Soundcloud Sells Out Listeners

For the past 3 years I have used SoundCloud as my primary source for music. I have found it to be a great way to find new artists and with its free and convenient ios app, it is excellent for listening to tunes on the go. So, here I am listening to a brand new EP when all of the sudden the unthinkable happens. My ears are molested with a barrage of Squarespace advertisements. 

One of the last decent free services online was now monetized.

Pandora, Spotify, Grooveshark, Songza, and now Soundcloud

Premier-tiered content will include advertising - Red Bull, Jaguar, Sonos, Squarespace and Comedy Central are the first five ad partners at launch. Dan Gerber, SoundCloud’s head of sales (and a veteran of Pandora), notes that audio ads will be similar to YouTube, running at a minimum of 15 seconds, with 30-second ads offering the option to opt out after the first 15 seconds.

In an hour of streaming music, I encountered the same Squarespace ad, twice. Besides utterly disappointed, I am at a lack of words. The new rumor going around is that they [Soundcloud] are about to instill a new paid subscription program, so not only will I have to deal with ads, but I will get sucked into paying for them as well.

Alan Henry of Lifehacker put together a nice list of some great (free) alternatives to Soundcloud that can be found here. 

What do you think the impact of advertisements will be? Feel free to voice your opinions and let me know. Happy listening!

Illinois Bans EDM in Bloomington

In yet another case of governmental ignorance, the state of Illinois placed a ban on Electronic Dance Music events in the city of Bloomington earlier this week. This was apparently in an attempt to fight the growing popularity of this genre of music that is sweeping the entire globe. The ban was set into place just before well known DJ/Producer Bassnectar was scheduled to preform for the 4th consecutive year in the city. According to Bassnectar, who is up in arms about the ban, Bloomington was one of his favorite venues to preform at. In an effort to make it up to his local fans, he is organizing an event on Halloween in nearby Peoria.

As an avid listener of many sub-genres of EDM and someone who planned on attending the show, I am outraged. Mainstream media has made a huge effort to falsely stereotype the listeners of new-age-dance-music. The state of Illinois is afraid of being looked down upon as a state that condones drug use due to several recent deaths at EDM headlined events. What people fail to realize is that there have only been more arrests at these concerts because of the much heightened security. I would be hard-pressed if somebody had evidence that showed there is less drug use at non-edm festivals and events. There are no more deaths at these events then there were during the grunge/metal concerts in the 90's. 

Illinois is not the first state to take action on somewhat illegitimate grounds; Florida, California, and New York are just a few other states to crack down on the 'raves'. It is important to know that the ban does not affect privately owned venues and theaters.