Umm no. Listen, I love SoundCloud, but government tax dollars should not be in the business of providing electronic music. At least US tax dollars, Germany can do what it pleases.
In their defense, they said, "...something like this..."
Of all the things my tax dollars get spent on, promotion and preservation of the arts is an area where I really wish we'd spend more. It's not like we have a shortage of bombers.
Why not? The cost of running Soundcloud is comparable to the cost of one F-35 jet.
It would be funding a distribution platform for art. Most of the music on soundcloud is free for anyone to listen to. That's a public benefit, in my opinion.
>The cost of running Soundcloud is comparable to the cost of one F-35 jet.
This comparison is like saying "if all we do is capture 1% of a huge market, we'll be millionaires!"
There's quite a bit more to it than simply saying "Build one fewer JSF boondoggle, please. We need to prop up [pet project X]." Considering that comparison is used hundreds of times daily, I might add... it's not exactly scalable.
The F-35 is a boondoggle to say the least but I actually think the ROI on it is considerably better than propping up SoundCloud.
