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Soundike – Is It A Scam? Is It Even Legal?
If you have been around a while then you likely know pirating is rampant on the internet. The dramatic rise and fall of peer-to-peer audio sharing websites have been well documented over the last few decades.
Soundike is the latest-and-greatest newcomer looking to tap the vein of people searching for cheap music downloads. But is it legit?
Soundike doesn’t offer free digital audio downloads like Napster and AudioGalaxy did back in the early 2000’s. Copyright infringement caught up with them when the Ninth Circuit Court shut them down.
Instead, Soundike offers music downloads for about 15 cents per song. They also offer a “full album discount” of 20% off the price of a single. At that price, a full album only costs about $2!
Does that pass the sniff test? Can that really be legal?
Since we are such big fans of music and the artists that keep us rocking and rolling, Solo Music Lab took a deep dive into how this music service provider rolls.
Lets take a look at what Soundike actually does.
Is Soundike.com Legit or a Scam?
At first glance, everything is perfectly functional on the Soundike website. You can pay for super cheap music, and get downloads that playback nicely.
But the devil is in the details.
If you do a little digging on the Soundike website you’ll find their legal notice states that copyright laws in certain jurisdictions do not allow Soundike to say that their services are completely legal in all countries.
In other words, it is not legal – wherever it is illegal. Helpful, right?
They do their best to pass the responsibility back to you, the consumer. Certainly if you love music then you should be contributing to the benefit of the artists you love. The question is: does Soundike share that same sense of responsibility?
Does Soundike Actually Pay Artists?
Here is where the stark reality of how Soundike operates starts to set in. You might think that meager fee you pay to Soundike for music downloads is forwarded on to your artist of choice, but that just is not the case.
Unfortunately, Soundike is more like Napster and AudioGalaxy in the end, with a little twist.
They keep your payment.
That’s right. Not one red cent is going into the pockets of the artist who wrote that amazing song. Soundike pirates music off the internet, and then makes it available on large scale for others to download.
Sound familiar? Well it should, because it’s another iteration of the old peer-to-peer schemes that the Ninth Circuit Court shut down. Surely it’s just a matter of time before Soundike suffers the same fate.
Should We Use Soundike?
Well the short answer is just plain “No.” Aside from the less-than-reputable practices going on there, do you really want to be downloading files from a site like that? It’s just asking to be hacked and swamped with malware or ransomware.
If you want to support your favorite artists then get yourself a reputable music service like Amazon Music, Spotify, or use the iTunes store.
On the other hand, if you are not concerned with infecting your computer with virus laden files and short-changing your favorite artists, why pay Soundike for something you can get through torrents the same way they do?
***Soundike Update as of April 2020***
It looks like Soundike.com has been shut down, but has relaunched a new website as Soundike2.com. You shouldn’t be surprised that we do not suggest downloading music files here either.