What are we doing?

On February 16th, we’ll change how listeners outside the US and Canada tune into 8tracks.

We’ll no longer stream from 8tracks’ servers to listeners outside the US and Canada; instead, we’ll offer the ability to tune into playlists on the 8tracks website via YouTube video playback. Unfortunately, listeners outside the US and Canada will no longer be able to stream playlists through the 8tracks iOS and Android apps.

Your 8tracks profile and any playlists you’ve made will not be affected and you’ll continue to be able to stream any playlists with tracks you’ve personally uploaded. All of your playlists will continue to be accessible to listeners anywhere our content is available around the world. You will still be able to make and share playlists with everyone, however, your personal listening experience may be limited depending on which country you are in.

Later this year, we’ll offer listeners outside the US and Canada the ability to tune into all 8tracks playlists through an on-demand streaming partner’s website and native mobile apps.

Beyond this on-demand partnership, we’re working to ensure 8tracks’ long-term success as a stand-alone global platform for everyone to enjoy.

Why are we doing this now?  

In the US and Canada, 8tracks pays royalties to local collection societies for every track we stream. While we’ve neither actively marketed nor directly monetized 8tracks outside the US and Canada, we’re now seeking direct, global deals with record labels to ensure we’ve a solution for mix creation that extends to anyone who has the passion and knowledge to curate amazing playlists.

Later this year, we’ll revamp and streamline mix creation and extend this experience to our native mobile apps. Because most people don’t have many local music files on their phones, we’re preparing for a future in which you can easily access millions of tracks from our growing music library (thanks to direct licensing deals).

In order to ensure 8tracks’ existence for years to come, we’ve concluded — at least for now — that delivering our programming to listeners outside the US and Canada through a licensed on-demand partner is the best path forward. We remain committed to bringing 8tracks to a global audience so all can join us in creating and discovering playlists for every taste, time and place.

Have further questions? Learn more here

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We’ve concluded together with SoundCloud that 8tracks playlists will soon no longer be able to access SoundCloud tracks through the SoundCloud API. There are two important dates to note:

• July 24th: You will no longer be able to add tracks directly from SoundCloud when creating an 8tracks playlist.  In addition, any previous uploads that had been supplanted with a SoundCloud track will revert to the original upload.
• September 30th: SoundCloud tracks can no longer be streamed from existing 8tracks playlists, and any playlists that fall below the 8-song minimum will no longer be playable on iOS and Android (until additional tracks are added).

We are thankful for your hard work in creating amazing playlists on 8tracks. We want to keep tracks and playlists playable, while making the transition as easy as possible for you. More than 96% of all tracks included in playlists today will not be impacted by this transition. Here’s how we’ll address the remaining 4%:

• Matching SoundCloud tracks to our music Library and replacing them — so that you don’t have to. We’ve already matched 90% of the SoundCloud tracks played over the last 6 months.
• Signing additional deals with labels to add more music to the Library. Over the past 6 months, 8tracks has directly licensed music from some of the most popular labels in the world (9 million tracks). We expect to have more music available for creating playlists by the time the transition is complete, providing further coverage for missing tracks and unplayable playlists.
• Notifying you at the end of August of what playlists and tracks will be affected. During September, we will continue to match more music to the growing Library, and DJs will have the option to add tracks to playlists that have been impacted.

We’re sorry that this may create work for you; the only assignment we’d like to give you is to dance and smile. We’ll work as hard as we can to preserve your playlists. Below is a list of questions we expect you might have regarding the transition, along with our responses.

FAQs

1. What’s the SoundCloud integration?

2. What’s going to change?

3. When is this happening?

4. What does this mean for my playlist that has SoundCloud tracks?

5. What does this mean for 8tracks?

6. What will happen to the playlists that no longer include 8 playable tracks?

7. What will happen to the tracks that I’ve favorited on 8tracks that show up on SoundCloud?

8. Can I still favorite tracks and have them show up in my SoundCloud?

9. If I’m a SoundCloud artist and I still want my music on 8tracks, what can I do?

10. I love 8tracks. How can I help?

11. Why are you waiting until August to tell me which songs will be replaced?

1. What’s the SoundCloud integration? Both SoundCloud and 8tracks have benefit from an integration introduced nearly 5 years ago, allowing 8tracks DJs to search for and add SoundCloud tracks to their playlists. 8tracks plays an important role in exposure for independent artists, and the SoundCloud API has helped drive this objective.

