Soundcloud quickly responded to talk that the music streaming site was going bankrupt, saying that they were fully funded through Q4. The response was not reassuring enough to users and someone on Reddit has taken the time to download all 900TB of music on the streaming service.
Amidst news of the company’s layoffs and financial struggles, it was hard to remain optimistic about the future of Soundcloud and some users started saving their favorite music. Thanks to one Reddit user, there is no fear that your favorite track will disappear with Soundcloud – just in case they don’t pull through the hard times.
“It’s only 900TB. I downloaded it all in a weekend, 80Gb/s,” said Reddit user makemakemakemake. There were doubts that the large amount of data could be downloaded so quickly and the thread filled with questions about the user’s connection and requests for proof. To satisfy curiosity, makemakemakemake shared a 100GB log file.
Even though the user has the entire streaming service’s catalog archived, it does not seem that there are plans to use those files for the purpose of mirroring the platform. Instead, the user suggested it would be quicker for others to download their favorite music on Soundcloud.
Word that Soundcloud might be shutting down has raised concern, prompting other initiatives to preserve the catalog. ArchiveTeam is a volunteer collective that is preparing to preserve selected files on Soundcloud. The Soundcloud ArchiveTeam said they should be ready to begin downloading selected files by 24 July.
“Archive Team considers the SoundCloud service in danger and, as it hosts a lot of original content, finds it important to prepare to save it selectively (a full grab would be too big and would raise concerns of mass copyright infringement).”
Despite Soundcloud’s statement that they are not shutting down in the near future, there are still doubts as to whether the company can turn things around.