SoundCloud CTO: “Piracy Isn’t Something Anyone Talks About Anymore, Even In the Music Industry”

Paul Resnikoff

July 24, 2015

…from a Wall Street Journal interview with SoundCloud CTO Eric Wahlfross, July 23rd.

…from Cisco’s ‘File-Sharing In North America’ forecast, 2008-2019.

16 Responses

Chavez July 24, 2015
IDIOT
- Anonymous July 26, 2015
  Just like his IDIOTIC and purposeless SoundCloud.
Anonymous July 24, 2015
You are, of course, absolutely right about piracy in general, but I think the CTO has a point when he claims that the new generation doesn’t pirate music.
Piracy may still be a hit among middle-aged men, but Little Monsters, Swifties and Katycats definitely don’t like it when people steal from their favorite stars.
It has nothing to do with streaming, however — these fan armies buy millions of records.
- PiratesWinLOL July 25, 2015
  That’s very interesting. I assume these Little Monsters, Swifties and Katycats is making quite an impact, with all these millions of records they are buying. How is the CD and MP3 sales going compared to streaming?
Anon July 24, 2015
Because streaming IS piracy, it’s just that the biggest of the big companies like Apple and Google get a cut. Before, only the ISPs were making money on it.
Noah July 24, 2015
This shows how out of touch soundcloud is
YouDontKnowMe July 24, 2015
Right, because we are already past 2019.
PiratesWinLOL July 25, 2015
The total number of petabytes, doesn’t necessarily say anything about the actual amount of music, that is being shared. The growth in petabyte can easily be and proberly is, a consequence of higher quality movies being pirated. Games and various programs also takes much more data now than they used to in 2008.
Fact is that only few people even care to pirate music. Why would they, when it is made available in a fair and reasonable way? Just take a look at the total top 100 torrents at piratebay:
https://thepiratebay.gd/top/all
None of these are music. Not a single one. This is also why you have a “Popcorntime” and not a “Music time”. Consumers got a fair deal now and piracy isn’t much of an issue. Eric Wahlfross know what he is talking about.
Anonymous July 25, 2015
Here’s an interesting Slate article about the way people grow out of illegal music sharing when they grow up:
- Versus July 26, 2015
  What lessons to take from this?
  Make music for adults, perhaps?
Versus July 26, 2015
Of course piracy is still massive.
And it has enabled/justified the legal exploitation by streaming services.
- PiratesWinLOL July 27, 2015
  How can music piracy be massive, when there is not a single music torrent in the top 100 on Piratebay?
Versus July 26, 2015
Piracy is over? That’s rich.
Soundcloud is one of the pirate sites.
Benevolence July 27, 2015
There’s an old saying… “Don’t feed the trolls.” Now we need a saying for sites that don’t pay “Royalties.”….. “Don’t feed sites that waive your rights”
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That said, when it comes to all these types of music sites; Many bands/artists are their own worse enemies, though there are some who are in it for fun (hobby.) — But for those who are serious? Seriously? I suggest stop using such sites and instead try something like BandC-mp – Sell direct to the fans, and there’s many other ways to sell direct to fans thanks to clever apps that have appeared. Of course there are excellent distributors – distribution to 200+ retailers worldwide, now that’s the sort of button I like to click, oh yeah baby lol {click, click, clickety, click}. Now setup your own direct to fan sales using clever apps such as TopS-pn and such embedded on your own site, share the love on social networks. But there’s that freaking stumbling block rearing it’s ugly head gain, it’s been around for decades….
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Knowing much more about “Brand, PR, Marketing” <— this is where most musicians fail. I'm still trying to get up to speed. I have spent the past 2 years learning, searching, researching, learning, searching, researching. I mean "Really knowing how and where is crucial"… Brand, PR, Marketing is the key, that is the focus all serious bands/artists should give far greater importance to – rather than blindly uploading to all those moOosic sites. So where to this time…. SoundCrock?, SoundCrick?, SoundGlitch? {ahem}…. before you know it, years have passed by and you haven't made a dime and not learned anything about Brand, PR and Marketing. And other thing I should mention; most distributors give you the option to exclude any particular retailer or should I say, "Streaming Site", it's your work, you decide.
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- TimBucky July 30, 2015
  Agreed, sell your music, but piracy is still alive and well. I think pirate sites pick on the indies more than labels, because they know we cannot fight back. When I Google my name I am appalled at the number of pirate sites that offer my music as free downloads; mp3, FLAC, anything you want. Nothing to be done, I can’t afford litigation – maybe there are ways to invoke takedown demands but I don’t know what they are. Yet.
Benevolence July 27, 2015
Oops, some typos – I meant to say….
1) Now we need a saying for sites that don’t ‘respect’ “Royalties.”
2) And ‘one’ other thing I should mention;