Mixcloud – one of the few places where it is legal for DJs to upload their own DJ mixes, and even monetise them – has now added the ability for DJs to upload their own tracks to the platform. This makes Mixcloud the only platform where creators can upload their own tracks alongside full shows/mixes, and also legally livestream copyrighted material.
Nico Perez, Mixcloud’s CEO, posted a video where he outlined the thinking behind this move, stating that Mixcloud wants to help with creation as well as curation, and be somewhere DJs and musicians can do that all in one place.
It’s a bold move, because of course Soundcloud is the go-to place for this and is firmly established as the leader. What’s more, it is not officially possible to share mashups, bootlegs and re-edits on the platform, which is a shame, as that could have turned out to be Mixcloud’s niche here.
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First Thoughts
We feel the feature’s success or otherwise will come down to ease of use and unique features, plus Mixcloud’s ability to leverage the fact that it has some talented curators on its platform who may be exposed to music uploaded by creators in a way not possible on SoundCloud.
Of course, whether people take to it or not will also depend upon whether the feature can gain enough traction that creators feel they’re getting something out of uploading to Mixcloud as well as SoundCloud (let’s face it, few people are likely to only use Mixcloud for this, at this stage).
Mixcloud Tracks is currently in beta, but is available now to Mixcloud subscribers to test and feed back on immediately. Uploading tracks is open to all users: on the basic tier users can upload up to three tracks to their channel, while Pro subscribers have unlimited uploads.
Phil Morse
