SoundCloud still has a niche in my opinion. Nowhere close to what it was theorized to grow into, at least in my perspective. Getting deals with RIAA instead of fiercely cultivating & breaking Indie artists & curators was the wrong pivot from my perspective. Now it's just bloated. Partially responsible? YouTube being easier to find stuff. Them's the breaks.

A Question to Fred Wilson from Union Square and AVC.com:

Since Fred is one of the early investors + somebody who frequently promoted Soundclound on his blog and on HN (despite all the industry warnings that he shouldn't deal with the music industry's oligopol), we are wondering...

How does it feel when one of your flagship investment is in such a situation?

(Serious question, and what are you telling your LPs now?)

I have been rabidly downloading and archiving my favorite podcasts that post on soundcloud. I have two fears. The first is that they may become lost forever due to lack of interest/awareness of the creators. The second is that the creators take this opportunity to lock old episodes behind a paywall.

I would love to see the Internet Archive put some muscle behind saving all the wonderful content on soundcloud.