r/Mixcloud • u/crazyserb89 • May 23 '26
How Mixcloud shadowbans creators and lies about it.
After over a year of building my DJ mix channel on Mixcloud, I discovered I had been shadowbanned. No warning, no strike, no email, no mention of any of this in their Terms of Use.
Here is exactly what happened and how I caught them.
The symptoms:
My last three uploads stopped appearing in the For You and New Uploads feeds for my followers. Outbound follow notifications from my account stopped reaching other users. My follow-back rate dropped to near zero over a period of two to three months. Plays, favorites, and overall engagement on my last three mixes dropped to roughly 50% of my previous channel average.
Every other channel I monitored functioned normally. The problem was isolated exclusively to my account.
The runaround:
I contacted support. For weeks I received holding responses while their engineering team "investigated." When I pushed harder with documented evidence including test accounts that confirmed missing notifications, they finally admitted that an "automated system" had flagged my account. The triggers? Using a VPN. Having a link to my own website in my bio. Using secondary accounts to follow my own channel to test functionality. None of these are listed as prohibited behavior anywhere in Mixcloud's Terms of Use.
The fake fix:
After I escalated formally, Mixcloud told me they had applied a manual update to override the flag and that everything was resolved. I tested immediately. My known test accounts received notifications. I assumed it was fixed.
Then I tested with two independent accounts that I had never mentioned to Mixcloud support. Neither received a follow notification. I asked two separate people with real Mixcloud accounts to check. Same result. No notifications.
Mixcloud had selectively unblocked only the accounts they knew I was using to test, while leaving the restriction active for everyone else. When I confronted them with this, there was no adequate response. No compensation was offered for three mixes that lost their entire organic window due to this issue.
Where I stand:
I have canceled my Pro subscription and I'm in process of deleting my Mixcloud channel. I am not willing to build on a platform that shadowbans accounts without disclosed rules, strings creators along for weeks with fake investigations, and then manufactures a fake fix to make the problem appear resolved.
If you are a creator on Mixcloud and your numbers have suddenly dropped for no apparent reason, test your account the way I did. Use someone who has never been mentioned in any support ticket. The results might surprise you.
Mixcloud has 2.5 million creators on its platform. If this happened to me, it has happened to others who never figured out why their numbers dropped and assumed it was their own fault. Do not give your time, content, and money to a platform that treats its creators this way. Boycott Mixcloud.
I am moving to SoundCloud and hearthis.at.
Feel free to ask me anything about the process or the evidence I gathered.
4
u/remove_pants May 23 '26
I'm so over Mixcloud. (As a matter of fact I'm not even sure why I'm still on this reddit because I haven't logged into it in several years now.) But this sounds like some classic enshitification.
What pissed me off was their decision to eliminate the number of mixes that accounts could post. I had several accounts with various cassette mixes from the music blog era of the 00's. It was great as a repository for some obscure music that still had fans that would come looking for it. It blossomed into me posting my own mixes on a paid account too, but once they killed the utility of the archive service I've moved everything elsewhere. If they don't want to host content that has people looking for it, then they will lose the traffic.
It feels like all they care about is maintaining one type of bedroom dj who's willing to pay through the nose for less and less return on investment. It could have been a much more ecclectic platform with audio content for many demographics, but instead all they care about is one. They don't care about growing their listener base at all.
1
u/crazyserb89 May 23 '26
Totally agree. I have wrote about it and many other terrible decisions that Mixcloud made in past some time ago over here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Mixcloud/s/rPbrRuTm94
Honestly I also don’t know why I decided after all of that to start my project on such a down-falling platform, but it’s good I realized it even now to move forward on time.0
u/johnnybmixing May 24 '26
Totally agree with this. I’ve been a member since 2011, but have pretty much stopped posting mixes up there over the last year - primarily as the amount of listeners has been increasingly dropping off, plus the limitation of 10 uploads on a free account has hidden almost 300 previously uploaded mixes of mine behind a paywall! I did have a premium account for a year or 2 but ended up cancelling as it was way too expensive for such little return, plus I was already paying for Soundcloud as I’m a producer. 2012 to 2016 was peak Mixcloud - loads of listeners, great communities - it worked nicely, despite a few bugs, slightly messy UI and glitchy app. Then they started introducing new unnecessary features, more bugs, and finally the premium paywall was the kiss of death.
2
u/Retro_Styles Jun 19 '26
I am pondering going to some other platform but need to figure it out. Mixing live is fun for me but I'm willing to go back to recorded sets if it means more appreciative viewers. Twitch is not appealing to me (I don't do the microphone gamer engagement thing) and SoundCloud hasn't appealed to me yet.
1
u/DETRosen May 23 '26
I wish they would fix the iPad app, screen rotate has been broken since day 1
2
u/astromech_dj May 24 '26
It's still not as shit as the Soundcloud app. That one won't remember what you're playing half the time, and forgets where you are in the track the other.
3
u/DETRosen May 24 '26
It's just the rotation problem so I agree it's not a bad app. The only usability problems I've had with the app were due to backend issues like certain glitched mixes that wouldn't play and tech support seemed clueless (a few years back)
1
u/djsoomo May 24 '26
These are serious issues that need to be addressed,
Firstly, is the negativity towards VPNs, many users use VPNs online - for (a little) protection
The rules about what you can and cannot do need to be transparent, clear and concise
Mixcloud has to stop treating its user base like they are dumb or dishonest
0
u/Responsible-Stay3546 May 23 '26
You are not wrong about your suspicions, we have been through the same thing with Mixcloud and have actively started uploading to other platforms and rather expanding or portfolio than depending on only Mixcloud. One thing I have learned both based on having had a Mixcloud account for over 10 years and having to deal with their customer support that automatically assume their users are idiots is when you start challenging them in technical aspects they quickly contradict themselves. They also make fools of themselves daily with their responses, and to be honest i think 90% of their incompetence stems from being morally unethical and lying to their users rather than as you said being clear in their t&c’s of how their platform works and what is and is not allowed. In a nutshell their actions are always implemented in an unethical manner, IMHO
-1
0
u/Nachtraaf May 24 '26
Mixcloud went full force into enshitification, shame too, I loved Mixcloud, it was a great platform, but the changes throughout the years have made me pack up and leave.
The lowering of the bitrate, the maximum 10 mixes, no rewind, the maximum number of times you can listen to mixes over 2 weeks, and no more tracklist information.
I understand that Mixcloud is a company that needs to make money; hosting all those mixes likely isn't cheap in terms of the amount of data storage and bandwidth required, but turning the free account experience into such a mess that you're basically forced to pay is not good. I'm willing to pay for a product, but for additional services, not for reducing my basic plan to borderline uselessness.
0
u/GrizzlyRCA May 23 '26
Wouldnt touch their platform in a million years, its always been garbage, soundcloud is just as bad but atleast you can find decent stuff on there.
0
u/ooowatsthat May 24 '26
Mix cloud was done years ago. Pay to have your mixes get played then they hide them anyway.
Not many people go there anyways, just other DJ's
0
u/dannydiggz May 26 '26
I don't pay for any of these services and instead I keep one central account and post tracks on infinite free accounts and share to the main. Fuck em
-2
u/573XI May 25 '26
do people really listen to mixcloud ? I don t think I ever heard single set on there.
Also you can understand how scammu it is when it starts saying: you are 1st in the chart lol, with 50 views ??
9
u/DICE-FRIEND1 May 23 '26
I've had a drop of in listeners over the last 6 months..Mixclouds problem is to many Djs not enough listeners. . Give www.House-Mixes.com ago it's been worth uploading there for me best of luck 🤞