It was more common at the start of the decade for artists to refuse to host their music on streaming services, or to make it exclusive to certain platforms, so this made 8tracks’ offerings way more diverse at the time. Because the service allowed users to upload songs from their personal music library, users could share music that wasn’t available to stream anywhere else, or was harder to find in their given country. 8tracks’s unique features, at one point, let it stand out from the crowd. They partnered with Rolling Stone to make playlists, hosted musicians who wanted to promote their music via the service, and sponsored brand playlists. This was about when their popularity peaked. Which was a big part of why, unlike other music upload services, it was never sued into bankruptcy.Ĩtracks received positive press when it launched and was listed as one of Time’s “50 Best Websites” in 2011, the same year I joined the service. 8tracks also had public performance licenses with ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, meaning it was legally similar to public radio. It was in no way, shape, or form, an on-demand service. And, you could only use so many skips in an hour, limiting how much you could control what you were listening to. And playlists were shuffled every time you listened to them. If you searched for “Mumford and Sons,” for example, you would get playlists that had Mumford and Sons music somewhere in the playlists–could be first, could be third, but since 8tracks didn’t allow you to see complete track listings, you would only know if you listened. You couldn’t search for and play on demand certain musicians and songs. Using 8tracks was different from any other streaming music platform. But it was my favorite music streaming platform. Neither the end-all nor the be-all of music streaming services, many people likely never used it, and I wonder how much it will actually be missed. 8tracks is set to suspend its services permanently by the end of the day.
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