Soundcloud Vs Mixcloud

Are you a DJ, musician, or a producer? If you are, you’ll know it’s important to share your tracks, mashups and DJ mixtapes.

It’s a critical part of music promotion and marketing.

If you don’t put your music out there, who will hear it?

And these days it’s hard to build a fanbase if your music isn’t online.

If you’re a musician, a music producer, or a DJ, you should consider:

1. What are the best websites for uploading and sharing your music/tracks/DJ mixes?
2. Do any of these music hosting sites have restrictions?
3. Are some music distribution sites better suited for DJ mixes or single tracks?

In this guide, we’ll be taking a detailed look at the two biggest music distribution platforms – Soundcloud and Mixcloud. And we’ll be answering all the above questions and many more.

By the end of this guide, you’ll have a better idea of the best music hosting platform for your music.

Onward…

Who uses Soundcloud and Mixcloud?

Soundcloud and Mixcloud are the two giants of the music hosting industry for DJ’s, producers and indie musicians. Although Spotify eclipses both sites in terms of users, that site serves a different purpose.

SoundCloud serves indie musicians, DJs, podcasters, radio shows and music producers. And Soundcloud’s typical audience enjoys music which lies outside the mainstream. This sets it apart from Spotify.

Mixcloud is more popular with DJ’s and mixtape consumers. It provides a service for people to share and listen to DJ mixes. It’s a popular site for those looking to host and share radio shows and podcasts too.

Let’s now look at some facts and data about these two companies.

A note about the accuracy of the financial data used in this guide

First up, I’d like to mention something about the data sources I’ve used in this guide. Because they’re not perfect.

It’s difficult finding new financial information about Mixcloud and Soundcloud. Most of the financial data I could find was from 2018 (and I’m writing this article in January 2020). So, the financial numbers I’ve mentioned in this article should be considered as a little old.

I tried to find information from 2019 but couldn’t find anything anywhere.

A note about traffic statistics

In this guide, I’ve used traffic statistics, estimated users, and other metrics from third-party data sources. So, we should view these figures as rough numbers. I am aware of the inaccuracy of data sources from third-party websites.

Please be aware; the only people who know the true audience figures, visitor numbers and traffic stats mentioned are Mixcloud and Soundcloud themselves. So please take some statistics I refer to here with some scepticism.

The figures I quote ought to be viewed as pointing towards a trend and shouldn’t be considered as 100% accurate.

Anyway, on with the analysis…

Soundcloud

SoundCloud wasn’t the first popular music streaming platform used by DJs and musicians. That crown belonged to Myspace.

SoundCloud was established in 2007 in Berlin, Europe. But it wasn’t until around 2008 – 2009 when the Berlin start-up became popular.

Back then, most DJ’s and musicians were still using Myspace for sharing their music. But Myspace was in decline. Facebook was nipping at their heels and stealing its users. And DJs, producers, and musicians were becoming disillusioned with the platform – and were leaving it in droves.

Most artists exiting Myspace headed to Soundcloud. After all, Soundcloud was easy to use, looked good, and had better features.

At first, Soundcloud expanded fast – by 2012 the website had 15 million registered users. Much of this growth came at the expense of Myspace’s demise. It’s safe to say, it replaced Myspace as the default music hosting site for musicians and DJ’s.

But as it grew so did its problems.

The problem with Soundcloud

Since its inception, Soundcloud’s main problems have been profitability, dealing with the major labels and tackling piracy.

During 2014 the streaming site lost over $44.19 million on revenues of just over $19.00 million.

Added to these woes was the trouble caused by the major record labels. As Soundcloud grew, they came under the watchful eye of the labels. The labels wanted their cut. They wanted royalties if any of their tracks were used or played on the site.

Also, the major record labels wanted Soundcloud regulating too. Because many users were uploading and sharing copyrighted material. The labels accused Soundcloud of ignoring this abuse, and condemned the site for actively promoting piracy.

To deal with the piracy problem, Soundcloud adopted an automatic anti-piracy algorithm. Although the algorithm worked in respect, many users complained that it falsely removed legitimate tracks.

