media is generally compressed for transport and storage. Increasing consumer demand for streaming high-definition (HD) content has led
1650-472: A partnership venture with the company prior to the rebranding. As SoundCloud evolved and expanded beyond its initial user base, consisting primarily of grassroots musicians, many users complained that it had sacrificed its usefulness to independent artists in an attempt to appeal to the masses, perhaps in preparation for public sale. Such criticism particularly followed the launching of a revamped website in 2013 which, according to former CEO Alexander Ljung,
1760-630: A seismic shift in the film & TV industry in terms of how films are made, distributed, and screened. Many industries have been hit by the economic effects of the pandemic" (Totaro Donato). In August 2022, a CNN headline declared that "The streaming wars are over" as pandemic-era restrictions had largely ended and audience growth had stalled. This led services to focus on profit over market share by cutting production budgets, cracking down on password sharing, and introducing ad-supported tiers. A December 2022 article in The Verge echoed this, declaring an end to
1870-485: A song, it did not diminish another user from doing the same. Napster, like most other providers of public goods, faced the free-rider problem . Every user benefits when an individual uploads an mp3 file, but there is no requirement or mechanism that forces all users to share their music. Generally, the platform encouraged sharing; users who downloaded files from others often had their own files available for upload as well. However, not everyone chose to share their files. There
1980-407: A staff writer at The Ringer , argues that the term is unnecessarily reductive and does not in fact refer to one specific type of rapping. He wrote that many of the artists often scapegoated in conversations about the subgenre do not actually mumble, which "is the red flag that the term isn't a useful subcategorization." There are disputes as to whether some rappers are mumble rappers or not. There
2090-452: A streaming service and that 40 percent of TV viewing was done this way, twice the number from five years earlier. Millennials , the report said, streamed 60 percent of the content. One of the movie streaming industry's largest impacts was on the DVD industry, which drastically dropped in popularity and profitability with the mass popularization of online content. The rise of media streaming caused
2200-771: A time. For example, Lil Uzi Vert was known to upload songs to SoundCloud impulsively, usually without telling anyone except their security and close friends. The imperfect sound created by these SoundCloud rappers has contributed to their growing popularity and the creation of a rap sub-genre. The government of Turkey blocked access to the SoundCloud website in January 2014. In October 2022, Russia's Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media blocked access to SoundCloud due to its refusal to remove anti-war podcasts. Streaming media Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through
2310-433: Is a loosely defined microgenre of hip hop music that largely spread via the online audio distribution platform SoundCloud in the 2010s. The term implies mumbling , or unclear vocal delivery, used by artists, and it has been used to describe rappers who do not share the rap genre's traditional emphasis on meaningful lyricism , choosing instead to emphasize other aspects of delivery like melody, mood and tone. While
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#17328522826922420-491: Is also conflation between mumble/SoundCloud rap and other new generation-led evolutions or niches such as trap and cloud rap . The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Troy L. Smith writes that 21 Savage unfairly gets classified as a mumble rapper. In 2017, music critic Jon Caramanica of The New York Times opined that SoundCloud rap "in the last year has become the most vital and disruptive new movement in hip-hop". Todd Moscowitz ,
2530-488: Is an example of a SoundCloud artist who broke the mould of the industry; he released his debut mixtape, 10 Day , on SoundCloud. In a Vanity Fair interview Chance explained how he decided against signing to a major label and felt it was better for him to give his music "without any limit on it". Through SoundCloud, a sub-genre of rap was created. Artists such as Lil Pump , XXXTentacion , Juice Wrld , Nav , Lil Uzi Vert , Playboi Carti , Trippie Redd , 6ix9ine , Ski Mask
2640-427: Is available for US$ 99 per year, and is available globally. In October 2022, SoundCloud announced a new program known as "SoundCloud For Artists", which is a rebranding/merger of Jeff Ponchick's Repost Network which was acquired by SoundCloud in 2019. The company formerly had two divisions of Repost By SoundCloud, Repost and Repost Select. Repost was a paid distribution platform available to the public while Repost Select
2750-500: Is coming back with an axe to mumble rap" in the Royce da 5'9" song " Caterpillar ". Eminem's diss track " Killshot ", which was targeted at Machine Gun Kelly , included a line where he pejoratively called MGK a mumble rapper. Noted rap artist Pete Rock prominently criticized the style for abandoning hip-hop tradition. In defense of the style, Justin Charity of The Ringer suggested that
2860-435: Is disagreement over who first rapped in such a style, although its creation has been attributed to rappers such as Lil Wayne , Gucci Mane , Chief Keef , Young Thug , Rich Homie Quan , Migos , Sahbabii and most notably Future , whose 2011 single " Tony Montana " is often cited as the first mumble rap song; however, there have been sources dating as far back as October 2011 of even older releases by other artists. The term