2. What’s going to change? We’ve together concluded that the time has come for 8tracks to discontinue use of SoundCloud’s API. We have been preparing for this event by signing direct deals with labels and distributors, amassing more than 9 million songs in our Library so far. We’ve been working with SoundCloud to ensure a smooth transition, as we scale back our streaming of their content in the the coming months.

3. When is this happening? As of today, SoundCloud will no longer be available in the 8tracks playlist creation choreography. As of October 1st, listeners will no longer be able to stream from 8tracks playlists those SoundCloud tracks that were not matched to our licensed content library.

4. What does this mean for my playlist that has SoundCloud tracks? Roughly 96% of all tracks included in playlists will not be affected. The remaining 4% of content will need to be replaced, and we’re going to help you do that. Here’s how:

• We have already begun to match tracks originally selected from SoundCloud to those available in our Library; we expect to match 90%+ of all SoundCloud content
• We will continue to license music to expand the Library and will replace SoundCloud tracks that are currently unmatchable, when possible, with the objective of returning each playlist to its full, original tracklist
• All DJs will receive an email in August that includes links to the playlists and specific tracks that we are unable to match at that point

5. What does this mean for 8tracks? Over the last year, we have launched and grown our Library, which now includes more than 9 million tracks from independent labels and artists. We are committed to growing this Library and expect to have more label deals to announce soon.

6. What will happen to the playlists that no longer include 8 playable tracks? As of October 1st, if a playlist still falls under the minimum number of tracks, it will no longer be playable — except on the 8tracks website using YouTube. However, we’ll maintain the playlist and, as tracks continue to be added to the Library through direct label deals, we will match the new available content. Once a playlist reaches the 8-track minimum, it will be available again for streaming on our mobile apps.

7. What will happen to the tracks that I’ve favorited on 8tracks that show up on SoundCloud? Nothing. Those tracks will still show up in your favorites on SoundCloud.

8. Can I still favorite tracks and have them show up in my SoundCloud? Unfortunately, no.

9. If I’m a SoundCloud artist and I still want my music on 8tracks, what can I do? We’ve recently partnered with a number of labels and aggregators to populate our Library. If you already distribute your music through one of them (listed here and here), you’ll be available in the Library, now or soon. However, if you do not distribute your works through one of these aggregators, we’d encourage you to consider TuneCore, which provides a relatively inexpensive way for artists to make their content available on multiple digital music platforms, including 8tracks. We also are planning a way for artists to directly upload songs into the Library. Please enter your email below if you’d like to be notified when an upload option is available.

10. I love 8tracks. How can I help? We love you too. If you’ve published a playlist on 8tracks, please look for an email from us in August; we’ll identify playlists and tracks that we’re still unable to match. While we’ll continue to enter into direct deals with labels and aggregators to provide further matches and coverage, we encourage you to replace any remaining SoundCloud tracks with songs from your personal collection, at your option.

11. Why are you waiting until August to tell me which songs will be replaced? We want to save you from unnecessary work. There are millions of songs we have already licensed but have yet to identify and match. It will take us some time to complete all of this, but once it’s complete we’ll notify you, leaving you at least a month to make any necessary edits to your playlist.

We’re excited to share with you today the beta launch of our smarter, redesigned website that suggests playlists based on your listening preferences. Now, when you log-in, you’ll be taken to your new, Facebook-like, home feed that surfaces 8tracks’ depth of content. The feed provides personalized recommendations for playlists that draw from a variety of inputs, including your expressed preferences – tag searches or selections, liking a playlist or track – and social cues, such as the other community members that you follow.