The new anti-piracy algorithm badly affected DJ mixes. Many DJ mixes were taken down because they used copyrighted tracks. But the tracks used in a DJ mix aren’t complete tracks. And you cannot download any single tracks from a DJ mix. It’s this ambiguity which has always made DJ mixes a tricky problem for the major labels.

Most major record labels view DJ mixes as radio shows. And with radio shows, labels got paid every time they played one of their tracks. In their view, DJ mixes uploaded to Soundcloud were the same. And the labels wanted their money if any of their tracks were used.

Since Soundcloud’s started, many users have complained it’s been difficult to appeal the takedown process. And it’s always been hard to have false takedown notices removed – if it ever happened at all. As a result, many Soundcloud users have become dissatisfied with the platform and its inconsistent approach to piracy.

In 2017, Soundcloud couldn’t raise any funding from outside investors, and the company was almost sold. It needed to support itself. In that same year, it had to lay off staff to become profitable. And, in Aug 2017, it secured funding, however, its original CEO was replaced.

But, since 2017, Soundcloud appears to have improved things. Their latest financial reports show they’re profitable again, and the platform is growing.

In 2019, the company bought the artist distribution platform Repost Network.

Soundcloud statistics

As I mentioned previously, it’s hard to get exact and accurate statistics about Soundcloud. Especially recent statistics from 2019.

But here’s some Soundcloud stats:

• According to Wikipedia, the site had 76 million registered users in March 2019.
• Soundcloud had just under 75 million unique monthly listeners in March 2019.
• According to Soundcloud’s own blog, there are about 1.2 million content creators on their platform.
• It’s reported that only 30% of their audience comes from Europe. While approximately 70% of their audience is from the USA.
• Their Alexa website rank has declined slightly over 2019. At the beginning of 2019 they were ranked 92, in December 2019 it ranked them at 96.
• SimilarWeb reports that in July 2019 Soundcloud had 188 million visits. By the end of 2019, their visits had dropped to around 170 million.
• According to SimilarWeb, the average Soundcloud visitor spends 5 minutes and 48 seconds on the site, and they visit around five pages.
• According to Google Trends, interest in Soundcloud has dropped by approximately 25% over the last five years (from 2015 to 2019).

What sound quality does Soundcloud use?

Free Soundcloud users are restricted to a streaming rate of 64kbs Opus Audio.

Opus audio is a lossy compression codec. Opus Audio is regarded as sounding as good as MP3s which are encoded at twice the Opus bitrate. So 64kbs Opus is meant to sound as good as 128kbs MP3.

Previously, Soundcloud used to stream tracks at 128kbs MP3. The main reason the site will have switched to 64kbs Opus is to save on bandwidth costs.

The switch from 128kbs MP3 to 64kbs Opus didn’t go unnoticed. When this change occurred, many users asked why Soundcloud didn’t start streaming 128kbs Opus (which would have been the equivalent to 256kbs MP3).

It would have been easy for Soundcloud to allow free users to stream at 128kbs Opus. But I don’t think they wanted to do this.

I think a big reason they didn’t offer the higher bitrate was to help their premium subscription service.

What Sound Quality does Soundcloud Go use?

Soundcloud Go (the paid-for subscription service) allows users to stream in high-quality audio. Also, users have the option to download DJ mixes and tracks (however, downloads must be enabled by the content producer).

Soundcloud Go users can stream music encoded at 256kbs AAC (equivalent to an MP3 encoded at 320kbs).

So, even if you’re not a SoundCloud Pro user (Pro is the premium content package for producers), it’s still worth uploading your files in a lossless file format. Free Soundcloud listeners won’t benefit much if you upload lossless files, but Soundcloud Go users will.

Uploading lossless files means any Soundcloud Go users will have a better experience – it’ll help your tracks to sound better after Soundcloud has converted them.

Soundcloud mobile app

One way of viewing the popularity of a platform is to look at its mobile app statistics. Especially the number of installations an app has. After all, most people these days consume music via their phones. It’s only audiophiles and weirdos (like me) who still listen to their music via a big HI-FI. So, the number of installs can be a rough guide on an applications popularity.

