I feel the urge to be polite here – well, to an extent. Mixcloud is one of the better websites for DJ mixes, mostly because they’re one of very few platforms that actually pay the artists whose records end up on the website.

So I’m slightly hesitant to criticise the site, but I feel like I’ve been left with no choice. Last Sunday, I wrote about an increasingly desperate Derrick May’s attempts to make money by selling subscriptions on Mixcloud for £3.99 a month. Those legal bills are all mounting up and need paying somehow!

I contacted Mixcloud to ask whether this was something they were comfortable with. They told me that…

“The appropriate member of staff will look into this in accordance with our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines. They will take action as they see fit at this point.”

At the time of publication, there has been no more correspondence from Mixcloud on the subject and May’s account remains active. The lack of contact from Mixcloud, following a promising start, is disappointing.

If Mixcloud was a giant corporate of a company, I could somewhat understand it, although not excuse it. But according to an interview that co-founder Nico Perez (pictured below) gave in May 2020, the company only employs 50 people.

As for his role in the company, the article claims:

“Mixcloud itself has a proper payroll, pay taxes to HMRC, file Visa applications for overseas employees, have a chartered accountant and run annual audits. Nico looks after the operational side, licensing, the team, company culture and finances.”

Hmm. Company culture. And does this company culture extend to allowing a man accused of sexual mispropriety ranging from assault to rape to make money out of your website?

Will Mixcloud do the right thing here? I’m sceptical. But we shall soon see.

By the way, since I’m writing on Mr May, he’s got until the end of today – roughly 15 hours from the time of this post’s publication – to prove his new theory on music theory. Make it happen, Mayday!