2970-500: Is intrinsic to how it works. It dematerializes music, denies it a crucial measure of autonomy, reality, and power. It makes music seem disposable, impermanent. Hence it intensifies the ebb and flow of pop fashion, the way musical 'memes' rise up for a week or a month and are then forgotten. And it renders our experience of individual artists/groups shallower." — Robert Christgau , 2018 A media stream can be streamed either live or on demand . Live streams are generally provided by
3080-412: Is our speciality and we used that to our advantage." Spin noted that the SoundCloud company has not been able to leverage the popularity of SoundCloud rap to improve its financial problems. In January 2019, citing the deaths of American rappers Lil Peep in 2017 and XXXTentacion in 2018, and 6ix9ine 's legal troubles, Stephen Witt of Rolling Stone magazine argued that the SoundCloud rap wave of
3190-567: The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) indicated that remuneration from digital streaming of music increased with a strong rise in digital royalty collection (up 16.6% to EUR 2.4 billion), but it would not compensate the overall loss of income of authors from concerts, public performance and broadcast. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) recompiled
3300-660: The Netscape IPO in 1995 (and the release of Windows 95 with built-in TCP/IP support), usage of the Internet expanded, and many companies "went public" , including Progressive Networks (which was renamed " RealNetworks ", and listed on Nasdaq as "RNWK"). As the web became even more popular in the late 90s, streaming video on the internet blossomed from startups such as Vivo Software (later acquired by RealNetworks), VDOnet (acquired by RealNetworks), Precept (acquired by Cisco ), and Xing (acquired by RealNetworks). Microsoft developed
3410-670: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) also filed a lawsuit against Napster on the grounds of unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, which ultimately led Napster to shut down in 2001. In an interview with the New York Times , Gary Stiffelman, who represents Eminem , Aerosmith , and TLC , explained, "I'm not an opponent of artists' music being included in these services, I'm just an opponent of their revenue not being shared." The lawsuit A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. fundamentally changed
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3520-512: The "aye" flow , where they add words such as "yeah", "aye" and "uh" to the start or end of their lines. "Mumble rap" is nearly exclusively used as a derogatory term in reference to a perceived incoherence of the artist's lyrics. Oscar Harold of the Cardinal Times stated that "mumble rap" is misleading, arguing that the rappers such as Future rely more upon pop melodies and vocal effects, such as auto tune , than mumbling. Justin Charity,
3630-685: The "golden age of the streaming wars". In September 2023, several streaming services formed a trade association named the Streaming Innovation Alliance (SIA), spearheaded by Charles Rivkin of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). Former U.S. representative Fred Upton and former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) acting chair Mignon Clyburn serve as senior advisors. Founding members include AfroLandTV, America Nu Network, BET+ , Discovery+ , Disney+ , Disney+ Hotstar , ESPN+ , For Us By Us Network, Hulu , Max ,
3740-541: The 'streaming' terminology was often a confusion factor. In 1969 Grumman acquired one of the first telemetry ground stations [Automated Telemetry Station, 'ATS'] which had the capability for reconstructing serial telemetered data which had been recorded on digital computer peripheral tapes. Computer peripheral tapes were inherently recorded in blocks. Reconstruction was required for continuous display purposes without time-base distortion. The Navy implemented similar capability in DoD for
3850-491: The 1990s and has since grown to become the globally most popular method for consuming music and video, with numerous competing subscription services being offered since the 2010s. Audio streaming to wireless speakers , often using Bluetooth, is another use that has become prevalent during that decade. Live streaming is the real-time delivery of content during production, much as live television broadcasts content via television channels. Distinguishing delivery methods from
3960-439: The Internet. While streaming is most commonly associated with multimedia from a remote server over the Internet, it also includes offline multimedia between devices on a local area network , for example using DLNA and a home server , or in a personal area network between two devices using Bluetooth (which uses radio waves rather than IP ). Online streaming was initially popularised by RealNetworks and Microsoft in
4070-464: The MPA, MotorTrend+, Netflix , Paramount+ , Peacock , Pluto TV , Star+ , Telemundo , TelevisaUnivision , Vault TV, and Vix . Notably absent were Apple , Amazon , Roku , and Tubi . Advances in computer networking , combined with powerful home computers and operating systems, have made streaming media affordable and easy for the public. Stand-alone Internet radio devices emerged to offer listeners
