Mixcloud

Mixcloud
Type Private
Founded London, England, United Kingdom (2008)
Headquarters London, England, United Kingdom
Area served Worldwide
Founder(s) Nikhil Shah
Nico Perez
Mat Clayton
Sam Cooke
Alexa rank 4568 (October 2015) [1]
Type of site Audio Streaming
Registration Required (to upload)
Launched 2008
Current status Active

Mixcloud is a British online music streaming service that allows for the listening and distribution of radio shows, DJ mixes and podcasts, which are crowdsourced by its registered users.[2] Its notable users include Wired, Harvard Business School, TED Talks, and Barack Obama.[3] Mixcloud was originally funded by its founders only and continues to be owned solely by its team.

History

Mixcloud was founded as a startup company through the lean startup process in 2008 by Nikhil Shah and Nico Perez, who met at the University of Cambridge.[4] Developers Mat Clayton and Sam Cooke were added to the team in its early stages.[4] As of 2012, Mixcloud was reported to have over 3 million active users[5] and over 500 thousand registered Facebook application users.

Features

Mixcloud allows all users to browse and stream audio content uploaded on its site. Registered users can upload content such as radio shows, DJ mixes, and podcasts, as well as promote and distribute their content through Mixcloud's own social networking widget. As of November 2011, Mixcloud lifted its 100Mb limit on uploaded content and allows uploads of unrestricted size. Registered members may join a Group, a collection of other users who share a common interest, which will periodically update the user when new content related to the Group is available.

Mixcloud also provides an API which users can search, upload, and embed its content.

Users may also share podcasts and mixes via Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Mobile apps are available for both Android and iOS.[6]

Legality

Mixcloud restricts its users from downloading audio content from its website for licensing reasons. Co-founder Nikhil Shah commented on this restriction:

“Not offering downloads has been a challenge for us in terms of persuading the content creators to use a platform like ours.”[7]

He also compared Mixcloud to the model of its competitor Spotify:

"So it's very similar to the Spotify model. Spotify's competitor is illegal downloading and they are trying to cannibalise illegal downloading by offering a streaming-only and superior alternative."[7]

According to the Mixcloud's main website, the platform is licensed only to provide its audio content through streaming, such that royalties are attributed to their respective artists.

Mixcloud also requires its users to attribute their audio uploads with correct Artist and Song metadata in order to preserve intellectual property rights.[8]

See also

General

Similar services

References

  1. ↑ "Mixcloud.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2013-11-19.
  2. ↑ Darren Waters (15 March 2009). "Four pioneering web innovations". BBC News.
  3. ↑ "Mixcloud - Making audio content social". Salesforce.com.
  4. 1 2 Basheera Khan (18 September 2009). "Exclusive: Mixcloud launches the 'Youtube of radio' on Monday". TechCrunch.
  5. ↑ "The Thinking Digital Interviews: Mat Clayton, Mixcloud". The Thinking Digital. 18 May 2012.
  6. ↑ "Mixcloud brings its 'YouTube-for-radio' to iPhone". TechCrunch. 1 June 2011.
  7. 1 2 "Mixcloud founder claims service can be a piracy beater". MusicWeek. 2 July 2011.
  8. ↑ "British entrepreneurs mix up online radio". Wired. 8 October 2009.
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