Mixcloud in Bangkok, Thailand: how Benz learns how a London start-up built a licensed home for DJ mixes and radio shows, and switches on a lamp before his AI piano lessons

Benz is fourteen and lives in a condominium in Bangkok, Thailand. His older cousin is a weekend DJ who plays at small bars and community events. Benz spends many evenings watching his cousin prepare sets on a laptop, with two turntable controllers and a pair of enormous headphones.

Last year his cousin complained loudly about a problem. He had recorded a long mix and uploaded it to a video site, only to have it blocked because it contained other people's songs. Benz asked why DJs could not just share their mixes like any other music. His cousin said that was the whole point of a site called Mixcloud.

Mixcloud was founded in London in 2008 by a handful of friends who loved radio and DJ culture, including Nikhil Shah and Nico Perez. They noticed that mixes and radio shows were difficult to share legally online. Each mix might contain dozens of songs, and each song has its own rights holders who expect to be paid.

The problem with posting a DJ mix

The founders decided to solve the licensing problem rather than ignore it. They built agreements with music rights organisations so that mixes containing other artists' recordings could be streamed legally, with royalties flowing back to the people who made the music. The site launched publicly in 2009.

Benz found this surprising. He had assumed that copyright was simply a barrier. Mixcloud showed it could also be treated as a business design problem. If you can track which songs are played in each mix, you can pay the right people, and then everyone, from the DJ to the original artist, can benefit.

Over time the platform grew to host many kinds of long-form audio, from club mixes to community radio programmes and podcasts. Radio stations used it to keep archives of their shows online. For listeners, it became a place to discover new music through the personal taste of curators rather than algorithms alone.

In 2018 Mixcloud added another idea, a subscription called Select. Fans can pay a small monthly amount to support a specific creator, giving DJs and hosts a direct income. Benz's cousin signed up as a creator and now earns a modest sum each month from a few loyal listeners in other countries.

For Benz, the lesson is that innovation in the music business is not always about new instruments or sounds. Sometimes it is about building systems that respect everyone in the chain, from songwriter to performer to listener, and finding new ways for money to reach the people who deserve it.

Benz is not planning to become a DJ. He prefers melodies and chords. He has been taking piano lessons for about forty weeks on TIGA ALPHA, an online piano learning app he uses on a digital keyboard in his bedroom. The AI piano teacher gives instant feedback, and he likes the way his progress is shown as a timeline.

His bedroom is narrow and looks straight at another tower. Benz will not start until he has tapped the touch lamp on his shelf twice, turning it to its brightest setting so the keyboard and the music on his screen are clearly visible. His cousin teases him about it, but then admits he does the same before a gig.

Clear lighting has made a noticeable difference. Benz reads chords more confidently and rarely loses his place in a piece. His piano course recently included a unit on how dance music is built from repeated chord patterns, and he enjoyed recognising those patterns in his cousin's mixes.

He has started a small project: learning to play piano versions of the chord sequences his cousin uses most. Sometimes they sit together, and Benz plays a progression while his cousin mixes beats underneath. It is not quite a performance, but it is fun to play music together across very different styles.

For teenagers who want to learn piano, Mixcloud's example opens up a broader view of music careers. There are musicians, but there are also engineers, lawyers, designers and entrepreneurs who build the platforms musicians depend on. Benz now wonders whether he might combine music and technology one day.

In his school music lessons, Benz gave a short presentation on music licensing using Mixcloud as an example. His classmates were surprised to learn that a single DJ mix can involve dozens of separate permissions. His teacher said it was the first time anyone had made copyright sound interesting.

Late in the evening in Bangkok, Thailand, his cousin's laptop glows in the next room while Benz taps his lamp, settles at the keyboard, and plays a chord progression. Somewhere, a mix full of other people's songs is streaming legally, and everyone involved is getting paid.

Frequently asked questions

Q: What is Mixcloud? A: Mixcloud is a London-based online platform for long-form audio such as DJ mixes, radio shows and podcasts. It was founded in 2008 and launched publicly in 2009.

Q: How did Mixcloud handle music licensing? A: Mixcloud built licensing arrangements so that DJ mixes and radio shows containing other artists' recordings could be streamed legally, with royalties paid to rights holders, instead of being removed for copyright reasons.

Q: What is Mixcloud Select? A: Mixcloud Select, launched in 2018, lets listeners pay a monthly subscription to support individual creators on the platform, giving DJs and show hosts a direct income from their fans.

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