4180-616: The Slump God , Suicideboys and Lil Peep originated from SoundCloud and have since risen to the Billboard top charts. The sound created was different from the mainstream, with a grittier and darker sound that results from a lack of production. SoundCloud rap is a lo-fi, melody driven, distorted sound with lyrics that usually focus on repetition and less on content. The SoundCloud artists themselves are known to have exaggerated appearances that include bright colored hair and face tattoos. Smokepurpp ,
4290-509: The band was playing a gig at Xerox PARC , while elsewhere in the building, scientists were discussing new technology (the Mbone ) for broadcasting on the Internet using multicasting . As proof of PARC's technology, the band's performance was broadcast and could be seen live in Australia and elsewhere. In a March 2017 interview, band member Russ Haines stated that the band had used approximately "half of
4400-735: The broadcast of a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners over the Internet in 1995. The first symphonic concert on the Internet—a collaboration between the Seattle Symphony and guest musicians Slash , Matt Cameron , and Barrett Martin —took place at the Paramount Theater in Seattle , Washington, on 10 November 1995. In 1996, Marc Scarpa produced
4510-619: The company had acquired the Singapore based music AI company Musiio, with the aims of increasing features on the site such as discovery features. A new APN was released in December 2012 which improved mobile device support and added features such as concurrent listening, site navigation, and the ability to create personal collections. At this time, SoundCloud was reported to be "reaching 180 million people per month", with 10 hours of content being uploaded per minute. SoundCloud offers two mobile apps ;
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4620-423: The company have claimed this to be "bogus," arguing that the right to manage and delete accounts should be reserved to SoundCloud itself, not to an outside company. SoundCloud first entered the music streaming industry as a new way for artists to share and promote their music. As an online platform, artists can release music without a record label or distributor. SoundCloud users are both listeners and artists, using
4730-464: The company is "at the doorsteps of break-even" and said the company expects to generate a net profit by 2023. The rise in popularity of SoundCloud Rap (a.k.a. "mumble rap") and ability for new artists to gain popularity helped SoundCloud gain enough users to continue business. Compared to other streaming services, SoundCloud is an interactive platform, which contributes to the artist being able to gain popularity. In August 2014, SoundCloud announced
4840-466: The creation of numerous other P2P sites, including LimeWire (2000), BitTorrent (2001), and the Pirate Bay (2003). The reign of P2P networks was short-lived. The first to fall was Napster in 2001. Numerous lawsuits were filed against Napster by various record labels, all of which were subsidiaries of Universal Music Group , Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group , or EMI . In addition to this,
4950-416: The deal would give the company an option to require certain content to be restricted to paid subscribers, a statement suggesting that SoundCloud was preparing to launch its own subscription streaming service. In February 2017, SoundCloud launched a mid-range subscription tier named SoundCloud Go, that allows users to remove ads and listen offline for $ US5 per month through the site. The original version, which
5060-490: The debate is "really about discomfort with how a generation of young musicians has chosen to use their voices in strange, unprecedented ways, and against the wishes of their parents and forefathers." The Guardian compared the style to the first wave of punk , noting a shared "sonic simplicity, gleeful inanity and sense of transgression." The Vibe linked mumble rap to earlier forms of hip-hop, as well as jazz scatting . For The Conversation , Adam de Paor-Evans disputed
5170-403: The downfall of many DVD rental companies, such as Blockbuster . In July 2015, The New York Times published an article about Netflix 's DVD services. It stated that Netflix was continuing their DVD services with 5.3 million subscribers, which was a significant drop from the previous year. On the other hand, their streaming service had 65 million members. Music streaming is one of
5280-499: The files available on Napster may be copyrighted and more than seventy percent may be owned or administered by plaintiffs." The injunction ordered against Napster ended the brief period in which music streaming was a public good – non-rival and non-excludable in nature. Other P2P networks had some success at sharing MP3s, though they all met a similar fate in court. The ruling set the precedent that copyrighted digital content cannot be freely replicated and shared unless given consent by
5390-434: The first commercial Ethernet switch was introduced by Kalpana , which enabled the more powerful computer networks that led to the first streaming video solutions used by schools and corporations. Practical streaming media was only made possible with advances in data compression due to the impractically high bandwidth requirements of uncompressed media. Raw digital audio encoded with pulse-code modulation (PCM) requires
5500-437: The first half of 2016 and accounted for almost half of industry sales. The term streaming wars was coined to describe the new era (starting in the late 2010s) of competition between video streaming services such as Netflix , Amazon Prime Video , Hulu , Max , Disney+ , Paramount+ , Apple TV+ , Peacock , and many more. The competition among online platforms has driven them to find ways to differentiate themselves from