Anyway…

At the time of writing this article, the Soundcloud app on Google Play has the following stats:

• 100000000+ installs.
• The app still has frequent updates. At the time of writing this article, the developers updated the app a few days ago.
• Recent reviews of the Soundcloud app seem mixed, but overall the app seems usable.
• The free version of the app is paid with advert insertion. However, many users say the advert insertion is tolerable when compared with the free version of Spotify.

Overall, the app seems okay. But if you’re considering a Soundcloud Go subscription I’d read the reviews in the various app stores first.

At present, some users are complaining about certain tracks/labels not being available in some countries.

Another user complaint: tracks in saved playlists can disappear for no reason.

Reading some app reviews, I think this is more of a problem for listeners outside the USA.

To conclude, the Soundcloud app is a great way to discover new music and new artists. But the app isn’t the easiest way to administer your Soundcloud account. That work is best done on a PC or laptop. Especially tasks like changing your Soundcloud artwork.

What features do I get with Soundcloud free & premium?

SoundCloud has two premium products: Soundcloud Go and Soundcloud Pro Unlimited.

Soundcloud Go is for music consumers. SoundCloud Pro Unlimited is for content producers.

Some features of SoundCloud Pro are:

• Unlimited upload time. With the free account, you’re restricted to 3 hours of upload time.
• The ability to allow users to stream and download high-quality versions of your music.
• You can schedule releases.
• And you get full statistics about your tracks and how they’ve performed.

There are a few other features, but these are the ones worth mentioning if you’re a producer or DJ.

There is a second-tier premium account for content producers called SoundCloud Premier. But you need to apply for this tier – not everyone is eligible.

With SoundCloud Premier you can:

1. Monetise tracks.
2. Promote your tracks within Soundcloud.
3. And distribute your tracks to Soundcloud partners (like Beatport).

SoundCloud Pro users can access Soundcloud Go for an extra $4.99 a month instead of the usual $9.99 a month.

Using Soundcloud Go with Serato or Traktor

Soundcloud Go can be a good investment for DJ’s who use Serato and Traktor.

Serato already allows DJs to use Soundcloud tracks for DJ’ing.

However, Soundcloud Go support is still in its infancy for Traktor (currently it’s only available with Traktor DJ, an app-based version of Traktor). At the time of writing this guide, Soundcloud Go integration isn’t supported in Traktor Pro 3 (which is a real shame).

Soundcloud conclusion

SoundCloud, during the previous decade, had some troubled years. But they seem to have turned things around.

Soundcloud’s revenue is growing, the company is hiring staff, and they’re buying other businesses. These last points show a company on the mend.

But they still have their problems.

Many DJs and content producers complain about the randomness of takedown notices. Even today, you don’t have to search hard to find legitimate producers who’ve been squashed by the ban hammer.

And just the other year, a rogue user was reporting legit Soundcloud tracks as pirated. The bad guy was also trying to extort track owners too.

Now, it’s always been hard to get takedown notices removed on Soundcloud. Also, Soundcloud’s support is famous for being non-existent. And the perpetrator making all these false claims knew this. The lack of support allowed the offender to make many attacks before they were noticed.

One major complaint about Soundcloud is their support – it’s limited. This makes problems like a false takedown notice difficult to deal with. And many users hate Soundcloud for this reason.

But Soundcloud does some things well…

The best thing about Soundcloud is their audience size – it’s massive and it’s mixed.

SoundCloud has many more listeners than producers. And if you’re a DJ, producer, or musician, this is the balance you want. Unfortunately, as will see in the next section, this is a major problem with Mixcloud (and other music hosting services).

The only sites which beat Soundcloud in terms of users are Spotify and YouTube. But Spotify’s main audience is the general public.

In contrast, I think most Soundcloud listeners, enjoy music which lies outside the mainstream and the big-name artists and producers.

And, as for YouTube, any experienced DJ will tell you that uploading DJ mixes to the video site is an inconsistent experience. It’s not if your DJ mix will get banned, but when. Personally, I’ve never been able to upload any of my house mixes or my old school rap mixtapes to YouTube – they get banned in all but the most obscure countries.

If you’re uploading your own music tracks, you’d be a fool not to upload to YouTube. If you own the tracks you’re uploading you shouldn’t run into trouble. Nothing beats YouTube at present for audience size. Just make sure you place links on your tracks’ video page. The links should tell people where they can buy your track and where they can find more info about you. Also, your links should send them to your DJ’ing website (if you have one) or at the very least send them to a mailing list.

