SoundCloud Is Stopping People Archiving Content On Its Platform
by
SoundCloud CEO Alex Ljung
SoundCloud is stopping a team of people from downloading and archiving content hosted on its platform, according to Motherboard.
Organizations and individuals have started various archiving projects in the last two weeks amid growing concern that SoundCloud could be about to shut down. SoundCloud cut 40% of staff on July 5 and TechCrunch reported that it could run out of money within 50 days.
Last week, a group that refers to itself as The Archive Project announced that they intended to archive 900 terabytes of SoundCloud, or 123.6 million tracks.
The Archive Project backs up at-risk services with the help of volunteers running its virtual archiving appliance, ArchiveTeam Warrior. Volunteers give up some bandwidth and disk space to help scrape those sites. Other defunct sites preserved by the project include GeoCities, TwitPic, and Google Video.
However, Jason Scott, a member of the Archive Team tweeted on Thursday that SoundCloud had requested that they halt their project.
“Due to a request by Soundcloud, archiving and storage of Soundcloud is ending immediately,” the tweet read.
A spokesperson reportedly provided Motherboard with the following statement:
“SoundCloud is dedicated to protecting the rights and content of the creators who share their work on SoundCloud. We requested the Archive Team halt their efforts as any action to take content from SoundCloud violates our Terms of Use and infringes on our users’ rights.
“Most importantly, everyone’s music and audio is safe on SoundCloud. SoundCloud is not going away-not in 50 days, not in 80 days or anytime in the foreseeable future.”
It’s likely that SoundCloud will also be looking to clamp down on other individuals and groups attempting to archive content on its platform.
Last week, a Reddit user claimed he’s “downloaded the bulk of SoundCloud’s public archive, and that it’s “only” 900 terabytes.