SoundCloud, one of the largest audio distribution platforms and music-sharing websites allows its users to promote, share, and upload audio. It also provides DSP, which enables its users to stream audio online.
SoundCloud has become one of the largest online audio streaming services, with more than 175 million monthly active users across the globe.
The British online streaming giant MixCloud permits the listening and distribution of radio shows, podcasts and DJ mixes which the users of MixCloud upload.
Key Takeaways
- Soundcloud is focused on the independent music scene, while Mixcloud offers DJ mixes, radio shows, and podcasts.
- Soundcloud has a free version with unlimited listening, while Mixcloud’s free version limits the number of track skips and mixes that can be played.
- Soundcloud offers a commenting system for feedback, while Mixcloud allows users to bookmark specific parts of a mix and offers a section for tracklists.
SoundCloud vs Mixcloud
SoundCloud is primarily focused on sharing and discovering music via a social network. Mixcloud is an online music streaming platform focused on DJ mixes, radio shows, and podcasts; it allows users to legally upload and listen to long-form audio content and offers personalized recommendations and social features.
MixCloud’s users can upload and promote their content from MixCloud’s social networking widget. MixCloud has an API in which users can upload and search content.
SoundCloud is for artists who want to release their songs and masses of people to listen to them and rate them, while MixCloud is for DJs who wanna share pop music.
Comparison Table
| Parameter of Comparison | SoundCloud | Mixcloud |
|---|---|---|
| Uploads | SoundCloud allows you to post anything free of copyright and has limited upload time for free users. | Mixcloud permits the uploading of talks, music shows and podcasts and restricts singles, full tracks and mashups. |
| Listening | SoundCloud is more like a personal music player, allowing us to repost, share, and like tracks. | Mixcloud is more like an easy-to-use radio but less interactive, like no fast forwarding is permitted. |
| Copyright | SoundCloud has signings with major music labels like Sony, Warner Music, etc. Because of this, SoundCloud is strict on copyrights, which they down DJ mixes | Mixcloud is not much strict on copyrights as SoundCloud |
| Downloading | SoundCloud has easy downloads. Free users are given 100 downloads | MixCloud doesn’t permit downloading. You can download tracks if they are hosted off the site or by several online tools |
| User base | SoundCloud has a vast and much diverse user base. It has over 175 million monthly active users. | MixCloud’s user base is smaller and less diverse than SoundCloud’s. It has only 10 million active users per month. |
| Analytics | Users can track the number of plays, likes, comments, reposts and downloads. Users can also see from where they are being listened to. | Free users are not offered any analytics. Upgrading gives access to all analytics offered in SoundCloud |
What is SoundCloud?
One of the world’s largest audio distribution platforms and music-sharing websites, SoundCloud allows us to upload, promote, and share audio, including DSP enabling us to listen to audio online.
SoundCloud has different memberships for free and paid on desktop and mobile devices platforms.
SoundCloud allows us to post singles, playlists, albums and mashups. Everything without copyright is allowed to be posted on this platform.
The whole music industry has been influenced by the success of artists through SoundCloud.
There has been support from many investors and media platforms like Twitter financially. Still, the company has unsolved most funding issues and has dismissed many employees to remain profitable.
One of SoundCloud’s key features includes the ability to access uploaded files via unique URLs, therefore allowing sound files to be put into Facebook and Twitter posts which is a big reason for the popularity of SoundCloud.
What is MixCloud?
MixCloud is a music streaming service giant that distributes radio shows, DJ mixes and podcasts.
It is a startup by 4 students of Cambridge University in the year 2008
Mixcloud offers both free and paid services having different perks for the desktop and mobile platform
MixCloud allows users to upload DJ mixes, podcasts and radio shows.
MixCloud is a very good platform for DJs to share pop music because there is less copyright strictness, and also easy to post on social media platforms.
Mixcloud was a startup company in 2008 by Nikhil Shah and Nico Perez, who met at the University of Cambridge.
In 2012, MixCloud had 3 million active monthly users, over 500k Facebook registered users, and almost 10 million active monthly users.
In the year 2017, MixCloud signed a licensing agreement with Warner Music.
Main Differences Between SoundCloud and MixCloud
- SoundCloud is for artists who release their original content, like singles and mashups and want a large audience base to listen to them, while MixCloud is made for DJs and radio presenters in place of artists.
- On SoundCloud, one can upload singles, playlists, albums and mashups. All music without copyright is good to go on SoundCloud, while Mixcloud allows the upload of mixes, talk shows and podcasts and restricts singles, full tracks and mashups.
- MixCloud is not very interactive when listening; for example, you can’t fast-forward a track to your favourite part. SoundCloud is much more interactive and allows control of tracks like a personal music player, and also it allows reposting, sharing and leaving timed comments.
- At SoundCloud, it’s very easy to download tracks, and free users get 100 downloads each month, while MixCloud doesn’t permit downloading of tracks.
- SoundCloud has great analytics. Even for free users and for paid users, more advanced options are available. While Mixcloud doesn’t offer any analytics to free users, for paid users, they give access to an analytics dashboard
- SoundCloud, in terms of the user base, is very large, with over 175 million users each month, while Mixcloud, in comparison, is smaller, with only 10 million users per month
- Almost 12 hours of content is uploaded on SoundCloud, while on MixCloud, 4 hours of audio content is uploaded every minute.
- https://eprints.qut.edu.au/121660
- https://digital-library.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/et.2012.0515
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I don’t have a preference between the two platforms, but I appreciate the breakdown of their differences and offerings.
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SoundCloud is clearly geared towards independent music creators, while Mixcloud is more focused on DJ mixes and radio shows. It’s essential for users to understand these distinctions.
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