5610-467: The first large-scale, online, live broadcast, the Adam Yauch –led Tibetan Freedom Concert , an event that would define the format of social change broadcasts. Scarpa continued to pioneer in the streaming media world with projects such as Woodstock '99 , Townhall with President Clinton , and more recently Covered CA's campaign "Tell a Friend Get Covered", which was livestreamed on YouTube. Xing Technology
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#17328522826925720-413: The first time in 1973. These implementations are the only known examples of true 'streaming' in the sense of reconstructing distortion-free serial data from packetized or blocked recordings. 'Real-time' terminology has also been confusing in streaming context. The most accepted definition of 'real-time' requires that all associated processing or formatting of the data must take place prior to availability of
5830-401: The founder of Alamo Records, called the scene a " lo-fi movement" noting the heavily distorted bass and intentional lack of polish in the sound. When Ski Mask the Slump God discussed the genre's lo-fi sound and recording techniques, he noted, "It was like the worst recording set up, [but] you could set it up anywhere and that was the wave we were on.... The raw energy of that – the distortion –
5940-500: The idea that mumble rap is a reflection of laziness, suggesting instead that it is an accurate reflection of boredom resulting from the immediacy and speed of contemporary cultural life." Red Bull Music Academy stated that "however they're labeled – SoundCloud rap, emo-trap, mumble rap – one thing's for sure: these rappers are forging new paths, once again pushing the boundaries of what rap is, who it's for and how it's distributed." Rap pioneer Grandmaster Caz expressed acceptance of
6050-413: The industry to develop technologies such as WirelessHD and G.hn , which are optimized for streaming HD content. Many developers have introduced HD streaming apps that work on smaller devices, such as tablets and smartphones, for everyday purposes. "Streaming creates the illusion—greatly magnified by headphone use, which is another matter—that music is a utility you can turn on and off; the water metaphor
6160-549: The interactivity of the Web. The ability to collect data and feedback from potential customers caused this technology to gain momentum quickly. Around 2002, the interest in a single, unified, streaming format and the widespread adoption of Adobe Flash prompted the development of a video streaming format through Flash, which was the format used in Flash-based players on video hosting sites. The first popular video streaming site, YouTube,
6270-409: The investment, veteran digital media operators Kerry Trainor and Michael Weissman joined the SoundCloud team respectively as chief executive officer and Chief Operating Officer. Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss remained with the company—Ljung as chairman of the board, and Wahlforss as Chief Product Officer until 2019, when Wahlforss transitioned into an advisory role. In May 2022, SoundCloud announced
6380-570: The judge for this case, noted that Napster claimed that its services fit "three specific alleged fair uses: sampling , where users make temporary copies of a work before purchasing; space-shifting, where users access a sound recording through the Napster system that they already own in audio CD format; and permissive distribution of recordings by both new and established artists." Judge Beezer found that Napster did not fit these criteria, instead enabling their users to repeatedly copy music, which would affect
6490-523: The jukebox, and ask the operator to play a song. The operator would find the record in the studio library of more than 100,000 records, put it on a turntable, and the music would be piped over the telephone line to play in the tavern. The music media began as 78s, 33s and 45s, played on the six turntables they monitored. CDs and tapes were incorporated in later years. The business had a succession of owners, notably Bill Purse, his daughter Helen Reutzel, and finally Dotti White. The revenue stream for each quarter
6600-432: The late 1980s through the 1990s, consumer-grade personal computers became powerful enough to display various media. The primary technical issues related to streaming were having enough CPU and bus bandwidth to support the required data rates and achieving the real-time computing performance required to prevent buffer underruns and enable smooth streaming of the content. However, computer networks were still limited in
6710-511: The licensed music library but still offers ad-free and offline playback. SoundCloud Go+ offers mix tracks for certain DJ apps, has a complete catalogue, and has 256 kbit/s streaming. SoundCloud offers premium services for musicians with their Next Pro service. With Next Pro, subscribers can upload unlimited audio files, access enhanced analytics, distribute their music to other streaming platforms, and access tools to reach larger audiences. This service
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#17328522826926820-522: The main SoundCloud app is oriented towards streaming, with music discovery, playlist, and sharing features. In November 2015, its separate app known as SoundCloud Pulse was released for Android and iOS; it is primarily oriented towards content creators, allowing users to upload and manage their uploads, reply to comments, and view statistics. By the end of 2016, SoundCloud Pulse had over 100 million downloads. In July 2020, SoundCloud introduced Insights into its mobile app, discontinuing SoundCloud Pulse. Through
