On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, my SoundCloud account was compromised by hackers. This was really upsetting for me because my SoundCloud account was very active and was getting around 25,000 plays every week. I've also made some really good connections with industry professionals like radio stations and music supervisors on this platform, so you can imagine how upset I was when I found out that I couldn't access my account and that it had disappeared. It took me over five years to build up the popularity of my account, and now it's all gone in just one day.
It is beyond me why individuals would dedicate themselves to such malicious actions. I assume that these hackers must lead a lonely, miserable life, with nothing better to do than cause harm to others.
But that's not all, the worst part for me was seeing that SoundCloud's customer service department didn't even bother to respond to my messages. When I spoke with other musicians who encountered similar issues with SoundCloud, they revealed that they also failed to receive any reply. One of them suggested that I address my situation on Twitter by tagging SoundCloud in a tweet. This way, someone from the SoundCloud team would respond to my tweet, and people would see that they care. Sure enough, a person from SoundCloud contacted me a few minutes after I tweeted and sent me a link to fill out a form.
After submitting the form, I received a subsequent request via Twitter to resubmit it, which I promptly fulfilled. Following this, SoundCloud contacted me via email and requested me to send an email from the email address associated with my account, which I duly complied with.
However, despite my efforts, the issue pertaining to my account recovery was not addressed, and I received an automated email from SoundCloud stating that my case number 2374647 had been resolved without any further action taken by their support team. As a result, my support ticket was closed and the case was marked as resolved without any tangible resolution.
It is difficult for me to understand how platforms that have achieved their success due to user support and subscriptions can neglect users facing issues. Premium users such as myself are SoundCloud's primary source of revenue, and their support should be their top priority.
They should realize that their users are their lifeblood, and without them, the platform would cease to exist. They need to do more to protect their users from cyber threats and to provide the necessary support when something goes wrong. They should also take the time to respond to their users' concerns and show them that they care.
I know that some SoundCloud users had to resort to external services to recover their hacked accounts since SoundCloud neglected to reply to their messages asking for help.
SoundCloud should recognize that artists who use this platform feel sorrowful when their accounts vanish due to hackers. We have invested years of work into our accounts, only to lose them without any explanation.