Anyway, back to Soundcloud…

Are the premium versions of Soundcloud worth it? The answer is yes and no. As I mentioned previously, Soundcloud’s audience is massive. And Soundcloud listeners tend to enjoy less mainstream music.

The major problem for Soundcloud content producers is: does my music run the risk of being flagged as copyrighted or inappropriate.

If you’re making DJ mixes and using newer tracks from small/unknown record labels, your DJ mix has a smaller chance of being taken down. However, this isn’t definite. SoundCloud’s anti-piracy algorithm is known to be unpredictable. Roughly speaking, there’s less risk of a DJ mix takedown if your track selection is obscure or you mix non-commercial music.

However, expect a higher chance of problems if you’re:

1. Making DJ mashups.
2. Mixing tracks that major labels own.
3. Using old tracks (a major record label might own).
4. Mixing with mainstream or pop music tracks.

To conclude, Soundcloud is worthwhile depending on the music you’re uploading. You must analyse your DJ mixes and music and look for possible problems. If your uploads are problematic it might be worth concentrating your efforts elsewhere.

If you’re unsure of how takedown prone your music is, just test it. The free Soundcloud account allows a generous six hours of storage space. So, in theory, you could upload six one-hour mixes, and observe how they perform on the platform. If they don’t get taken down, you can carry on uploading. But just remember, always have your tracks available in another place – as a backup.

I’d like to say, and it’s a point I repeat all the time.

When promoting tracks, your music and DJ mixes  – don’t rely on just a single service or platform.

Websites like Soundcloud & Mixcloud are great but you do not own the platform. They own you and everything you upload to it.

If they go bust (like Myspace did) you will lose everything.

Not only will you lose your music, but you’ll lose your fans and the time you put into the platform.

Use websites like Soundcloud to get people onto a platform you own and control. Ideally, this should be your own website, or at the very least an email mailing list. Doing this hedges your bets in the event of any trouble.

Lastly, Mixcloud did the one thing Soundcloud was bad at. Namely, providing a DJ mix hosting service where track owners got paid (and this meant the record labels got paid too – making them happy).

This is a major reason Mixcloud doesn’t have the same piracy problem Soundcloud has. So, if you’re having problems with your DJ mixes on Soundcloud, it might be worth considering moving them to Mixcloud.

Mixcloud

Mixcloud was founded in 2008. Between 2008 and 2012 they reported they had over 3 million active users.

Mixcloud styles itself as being the YouTube of radio. Its primary focus is to help DJs, radio shows, and podcast producers distribute their content and find an audience.

Mixcloud got one major thing right which Soundcloud failed to. Chiefly, the legitimate monetisation of DJ mixes. This ensured that the labels, track owners, and rights holders were paid when their tracks were used. This last point is the reason why Mixcloud is strict about tracks being correctly labelled and track marked.

Mixcloud statistics

As with Soundcloud statistics, it’s hard finding accurate and up-to-date statistics about Mixcloud. But I’ve tried.

Mixcloud facts and statistics:

• In 2018 they announced it that there were 1 million audio creators on Mixcloud.
• In 2018 they announced that over 12 million DJ sets to have been uploaded to Mixcloud.
• Mixcloud has as an Alexa rank of around 3400 at the time of writing (January 2019).
• Mixcloud has 11.69 million visits per month.
• According to SimilarWeb, Mixcloud’s monthly web traffic has decreased from 15 million in June 2019 to 11.6 million in January 2019.
• It’s estimated that over a thousand hours of music are uploaded per day.
• Mixcloud revenue in 2018 was $2.4 million.
• The site has raised $11.5 million of funding in 2018.
• Mixcloud’s overall revenue grew between 2017 and 2018. In 2017 it was $1.7 million and in 2018 it grew to $2.4 million.
• According to Google trends, over the previous five years, interest Mixcloud has stayed about the same and been stable. But since August 2019 there’s been a slight decrease in interest in the website.

What sound quality does Mixcloud use?

I couldn’t find any facts regarding Mixcloud’s audio playback quality, only rumours.

Many think Mixcloud streams at 128kbs MP3. Please note, I have no way of proving this.