6930-454: The market value of the copyrighted good. The second claim by the plaintiffs was that Napster was actively contributing to copyright infringement since it had knowledge of widespread file sharing on its platform. Since Napster took no action to reduce infringement and financially benefited from repeated use, the court ruled against the P2P site. The court found that "as much as eighty-seven percent of
7040-448: The matter of unauthorized, copyrighted material regularly appearing on the platform. The announcement followed a round of funding in which US$ 60 million was raised, resulting in a $ 700 million valuation. According to media sources, the negotiations were initiated in an attempt to avoid similar problems faced by Google , which had been forced to handle a large number of take down notices on its YouTube video-sharing platform. In May 2015, it
7150-427: The media applies specifically to, as most of the traditional media delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g., radio, television) or inherently non-streaming (e.g., books, videotapes , audio CDs ). The term "streaming media" can apply to media other than video and audio, such as live closed captioning , ticker tape , and real-time text , which are all considered "streaming text". The term "streaming"
7260-430: The mid-1990s, and audio and video media were usually delivered over non-streaming channels, such as playback from a local hard disk drive or CD-ROMs on the end user's computer. Terminology in the 1970's was at best confusing for applications such as telemetered aircraft or missile test data. By then PCM [Pulse Code Modulation] was the dominant transmission type. This PCM transmission was bit-serial and not packetized so
7370-403: The misnomer "store and forward video." Beginning in 1881, Théâtrophone enabled subscribers to listen to opera and theatre performances over telephone lines. This operated until 1932. The concept of media streaming eventually came to America. In the early 1920s, George Owen Squier was granted patents for a system for the transmission and distribution of signals over electrical lines, which
7480-489: The most popular ways in which consumers interact with streaming media. In the age of digitization, the private consumption of music has transformed into a public good , largely due to one player in the market: Napster. Napster , a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network where users could upload and download MP3 files freely, broke all music industry conventions when it launched in early 1999 in Hull, Massachusetts. The platform
7590-479: The music industry by making songs that previously required payment to be freely accessible to any Napster user, but it also demonstrated the power of P2P networks in turning any digital file into a public, shareable good. For the brief period of time that Napster existed, mp3 files fundamentally changed as a type of good. Songs were no longer financially excludable, barring access to a computer with internet access, and they were not rivals, meaning if one person downloaded
7700-688: The music industry initiatives around the world related to the COVID-19. In its State of the Industry report, it recorded that the global recorded music market grew by 7.4% in 2022, the 6th consecutive year of growth. This growth was driven by streaming, mostly from paid subscription streaming revenues which increased by 18.5%, fueled by 443 million users of subscription accounts by the end of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has also driven an increase in misinformation and disinformation, particularly on streaming platforms like YouTube and podcasts . Streaming also refers to
7810-402: The new Insights portal all users can see their top listener, top city, top country and top 50 tracks, while Pro Unlimited subscribers have access to their top 50 everything (listeners, cities, countries, and tracks). In April 2017, Chromecast support was added to the main SoundCloud iOS app. On 29 March 2016, SoundCloud unveiled SoundCloud Go, a subscription-based music streaming service ;
7920-549: The next sample of each measurement. In the 1970s the most powerful mainframe computers were not fast enough for this task at significant overall data rates in the range of 50,000 samples per second. For that reason both the Grumman ATS and the Navy Real-time Telemetry Processing System [RTPS] employed unique special purpose digital computers dedicated to real-time processing of raw data samples. In 1990,
8030-435: The offline streaming of multimedia at home. This is made possible by technologies such as DLNA , which allow devices on the same local network to connect to each other and share media. Such capabilities are heightened using network-attached storage (NAS) devices at home, or using specialized software like Plex Media Server , Jellyfin or TwonkyMedia . Soundcloud rap Mumble rap (also known as SoundCloud rap )
8140-431: The owner, thereby strengthening the property rights of artists and record labels alike. Although music streaming is no longer a freely replicable public good, streaming platforms such as Spotify , Deezer , Apple Music , SoundCloud , YouTube Music , and Amazon Music have shifted music streaming to a club-type good . While some platforms, most notably Spotify, give customers access to a freemium service that enables
8250-415: The past few years was now in decline. The death of Juice Wrld in 2019 has been described as the death of SoundCloud rap. Rappers who have voiced discontent with mumble rap include J. Cole , Hopsin , Chris Webby , Logic , Russ , Joyner Lucas , Taboo of Black Eyed Peas , and Eminem . On his album Kamikaze , Eminem criticized multiple "mumble rappers" after declaring that "The boom bap
