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The easy, ad-free experience of listening to Soundcloud embeds on other proprietary websites, online magazines, record label sites, artists' pages and blogs (including Okayplayer and its affiliated sites) is about to change in a very real way.
According to a press release distributed today by the company's Senior Manager Dean Hudson, Soundcloud will limit the number of times each individual track can be played via an outside site. After the 15,000 limit has been released (a number that is frequently eclipsed in far less than a day by notable tracks such as Thundercat's latest single), would-be listeners will need to navigate to Soundcloud's own website in order to hear their song of choice.
From the press release:
At SoundCloud, we’re building an ecosystem where creativity thrives. Developers are an important part of that ecosystem. We’re continually inspired by how you use the SoundCloud API to support creators and listeners in innovative ways.But as the ecosystem has grown, we’re dealing with an increasing number of applications that abuse creator content. To help us limit this type of behaviour, we're introducing a daily rate limit on API play requests.
The 15,000/day limit will go into effect July 1st, 2015. The move appears to be a clear push to drive more listeners to Soundcloud's own site, which will feature more and more auto-play advertisements in the near future. The news appears, at first glance, to be a massive blow to music news blogs that rely on the music hosting giant for crucial content embeds, and a possible boon for Soundcloud--the best of nothing but bad options as it searches for a means by which to turn its massively popular interface, deep cache of music and trusted brand image into a profitable enterprise. Read the full press release here.
