“The goal is to have direct deals with everyone so you don’t have to upload tracks. Yet as Soundcloud dealt with their own struggles of unlicensed, uploaded content, 8tracks sadly had to shut that feature off, leaving creators solely with the options of using their own mp3s or an expanding library of tracks licensed from certain labels.Ĩtracks is augmenting this cloud-based library and has already cut direct deals with INgrooves, CD baby and TuneCore, all of which aggregate and distribute music on behalf of indie labels and artists. The artists upload the music but our DJs did the packaging and merchandising of that music through their playlists.”Ĭlick here to listen to a playlist - ❤ You inspire us ❤ from Staff Picks on 8tracks Radio. Porter explains, “We wanted to help provide additional exposure to the independent artists who use Soundcloud, by leveraging our DJs to tap into that and promote it. It’s been a haven for the electronic music community, especially with its former integration with Soundcloud. Porter attributes it to “the intrinsic reward of being able to promote artists that you think deserve a larger audience, and at the same time having the ego satisfaction of having people regard you as a tastemaker by liking your playlist, sharing it or leaving you a comment.”Īs far as the music goes, about two-thirds of the music on 8tracks is from independent music labels, in contrast to services like Spotify where it’s about two-thirds major labels. This brings up the question, why are the creators/DJs taking time to do this labor of love? 8tracks is definitely not paying them. Surprisingly, only one percent of those users are playlist creators, while the other 99% happily share and consume. Now 8tracks boasts over 5 million active monthly users and is three times the size of its competitor, Rdio. This year marks their fifth anniversary of being in business. With some angel investing, they were able to build a team and keep everything legal within the realms of music licensing. That’s when they knew they were onto something. “Those two playlists blew up on StumbleUpon, and we went from 30k unique visitors to 300k in one month,” Porter recalls. The other was “The ocarina of rhyme,” a mixtape of mashups between classic hip-hop tunes and the music of Zelda. One was called “Music to make you feel better.” “Happy music for recessionary times,” as Porter likes to put it. Users took to upvoting two playlists in particular. Best of all, it’s social and anyone in the community can like, share or comment on your playlist.Īt the onset, what truly helped the service take off was exposure on StumbleUpon. The list of tags is endless creating infinite ways to assign meaning to a playlist. Choose “break-up” and “indie” and Paramore comes running after you. Combine “summer” with “day-drinking” and a bevy of poolside playlists appear for your selection. Type in “gym,” and “electronic” and you’re set to work out. Playlists are categorized with tags that define the gist of the playlist-moods, activities, seasons, emotions, genres or a host of other categories. It’s really much more of a community.”Īnyone can create a playlist using uploaded tracks from their own library or choosing from an ever-growing library of songs that 8tracks licenses as they cut deals with music distributors. We’re not just some big index of music you draw upon when you think of a song. There’s an opportunity for dialogue around the music between listener and DJ. But it’s also the fact that it’s a human communication achieved through a set of songs. “It’s, on one hand, the depth of discovery because people are passionate about music. Porter has a knack for romanticizing his brainchild in a way that makes you believe in the power of the human spirit. There’s definitely a soul to 8tracks that’s driving this young company forward. Over the next few years, in the early and mid-aughts, Porter would work with VCs and a small team to pursue and develop this idea into the modern creation that is 8tracks: an online music streaming service, perhaps similar to Pandora, but filled with a library of user-generated playlists. He wrote about starting a social, online music streaming company, which later turned into a full-fledged business plan. In its infancy, 8tracks was David’s admissions essay to Berkeley’s Haas School of Business in the 90s. His small, rounded glasses bring clarity to his friendly, bright eyes, which light up as he begins to tell what he likes to call the “extended dance remix” of the beginnings of 8tracks. He rests his elbows on a picnic bench in the backyard of 8tracks’ headquarters, a beautiful, lofted space on the ground floor of a house somewhere between the Mission and the Castro. It’s the warmest day so far this year, almost 90 degrees in the Mission, and David Porter sits comfortably in a buttoned down shirt and pants.

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