SoundCloud – the name itself already speaks
volume. It is a Berlin-based company founded on 2007 by Alex Ljung and Eric
Wahlforss, who never fail to add their vision of “un-muting” the future of the
web on each of their interviews.
What is
SoundCloud?
It is a website committed to sounds of all
sorts. It caters to both the mainstream and indie music artists, podcasters,
audio book authors and publishers. SoundCloud, simply put, is an online audio
website that allows distribution, promotion and collaboration of tracks.
Reception of
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is well received by millions of
people. Currently, it has over 15 million users uploading fresh and unique
tracks on the website. This huge number of users is considered a milestone,
owing to the fact that audio is not much of an entertaining online pass time,
unlike the video website YouTube.
New Artists
Getting Heard
When YouTube is for video, Instagram for
photos, then SoundCloud is definitely for audio. Did you know that SoundCloud
was once considered to be the YouTube of audio? Up until now, as it
continuously grows to cater to more indie artists who hope to go mainstream and
sign up with known music labels. SoundCloud is no MySpace since it is geared to
introducing new sounds that are either created single-handedly by one or by a
community in SoundCloud.
There are those who try to complement great tracks
with promotional tactics such as the option to buy
SoundCloud plays while others just wait around for their tracks to get discovered.
One way or another, these SoundCloud tracks will get their dues eventually.
The one thing that helps SoundCloud stand out is its way of
adapting to the element of social. Like Twitter, it configures a follow method,
allowing members to follow favorite tracks and artists. They get updates from
each other through their feeds, thus providing opportunities for more exposure
to SoundCloud tracks.
SoundCloud also has the so-called timed comments, which is a
social feature that allows members to give feedback and comments right within the
audio tracks, which is represented with a waveform.
With the recent redesign of SoundCloud, a repost
feature is already added, albeit the revamped audio site is still in beta. The
repost feature allows members to conveniently share tracks to their followers
with just a single click. Once a member reposts a SoundCloud audio track, this
will automatically become visible on his or her stream. It is more like the
reblog of Tumblr and retweet of Twitter.
SoundCloud tracks are also easily shared to several known social
networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. It can also be embedded on blogs
and websites. What more, with the fast evolution of mobile usability,
SoundCloud also provides API for downloading tracks on various smart phones.
SoundCloud indeed is slowly un-muting the web, not only with the
sounds it brings but with all the buzz the web is creating on it. It is not
farfetched for SoundCloud to become the next big thing on the internet.
