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SoundCloud, BandCamp, Soundtrap Competitive Landscape
SoundCloud is an online platform that lets artists share their work with fans worldwide and allows them to monetize their content. Bandcamp is similarly a platform where artists can share their music with fans and the musicians get 80%-85% of the profits. Soundtrap is a cloud-based platform that allows users to record their music from anywhere in the world and on all devices.
SOUNDCLOUD
- SoundCloud is based in Berlin, Germany.
- By the end of 2017, Soundcloud recorded a revenue of $102 million. Revenue from 2018 is expected to be filed later in this year. However, the company reports that it surpassed its expected 2018 growth plans.
- SoundCloud's platform allows artists to share their music. Users can connect with artists, and discover breakthrough tracks and raw demos. Users can also listen to podcasts on the platform.
- SoundCloud is also an open platform that directly connects creators to their fans. Creators, (audio and music) can connect with worldwide users and also monetize their content. Creators can receive statistics and feedback from the SoundCloud community.
- Soundcloud Basic is free and creators can upload up to 3 hours total.
- Soundcloud Pro costs $6/month or $72/year. Creators can upload up to 6 hours total, count likes comments and downloads and also see who is playing their music and from which countries.
- Soundcloud Pro Unlimited allows creators to upload unlimited tracks, count plays, likes and comments, see who is playing their music and from which countries and know what pages, social media sites are playing the creator's music. Pro unlimited costs $12/month or $144/year.
- Soundcloud has 75 million monthly users and 175 million global users.
- The platform has 20 million creators.
BANDCAMP
- Bandcamp is a platform where artists and labels can share their music and fans can discover their music. The company is located in the United States.
- The company's business model it to ensure that artists are paid fairly and transparently for their work.
- 80 to 85% of everything purchased on Bandcamp goes to the artist; the rest goes to payment processor fees and the platform's revenue.
- Bandcamp also allows an artist to add their physical merchandise such as vinyl, t-shirt, cassettes and/or tickets.
- Bandcamp allows any artist to upload and release immediately unlike other streaming sites. Artists can also set up album preorders and choose which songs they want to offer before release.
- It also provides an interactive platform for fans to follow what the people they are following are purchasing.
- Artist accounts at Bandcamp are free.
- Bandcamp Pro, however, costs $10 per month and gives artists deeper insights, batch upload, targeted messaging, ad-free video hosting, private streaming and more.
- Bandcamp has an estimated annual revenue of $7 million.
- There are 3,500 independent labels on Bandcamp and more than 600,000 artists. Bandcamp has over 1 million installs on the Google Play Store.
SOUNDTRAP
- Spotify acquired Soundtrap in 2017. Soundtrap has $1M in estimated annual revenue. The company is located in Sweden.
- Soundtrap is a cloud-based audio recording platform that works with all operating systems. The platform allows users to record from all over the world. The platform is also easy to use for creators of music and audio content.
- It allows users to record from any device and all records are stored in their cloud. It also allows users to collaborate in real-time with band mates, other creators and others.
- Soundtrap can be used by people of various levels of musical interest and is being used in the K-12 to higher levels of education.
- Soundtrap Basic is free. Soundtrap Premium for music makers is $7.99 per month billed annually; it provides unlimited projects, over 4280 loops, over 550 instruments, and Antares Auto-Tune®. Soundtrap Supreme for Music Makers is $11.99 per month (billed annually) and provides an additional priority mixing and high-quality downloads.
- Soundtrap for Story Tellers also costs $11.99 per month (billed annually). It offers unlimited projects, 8 hours of interactive transcripts, remote interviews, allows users to upload the podcast to Spotify, high-quality downloads, and more.
- Soundtrap Complete costs $13.99 per month billed annually; it provides everything that is available for music makers and storytellers.
- Soundtrap has over 500,000 installs on Google Play Store.
- A statement by Spotify stated that Soundtrap joined a team at Spotify to help millions of artists connect with millions of fans.
Research Strategy
We leveraged a compilation of industry websites, blogs, and articles in well-known industry publications, such as Billboard, to curate a comprehensive competitive landscape. We also sourced a majority directly from the official websites of the requested platforms to provide more accurate information. To first answer the research question, we began by looking through the platforms' websites for information that is relevant to each platform. This search was partially successful and we were able to determine the pricing and a detailed description of each of their services and features. To determine the revenue obtained by these companies, we looked through industry reports and journals and we were quickly able to determine Soundcloud's revenue as of 2017. The estimated revenue obtained by the other two platforms, Bandcamp and Soundtrap were not readily available from original sources, so third-party, but credible, databases were used (e.g., Crunchbase).
Regarding the number of users for Soundtrap and Bandcamp, these data remained unavailable despite our efforts in searching the company websites, press releases, industry publications, expert blogs and journals. However, we were able to find a direct quote from a Spotify official who noted that Soundtrap would be able to cater to millions of fans. Though useful, this figure was vague and not definitive. To determine an estimated number of users/subscribers we looked at the number of downloads the platforms' apps had on the Google Play Store and Apple Store, the biggest downloading platforms globally. Unfortunately, Apple does not make this information public. Google Play Store, however, was able to provide us with an estimated number of downloads/installs the apps had on their platforms.