SoundCloud is a network of creators, audiences, and music creators around the globe that allows audiences to listen to the newest buzz. People can find fresh music which allows new and upcoming artists to find their audiences. It helps artists to build a career by giving them a set of best tools, resources, and services that they so much need in their music career.
Established in 2007, SoundCloud has created a name for itself as an open audio platform with more than 125 million dongs with more than 175 million registered users. It is a platform where creators, listeners, and curators can come together and appreciate each other. SoundCloud can be equally beneficial for all three.
As a creator, you can easily upload your recorded songs and you can choose whether you want to publish for the world to hear or keep it private for just your circle of friends. SoundCloud claims to offer comprehensive analytics to evaluate your art from the viewpoint of your audience and also allows you to communicate directly with your fans and promote your craft.
If you are a usual listener then you can explore new music that you can fall in love with. You can follow your favorite artists, save tracks and playlists of your likings, and get recommendations based on that. If you are a curator interested in making playlists of your favorite genre then you can do just that.
Key Features of SoundCloud
- URL embedding
Music files in SoundCloud are associated with a unique URL. So this enables actual sound files to be embedded in social media posts instead of just URLs. Previously SoundCloud songs could be played directly on Facebook but as of 2015, you will now require a SoundCloud app to play songs sourced from SoundCloud on Facebook. Never the less you can embed the file by clicking the share button corresponding to the target social media site - Widgets and Apps
SoundCloud enables the use of different types of widgets and apps that you can place on your own sites or blogs. One effective way to use such widgets can be to share your music. By placing such widgets in your site or blog you can tweet every track that you upload there. - Timed comments
This is the signature feature of SoundCloud. It displays audio tracks graphically as waveforms and allows listeners to post timed comments on specific parts of a track. So if you like one particular segment of audio, you can let the artist know exactly that. Your comments will be marked on the time of the song being played in the graphically represented waveform. - Integrated API in various DAW
DAW stands for digital audio workstations. If you are into music production then you know that DAWs are where you do just that. Several DAW such as Logic Pro, Studio One, and Garage band can be used to upload or download music with the permission of the user via SoundCloud’s API.