8360-583: The platform and facilitate either takedowns or ads being run against it. In July 2016, SoundCloud notified registered users via email that it would be "phasing out" groups because they "were not a strong driver to help users share their new tracks to the most users effectively". This announcement was met with alarm and concerned responses from numerous artists, who deemed the change unacceptable because it would eliminate their only effective means of sharing music on SoundCloud. SoundCloud has also been criticized for changes in service. The anti-piracy algorithm — which
8470-507: The platform together, creating a community focused space. Features that enable users to comment, like, and share songs allows the platform to operate as a social media site rather than a streaming service. In 2018, the Grammys began to recognize artists and their music on SoundCloud. The shift from The Recording Academy was thanks to the popularity of the platform and their artists. Chance the Rapper
8580-454: The platform, available for mobile , desktop and Xbox devices. SoundCloud has evolved from a traditional online streaming platform to an entertainment company. SoundCloud was established in Berlin on August 27, 2007, by Swedish sound designer Alexander Ljung and Swedish electronic musician Eric Wahlforss, and the website was launched on October 17, 2008. Later that year, Rapper Kid Cudi posted
8690-486: The platform. The initial evaluation of SoundCloud at $ 700 million did not hold as strong to investors after their financial shortages. In July 2017, SoundCloud announced layoffs and the closure of two of its five offices in San Francisco and London in an effort to manage costs. In August 2017, SoundCloud announced it reached an agreement on a $ 169.5 million investment from The Raine Group and Temasek . In connection with
8800-413: The respective applications for streaming, which resulted in many users having to have all three applications on their computer for general compatibility. In 2000, Industryview.com launched its "world's largest streaming video archive" website to help businesses promote themselves. Webcasting became an emerging tool for business marketing and advertising that combined the immersive nature of television with
8910-414: The rest. A key differentiator is offering exclusive content, often self-produced and created for a specific market segment . Research suggests that this approach to streaming competition can be disadvantageous for consumers by increasing spending across platforms, and for the industry as a whole by dilution of subscriber base. Once specific content is made available on a streaming service, piracy searches for
9020-530: The same content decrease; competition or legal availability across multiple platforms appears to deter online piracy. Exclusive content produced for subscription services such as Netflix tends to have a higher production budget than content produced exclusively for pay-per-view services, such as Amazon Prime Video. This competition increased during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic as more people stayed home and watched TV. "The COVID-19 pandemic has led to
9130-568: The service entirely in May 2015. In June 2015, SoundCloud announced that it had reached a deal with the Merlin Network , a group representing 20,000 independent record labels, to monetize their content through the Premier partner program. In January and March 2016, SoundCloud reached respective deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. A UMG spokesperson told The New York Times that
9240-420: The service provides an ad-free experience, offline playback, and integrates licensed music from major labels into the existing, user-uploaded content of the service. Co-founder Eric Wahlforss stated that this aspect would help to differentiate SoundCloud Go from other music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music , as it technically provides a larger total library of songs than competing services, with
9350-405: The streaming of audio and video content to computer users in their homes and workplaces. There was also an increasing use of standard protocols and formats, such as TCP/IP , HTTP , and HTML , as the Internet became increasingly commercialized, which led to an infusion of investment into the sector. The band Severe Tire Damage was the first group to perform live on the Internet. On 24 June 1993,
9460-437: The style, stating "It's all good [...] they're a different generation, they do a different thing, they have a different agenda and their influences come from different places." Funk pioneer George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic declared himself a listener of mumble rap, stating "we try to pay attention to whatever the new music is that gets on your nerves." Podcaster and television host The Kid Mero dismisses criticisms of
9570-402: The term mumble rap has been taken as derogatory, some have reappropriated the label, and various critics and artists have defended the style as a new phase in the evolution of the rap genre. The term "mumble rap" was first used in 2014 by VladTV battle rap journalist Michael Hughes, in an interview with battle rapper Loaded Lux about the style's emergence in mainstream hip hop. There
