January 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of Soundiiz. We released the first version in January 2013. Ten years already!
We are proud of what we have built and grateful to have helped so many music lovers worldwide. Nearly 6 million people have used Soundiiz to manage their music collections. Together, they have transferred more than 150 million playlists. It is huge!
How Soundiiz started
It all started with two friends and a simple idea during our IT studies in the summer of 2012. We believed music streaming would become the main way people listened to music.
At the time, paying to stream music sounded funny when people could easily download it illegally. Services such as Spotify, Deezer, and Qobuz already existed. However, they were not as popular as YouTube, Grooveshark, or SoundCloud.
One feature inspired us to create Soundiiz: the playlist. Playlists existed before streaming, of course. Still, access to millions of songs changed what people could build and share with friends around the world.
For us, playlists would become the essential way to save, organize, share, and listen to favorite songs.
We also believed that people should remain the owners of the playlists they created. They should be free to export those playlists or move them to another platform. With that belief, Soundiiz was born!
We worked throughout the end of 2012, mostly at night. Finally, we released the first version of Soundiiz in January 2013.
The first years
The first version was available only in French and supported three services: YouTube, Deezer, and Grooveshark. Even so, it was already a success. Great feedback from bloggers and users encouraged us to continue. We soon translated the interface and added more compatible services.
In 2014 and 2015, we let users create Soundiiz accounts and keep their playlists in a safe place. This mattered because several streaming services closed during that period, including Rdio and Grooveshark.
Then, in 2015, TIDAL was announced. We partnered with the TIDAL team to list the service on Soundiiz for its launch. This changed everything for Soundiiz and for us personally. We even got an article in Forbes!
Turning Soundiiz into a full-time company
In the summer of 2016, we left our developer jobs to work on Soundiiz full time. Requests from users and music services kept growing. So, we created the company and looked for a way to monetize Soundiiz. Until then, donations had paid for the servers and domain names.
To be honest, it was not easy. We did not want to raise funds, either. From the beginning, only two people have been behind Soundiiz, and we still wear many hats. Staying independent has allowed us to grow in our own way.
In early 2017, we released a new version with free and paid offers. Its new interface, features, and compatible services attracted more users, curators, artists, labels, and majors. Soundiiz was already popular, and many existing users became Premium subscribers.
Growing with music streaming
Meanwhile, music streaming changed significantly as the market grew. Mobile apps transformed the way people listened to music. Playlists appeared on every platform homepage and became a major advantage for services such as Spotify.
Streaming services also introduced libraries and collections. People could now love, like, or save songs, artists, and albums. In response, Soundiiz helped users export and manage those favorites.
Later, we added more tools for playlist curators, including playlist synchronization and Smartlinks. We also introduced a Curator offer for customers with specific streaming platform needs.
What comes next for Soundiiz?
User feedback continues to drive our roadmap. Since we have no investors, we can choose what to build for Soundiiz. Above all, we want it to remain a safe, reliable, and lasting solution.
We are grateful to the music services that open their APIs, listen to our needs, and promote Soundiiz to their customers. We are proud to have been part of the music streaming market for all these years.
Finally, thank you to everyone who has trusted Soundiiz and shared it around the world. Thank you, too, for reading our story to the end.
We wish you all the best for this new year.
PS: Of course, thank you to our families and friends for supporting us through many long nights and busy weekends.
