Content warning: The following post will likely sound a great deal like a podcast that your roommate who really wants an Apple Watch would listen to.
So, SoundCloud. Even you jokers who think WWDC must somehow stand for “Why would DYNOOO care?” and who don’t know API from D/P/I know about SoundCloud. It’s that little orange lookin’ dealy that we use to embed tracks at the end of news and Choco posts right here on Tiny Mix Tapes. Well, in addition to being in the news lately for losing the entire Sony catalog and making deals with 20,000 independent labels, the company announced on Tuesday that, starting July 1, it’ll start imposing rate limits on developer API play requests at 15,000 per 24-hour period. Pretty much what this means is that the number of times a track can play through a third-party app will cap out at 15,000 times each day. What’s causing a bit of uproar is the fact that it’s still not quite clear if this limit is going to be per app or per track.
SoundCloud says this is to help curb abuse both of creator content hosted on the site and of its terms of use by developers, but it’s likely also motivated by its recent introduction of ads; if listeners are streaming on their website or through one of their embeddable players, it’s easier to serve ads as opposed to streaming via some third-party app. And, although there was some confusion initially, SoundCloud has made it absolutely clear that this limit will not impact embedded players, saying “only a small number of developers will be affected.” At any rate, changes like these are clearly a part of the slowly-growing realization that no one involved in online music streaming really knows how to make money unless you’ve already got a whole lot of money sitting around from making expensive rap appearances or selling flashy laptops to millennials. And even then it can get sketchy.
In closing, check out the SoundCloud player I embedded below, containing a recent TMT guest mix from N1L, because it’s a tech thing I can do that involves code and because it’s relevant.
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com