As with any music hosting site, your sound quality on Mixcloud is only as good as your source material. So, when uploading, try to ensure you upload your DJ mixes in as high resolution as possible.

Remember, Mixcloud allows you to upload newer file formats, not just MP3s. You can upload AAC or OGG Vorbis files. Both AAC and or OGG are more modern file formats which offer a slight improvement in sound over MP3.

Mixcloud mobile app statistics

Here are some statistics about the Mixcloud app (on Google Play):

• The Mixcloud app has 5 million+ installs
• It was last updated on November 13, 2019 (I’m writing this article in January 2020 so things might have changed)

Sadly, recent reviews of the app appear to be mostly negative.

Many users complain that the free version of the Mixcloud mobile app seems limited and buggy. And, it seems, Mixcloud is trying to push many free users on to their paid plans.

But it’s doubtful people will pay for Mixcloud premium if their mobile app is bad to use.

In contrast, Soundcloud’s mobile app has more favourable reviews and seems more reliable.

 What’s the difference between Mixcloud free and premium?

Free Mixcloud listeners are restricted to:

• You can only skip the music player forwards and not backwards.
• Mixcloud inserts ads.
• You can listen to any single show a maximum of three times within 14 days.
• You can only see a tracklist as you listen to a mix or a show. Tracklists cannot be viewed upfront and before you play a mix or show.

Premium Mixcloud listeners get:

• You can skip the music player both forwards and backwards.
• You can play any mix or show an unlimited amount of times.
• No adverts.
• You can view tracklists before you play a show.

For content producers, the free version of Mixcloud allows you to:

• You can upload an unlimited amount of shows.
• You can have unlimited listeners and followers.
• You cannot upload DJ mixes which contain three or more tracks by the same artist (if you are a producer whose mixing their own records this might be a problem).
• Individual/single tracks aren’t allowed.
• You cannot upload private mixes/shows. All your shows are public-facing.

Mixcloud has a premium version for content producers called: Go Pro with Mixcloud. You get the following features and tools with this premium package:

• Full statistics on your shows and mixes.
• The option of monetising your content with Mixcloud Select (Mixcloud Select is a crowdfunding system which works like Patreon).
• You can measure listener engagement.
• You can schedule releases.
• You can disable commenting.
• You can highlight your radio shows and mixes.
• You can customise your profile.
• You can hide play counts.
• You can make shows private or exclusive.

Any free or premium Mixcloud user has the option to boost their mixes or shows. The cost of boosting a show varies between $6.99 and $200 per show. The more you pay the longer your show stays boosted. I have no idea how effective Mixcloud Boost advertising is – it’s hard to find any accurate tests of this service. But we must weigh any costs and benefits of Mixcloud ads against other advertising types – like Facebook or Google ads.

Lastly, you cannot legitimately download music files from Mixcloud with any account. I think they have agreements with the records labels which stop people doing this.

You can download shows, via the mobile app, for offline listening. But you won’t be able to transfer these shows to another media player or device. And, at present, many complain that the offline performance of the Mixcloud app is unreliable.

Mixcloud conclusion

Mixcloud does one thing and it does it very well. Above all, it gives DJs, radio shows and podcasters a free place to host their music and build an audience.

Mixcloud’s music player isn’t as fancy as Soundcloud’s (where users can leave comments at specific track locations). But both players are embeddable and can be added to websites.

Another major advantage for Mixcloud is that it doesn’t have the anti-piracy problem which plagues Soundcloud users. I don’t know any DJ’s who’ve had their mixes removed without warning.

However, Mixcloud has one major problem: its audience. And I’m guessing much of their audience is content producers, not content consumers. Here are some rough statistics to back this up:

• The most recent stats say that Soundcloud has 76 million registered users and only 1.7 million content producers. Soundcloud content producers are less than 2% of its audience.
• In 2018 Mixcloud announced that it has one million content producers.
• At the time of writing this article, the Mixcloud mobile app has around 5 million installs.
• The Soundcloud app has over 100 million installs.
• As you can see the Soundcloud figures dwarf Mixcloud’s.