The new design also includes a greater emphasis on our community of unique DJs with their profile images assigned to each playlist in search results and in the playlist description:

Additionally, we’ve simplified search and explore, providing a unified tag design around activity, mood, genre, or artist:

We’re going to unroll the beta website over the next few weeks. A limited number of listeners will be presented the opportunity to try the new beta site as of today. Within a month, 8tracks will extend the option to the larger community to toggle between the two versions, before making a final switch to the latest one.

We’re pleased to announce that we have secured a $2.5 million debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank. Additionally, because we’re on a roll, we also want you to know that we’ve partnered with TuneCore, Naxos, Black Hole Recordings and Armand Van Buuren’s Armada Records. These partnerships will add up to 2.5 million tracks our Library, including songs by Passenger, Andrew Belle, Armin van Buuren and more. With the new funds, we plan to grow our product and engineering teams that are expanding our personalization system and bringing playlist creation to our mobile apps. These funds and new partnerships bring us closer to making your biggest request a reality, so hang in there!

We’re pleased to announce longtime digital music executive Jon Maples has joined our team in the role of vice president of product.

Working alongside our expanding product and engineering teams, Maples will be responsible for guiding 8tracks’ product development, including personalization features to help surface the best playlists for each community member.

Maples served as the vice president of product and content at the digital music service, Rhapsody, for five years. Under his tenure, he led the company’s transition from desktop to mobile, helping generate major growth in user subscriptions and engagement. A veteran digital product and content consultant, Maples covered digital music at Red Herring as well as built online properties at Netscape and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He also comments often about the digital music industry and has contributed to Billboard, Re/Code, Hypebot, RAIN News and more.

We’re excited to announce the launch of our new Library and Crate, which together will help you more easily discover and create playlists with music from independent artists. The Library will include over 6.5 million songs provided by INgrooves, CD Baby, Dim Mak, DashGo, featuring independent artists like Steve Aoki, James Vincent McMorrow, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros and more.

Now, when you’re enjoying a playlist and you find a song that you love, go ahead and favorite it! If that song is available through the new Library, it will be added to your Crate so that later, when you’re making the perfect playlist, you can easily find it. On the mix creation page, you’ll also now be able to search both the Library and Crate by artist name or song title to find an old favorite track that is right for your new playlist.

This is just the beginning! We expect this to be a big year and want to thank you for all your support!

 

 

 

Ever wondered what the best music is for driving? How about working out? We decided to find out. Looking at this past year, we combed our listeners’ feedback across our 360 million hours of streaming to uncover their favorite artists and songs for certain activities and moods.

Looking across tens of thousands of playlists for popular tags like driving, feeling good, working out, studying and in love, we found the top 10 songs that our listeners shared and enjoyed the most for each respective tag in 2014.

And voila! Today we’re launching 8tracks Charts, a collection of playlists that chart the top 100 songs for some of our listeners’ favorite moments.

 

 

Today we’re excited to bring a little bit of holiday magic into your lives. Specifically the type of magic that allows you to beam 8tracks playlists from your laptop to your TV. You might call it witchcraft, but actually it’s 8tracks Chromecast compatibility – now on web. 

That’s right, everyone – as of today if you have a Chromecast setup you can play 8tracks playlists on your TV while controlling them from your browser. So if you’re in the kitchen making a crazy awesome holiday meal, but still want to be in charge of the music (which you should be, you’re cooking for everyone in this hypothetical situation), then you can still have complete control. It’s your domain. 

To try it out, download the Chromecast extension if you haven’t already, then launch the Chromecast player on your TV from any 8tracks playlist page.

It’s December, everyone, which means the time has come to reflect on an amazing year in music. We thought about just sharing some of the tracks we loved from 2014, but we think we have something way better: a whole collection of playlists assembled by the record labels, artists, and blogs responsible for sharing and creating some of this year’s best music.

Collecting picks from our friends at Warp, UltraMusic, Domino, Polyvinyl, Drowned in Sound, and many more, our Best of 2014 is (we think) the definitive collection and the last word on the year’s most exciting music, chosen by the folks who make it happen.