It’s 2012. RL Grime, Baauer and Flosstradamus are dropping the craziest beats you’ve ever heard on SoundCloud. You show your friends in the car and become an aux legend. Life is good.
SoundCloud became the music industry’s biggest disruptor after its inception in 2007, when bedroom producers could scrap together a few 808s and blow up overnight. But the streaming service’s rampant DMCA strikes and broken business model drove artists away like bad breath as it fell from grace, leading to incessant platform reformation and corporate restructuring as its owners chased profitability.
The magic that once fueled endless late-night SoundCloud rabbit holes scouring for the next undiscovered gem had seemingly vanished, but 2024 marks a new frontier for digital crate-digging as the platform furiously reemerges as a seedbed of electronic music discovery. The proof is in the puddling—SoundCloud is currently up for sale with a $1 billion price tag.
Roughly 40 million artists have released over 320 million tracks on SoundCloud to-date. Read on to discover 10 you should keep an eye on this year.
