SoundCloud
Summary
Audio publishing and distribution platform with social features.
Type of organisation: Privately-owned company (or group)
Market share: One of the leading products (#3-7)
Pricing: Free-$16/month or $144/annum
Factors driving pricing: Additional features
Skills needed to set-up: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Skills needed to use: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Requires audience sign-in to use: No, sign-in is optional
Type of organisation: Privately-owned company (or group)
Market share: One of the leading products (#3-7)
Pricing: Free-$16/month or $144/annum
Factors driving pricing: Additional features
Skills needed to set-up: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Skills needed to use: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Requires audience sign-in to use: No, sign-in is optional
Pros
Open Source alternatives available
Releases new features regularly
Transparent pricing model
Clear data policies
Allows data deletion
Cons
Newsworthy business issues/challenges - SoundCloud Reverses Course — Upload Limits Aren’t Changing After Users Revolt
Newsworthy technical issues - October 2019: SoundCloud down
Lacks accessibility statement
Does not share diversity data
Full Product Data Collection
Data collected January-February 2020
| Product name | SoundCloud |
| Product URL | https://soundcloud.com/ |
| Parent organisation | N/A |
| Workflow category | Publishing & distribution |
| Date product founded | 2008 |
| Product description | Audio publishing and distribution platform with social features. |
| What type of company or organisation is the product owned by? | Privately-owned company (or group) |
| Is the company profit-making? | No, loss-making |
| How is this product funded? | Subscriptions, VC investment |
| What market share does the tool have? | One of the leading products (#3-7) |
| Is there an Open Source alternative in this product space? | Yes. Funkwhale, Audius |
| When did the company last release new features? | December 2019: Lossless audio support for all users. |
| Have they shared details of the product roadmap? | No |
| Is there talk of the product raising further investment? | No |
| Is there talk of the product being acquired? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy business issues or challenges in the last 12 months? | SoundCloud Reverses Course — Upload Limits Aren’t Changing After Users Revolt |
| Is there a pricing model listed on the website? | Yes |
| How clear & transparent is this pricing model? | Very: full pricing listed |
| What is the range of prices offered? | Free Pro: $16/month or $144/annum |
| What factors drive higher pricing? | Additional features |
| What skills are needed to get this tool set up & usable? | Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it) |
| What skills are needed to USE this tool day-to-day? | Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it) |
| Does this tool use proprietary file formats for saving documents & outputs? | Defaults to common open standard file formats |
| Is the product reliant on 3rd-party APIs or interoperability to function? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy technical issues in the last 3 years? | Yes. SoundCloud down |
| How clear is the Terms of Service for users (i.e. publishing customers)? | Technical, legalistic TOS |
| Does the product have a data collection & usage policy on its website? (Can be a GDPR statement)? | Yes, comprehensive. |
| Is their data policy “GDPR everywhere”? | Yes, GDPR compliant globally |
| Does the product require your audience to sign-in to use it? | No, sign-in is optional |
| IF SIGN IN REQUIRED: Does audience sign-in use 3rd party platforms? | No 3rd party auth, just a user account |
| Does the public product website mention how to export or transfer your data to another service? | No / cannot tell |
| Does the public product website mention how to delete your data? | Yes: for both publisher and audience data |
| Have there been any newsworthy security breaches with this product in the last 3 years? | No |
| Does the company have an accessibility statement on its website? | No / cannot find |
| Does the company release information on the diversity of the workforce? | No |