All these web companies ran on gatekeeping their data to employ frontend teams. They look even more valuable to the financiers seeking to keep the aggregate busy so they don’t have time to focus on the expropriation of their labor and deflation of their buying power.
But it’s a terrible long term strategy as it cuts off the group who would pay for API access only. But also a community of frontend first users who don’t care about APIs but design and functionality that works for them, means frontend first users jump to the next company with a frontend. If there was an API fee and key, and open frontends of various styles, Sooundcloud wins.
There are API only streamers out there but they tend to focus on serving big tech. Apple I know specifies quality levels but actually passes some streaming requests along to wholesaler backends that deal with all the API and licensing crap for them.
But it’s a terrible long term strategy as it cuts off the group who would pay for API access only. But also a community of frontend first users who don’t care about APIs but design and functionality that works for them, means frontend first users jump to the next company with a frontend. If there was an API fee and key, and open frontends of various styles, Sooundcloud wins.
There are API only streamers out there but they tend to focus on serving big tech. Apple I know specifies quality levels but actually passes some streaming requests along to wholesaler backends that deal with all the API and licensing crap for them.