9680-602: The total bandwidth of the internet" to stream the performance, which was a 152 × 76 pixel video, updated eight to twelve times per second, with audio quality that was, "at best, a bad telephone connection." In October 1994, a school music festival was webcast from the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington, New Zealand. The technician who arranged the webcast, local council employee Richard Naylor, later commented: "We had 16 viewers in 12 countries." RealNetworks pioneered
9790-845: The use of limited features for exposure to advertisements, most companies operate under a premium subscription model. Under such circumstances, music streaming is financially excludable, requiring that customers pay a monthly fee for access to a music library, but non-rival, since one customer's use does not impair another's. There is competition between services similar but lesser to the streaming wars for video media. As of 2019 , Spotify has over 207 million users in 78 countries, As of 2018 , Apple Music has about 60 million, and SoundCloud has 175 million. All platforms provide varying degrees of accessibility. Apple Music and Prime Music only offer their services for paid subscribers, whereas Spotify and SoundCloud offer freemium and premium services. Napster, owned by Rhapsody since 2011, has resurfaced as
9900-401: The user. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) revealed through its 2015, earnings report that streaming services were responsible for 34.3 percent of the year's total music industry 's revenue, growing 29 percent from the previous year and becoming the largest source of income, pulling in around $ 2.4 billion. US streaming revenue grew 57 percent to $ 1.6 billion in
10010-640: The video for his track " Soundtrack 2 My Life ", then got replaced to YouTube in 2012. It was originally intended to allow musicians to collaborate by facilitating the sharing and discussion of recordings, but later transformed into a publishing tool for music distribution. According to Wired magazine, soon after its inception, SoundCloud began to challenge the dominance of Myspace as a platform for musicians to distribute their music. In April 2009, SoundCloud received €2.5 million Series A funding from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures . In May 2010, SoundCloud announced it had one million users. In January 2011, it
10120-705: The way consumers interact with music streaming. It was argued on 2 October 2000, and was decided on 12 February 2001. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a P2P file-sharing service could be held liable for contributory and vicarious infringement of copyright, serving as a landmark decision for Intellectual property law. The first issue that the Court addressed was fair use , which says that otherwise infringing activities are permissible so long as they are for purposes "such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching [...] scholarship, or research." Judge Beezer,
10230-430: Was considering to buy SoundCloud. On 8 December 2016, Spotify was reported to have abandoned its acquisition plans. In February 2019, SoundCloud reported having surpassed 200 million sound tracks, four times as many as Myspace had. In May 2019, SoundCloud bought artist distribution platform Repost Network. In January 2020, a US$ 75 million investment by Sirius XM was announced. On 2 March 2021, SoundCloud announced
10340-461: Was developed by Shawn and John Fanning as well as Sean Parker . In an interview from 2009, Shawn Fanning explained that Napster "was something that came to me as a result of seeing a sort of unmet need and the passion people had for being able to find all this music, particularly a lot of the obscure stuff, which wouldn't be something you go to a record store and purchase, so it felt like a problem worth solving." Not only did this development disrupt
10450-450: Was first used for tape drives manufactured by Data Electronics Inc. that were meant to slowly ramp up and run for the entire track; slower ramp times lowered drive costs. "Streaming" was applied in the early 1990s as a better description for video on demand and later live video on IP networks . It was first done by Starlight Networks for video streaming and Real Networks for audio streaming. Such video had previously been referred to by
10560-488: Was first used to describe rappers whose lyrics were unclear, but the use of the term has expanded to include rappers that some critics claim generally put little emphasis on lyricism or lyrical quality. Some have claimed that artists such as Das EFX and Fu-Schnickens rapped in a similar style years before the term was created. "Mumble rappers" generally rap about drugs, sex, money, jewelry, designer clothing, and partying. Rappers labelled as "mumble rappers" also tend to use
10670-408: Was founded by Steve Chen , Chad Hurley , and Jawed Karim in 2005. It initially used a Flash-based player, which played MPEG-4 AVC video and AAC audio, but now defaults to HTML video . Increasing consumer demand for live streaming prompted YouTube to implement a new live streaming service for users. The company currently also offers a (secure) link that returns the available connection speed of
10780-592: Was founded in 1989 and developed a JPEG streaming product called "StreamWorks". Another streaming product appeared in late 1992 and was named StarWorks. StarWorks enabled on-demand MPEG-1 full-motion videos to be randomly accessed on corporate Ethernet networks. Starworks was from Starlight Networks , which also pioneered live video streaming on Ethernet and via Internet Protocol over satellites with Hughes Network Systems . Other early companies that created streaming media technology include Progressive Networks and Protocomm prior to widespread World Wide Web usage. After