If we use Mixcloud’s 5-million mobile app installs as a way of estimating they’re registered users. And one million of these app installs are content producers, this would mean that 20% of their users are content producers. Obviously, this is a very rough way to calculate Mixcloud’s registered user base. But it shows a bigger proportion of Mixcloud’s user base is making content and not consuming it – compared with Soundcloud.

Personally, you can test this yourself. Go to your Mixcloud profile and have a look at your followers. If like me, you have a modest following on Mixcloud, you will find that 20%-40% of your followers are other DJ’s.

This means, that most DJ’s will find it difficult to build up an audience and to gain traction on Mixcloud. Just have a search on some DJ forums and you’ll find many DJ’s complaining of this problem.

Keeping the above audience figures in mind, if I were a talk radio producer or podcaster, I would host my content on Soundcloud. As it would stand a better chance of finding an audience.

Also, if you’re a music producer wanting to upload single tracks, Mixcloud is useless. Mixcloud won’t allow you to upload singles. And, with the free version of Mixcloud, you cannot even upload mixes which contain three tracks by the same producer.

Are the premium Mixcloud services worth it? Well, it’s hard to say. There’s not a massive price difference between the premium versions of Mixcloud and Soundcloud. And you just cannot beat the size of Soundcloud’s audience. Also, Soundcloud has improved in recent years.

Recently, in contrast, Mixcloud seems dogged by indecisions. They constantly seem to make changes and then remove them. And, at present, their mobile app isn’t receiving favourable reviews.

Soundcloud vs Mixcloud takeaways

As the years roll on, it’s getting harder for music hosting services like Soundcloud or Mixcloud to build an audience. These days there’s much more competition than there was in the late 2000s.

When it started, Soundcloud was lucky.

During the late 2000s, Myspace was failing, and its users were leaving in droves. In part, Soundcloud gained its initial user base because Myspace was being badly managed.

If Myspace had gotten its act together, I think the music hosting industry would be very different now. And I don’t think Soundcloud would be as big as it is.

But today the situation is different. There’s far more competition – both large and small.

For hosting DJ mixes, you now have sites like HereThis.at, Audius and AudioMack.com – all providing free services.

These sites might be small, but each can steal potential users and audiences from Mixcloud and Soundcloud. And it makes the stakes higher for Soundcloud and Mixcloud too.

If Mixcloud and Soundcloud add unwanted changes, it’s easy for users to find an alternative service.

If you want evidence of audiences leaving Soundcloud, just look at what happened to the mashup scene.

At first, Soundcloud ignored the problems of the mashup genre. Namely, the remixing of two or more commercial tracks without the right holders’ consent. But once Soundcloud rolled out their anti-piracy algorithm, it hit the mashup scene hard. Soundcloud couldn’t handle that scenes peculiarities.

Many mashup makers wouldn’t upload their tracks to Soundcloud because of the high chances of their music being flagged as pirated – and subsequently removed. So, many mashup makers ditched Soundcloud and switched to alternatives.

Anyway, back to the Mixcloud vs Soundcloud conclusion…

There are now more audio streaming services than ever. You have the small music hosting sites like HereThis.at, and AudioMack.com.

And Mixcloud and Soundcloud now have large competitors, like Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes, and Tidal. The music streaming market has never been so competitive.

Just the other month, Spotify announced it would now provide podcasts. Thus, competing with Soundcloud in yet another area.

All these developments make it an interesting time in the music streaming and hosting industry. And it’ll be curious to see how these developments pan out. And what changes there are in the future.

Thanks for reading this. If you’d like to add anything or if you have a personal experience/problem with a platform mentioned, just add a comment below.

Keep on Scratchin’

DJ Kippax

FREE DOWNLOAD • OLD SKOOL 1990–95

Before you go… want my entire DJ mix pack?

If you enjoyed this article, you’ll love this: 20+ scratch-heavy mixes (most 75 mins+), MP3 + FLAC, all in one 6.2GB zip.

You’ll get:

✅ Instant download (one big zip)
✅ All current mixes + future ones
✅ Proper scratching over real oldskool tunes
✅ HD video mixes coming soon (great on TVs/projectors)

“Your scratching is unreal mate… never heard something so skillful over house music.” – Rob

Yes — send me the free mix pack

No spam. No selling. Just occasional emails when I drop new mixes.