Amidst all of the pressure from other major streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and TIDAL, Soundcloud has found itself struggling to keep up as it attempts to resolve its ability to monetize the content on its platform without alienating its users. On Tuesday, the service announced a move to cap the number of plays on a third party site like a blog using a Soundcloud customized API. The cap is at 15,000 plays over 24 hours per streamable item, which may sound like a lot, but for a select few number of sites that are able to drive a lot of traffic, this could be pretty devastating.
The move, according to the Berlin-based streaming and discovery platform, is because they are "dealing with an increasing number of applications that abuse creator content." To simplify that, some people are gaming the system and editing their API code to autoplay, increasing plays.
However, there is another more important reason. Soundcloud has not been able to serve ads through API streams, so it needs to bring people to the site. This would be a move to increase ad sales and help monetize the service, which it has been desperately trying to do as it negotiates label deals with Universal and Sony.
Certain websites that have integrated Soundcloud API in their interface like HypeM and 8tracks would be in line to be hit the hardest. However, it seems unlikely that they wouldn't be able to gain additional access. In the statement, it looks to open the possibility for developers to get "additional access." That additional access would probably come at a price, though for some who have already made their bed with Soundcloud, it would be worth it almost no matter what the price is.