10890-536: Was freely available on the Internet. By 2018, however, music streaming revenue exceeded that of traditional revenue streams (e.g. record sales, album sales, downloads). Streaming revenue is now one of the largest driving forces behind the growth in the music industry. By August 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had streaming services busier than ever. In the UK alone, 12 million people joined a new streaming service that they had not previously had. An impact analysis of 2020 data by
11000-428: Was implemented for the purpose of increasing SoundCloud usage. On 3 July 2014, TorrentFreak reported that SoundCloud offered unlimited removal powers to certain copyright holders, allowing those copyright holders to unilaterally remove paid subscribers' content without recourse. In April 2015, SoundCloud announced a new partnership with Zefr, a content tracking company that works with YouTube to help identify songs on
11110-553: Was increasing by 1.5 million users per month. In March 2014, Twitter announced it would partner with SoundCloud in developing its first integrated music app. However, the project never moved forward because SoundCloud was unable to accommodate licensed music due to a lack of necessary arrangements with music labels. In July 2013, SoundCloud had 40 million registered users and new users were joining at 20 million per month. SoundCloud announced in January 2014 that it had commenced licensing negotiations with major music companies to address
11220-599: Was no a built-in incentive specifically discouraging users from sharing their own files. This structure revolutionized the consumer's perception of ownership over digital goods ; it made music freely replicable. Napster quickly garnered millions of users, growing faster than any other business in history. At the peak of its existence, Napster boasted about 80 million users globally. The site gained so much traffic that many college campuses had to block access to Napster because it created network congestion from so many students sharing music files. The advent of Napster sparked
11330-465: Was put into place to combat the number of illegal music downloads — has often been criticized for taking down music that was not illegally submitted or downloaded. Also, Universal Music Group has the right to take down any files on SoundCloud. Uploads can be taken down directly by Universal Music Group outside of SoundCloud's anti-piracy policy. Other than uploads, Universal Music Group has the ability to take down accounts, both premium and free. Customers of
11440-419: Was renamed to SoundCloud Go+, allows access to (at the time) over 150 million songs, offline playback, no ads, no previews, and premium music tracks for $ US10 per month through the site. Both subscriptions were categorized for listeners, with separate subscription services provided specifically for creators. In Spring 2017, SoundCloud initially faced being sold after not raising the $ 100 million needed to support
11550-442: Was reported that SoundCloud could potentially raise approximately US$ 150 million in new financing, resulting in a valuation surpassing one billion dollars. The major label issue became prominent again when the new financing information was released, as the lack of monetization was presented as an issue—SoundCloud signed an agreement with Warner Music Group as part of the new Premier program that allows both Warner Music, which also has
11660-409: Was reported that SoundCloud had raised US$ 10 million Series B funding from Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures . On 15 June 2011, SoundCloud reported five million registered users and investments from Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary 's A-Grade Fund, and on 23 January 2012, it reported 10 million registered users. In May 2012, it was announced that SoundCloud had 15 million users, and site usage
11770-545: Was reported that Twitter was considering the acquisition of SoundCloud for approximately US$ 2 billion. However, the prospect of acquisition was discounted by the media, with one report stating that "the numbers didn't add up", and Bobby Owsinski hypothesizing on the Forbes website in July that SoundCloud's ongoing inability to secure deals with the major music labels was the foremost culprit. On 28 September 2016, Spotify announced that it
11880-452: Was split between 60% for the music service and 40% for the tavern owner. This business model eventually became unsustainable due to city permits and the cost of setting up these telephone lines. Attempts to display media on computers date back to the earliest days of computing in the mid-20th century. However, little progress was made for several decades, primarily due to the high cost and limited capabilities of computer hardware. From
11990-413: Was the dedicated label services department that provided label services such as marketing, funding and music distribution for artists that signed with SoundCloud directly/independent labels that have partnerships with SoundCloud. In July 2022 SoundCloud A&R Cameron Cox carried out a distribution deal with Sohaib Ali and Alontae Lloyd's BlondeWorld Label which is the first independent label to enter into
12100-463: Was the technical basis for what later became Muzak , a technology for streaming continuous music to commercial customers without the use of radio. The Telephone Music Service, a live jukebox service, began in 1929 and continued until 1997. The clientele eventually included 120 bars and restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. A tavern customer would deposit money in the jukebox, use a telephone on top of
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