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Posted by Priya Shah
Priya Shah
2,711 Points

What is the approximate cost of hosting for large amounts of audio on a website?

I have always been curious about how websites like Soundcloud and Grooveshark recover their hosting costs. I know Soundcloud has a subscription model and they are receiving funding now.

But what about when they initially started? They must be paying a lot for hosting and bandwidth. Would a subscription model like theirs cover the cost?

In the future, I want to create a music related website too with a subscription model that allows for unlimited audio uploads. Would this at least cover costs if not give me a profit in the beginning?

1 Answer

Logan R
Logan R
22,989 Points
Logan R
Logan R
22,989 Points

It really depends on the host they use or if they hosted the website themselves. It is impossible to know what they were paying and how they were doing it from the beginning without asking one of the founders.

I do know though, for example, OVH offers dedicated servers that have HDD from 12 TB all the way to 216 TB, ranging from $109 to $1659 per month, respectively. Some hosting companies charge more, some less. It just depends on just about everything, from their internet speeds, to their hardware, to their electric bill cost (dedicated servers can really eat electricity if they get good use).