SoundCloud is a unique website that offers a new and different user experience, as well as a lot of information available to artists. The simplicity for the artist is another big selling point for this site. Artists can upload or record any original sound (or song, as the case may be). They boast that they accept just about any audio format, which is also great for artists who might not be great with technology—especially with converting formats.
Once the sound is uploaded, artists can see the “Waveform” of their clip. While all it is is a visualization of the soundbite, it adds a unique change to the usual music-sharing site. The Waveform is shown at all times, as well, through the SoundCloud waveform player, so it is not necessary for users to opt-in or –out.
The true social part of SoundCloud is discovered upon visiting the site and seeing the comments. You might be thinking that commenting on songs sounds just like YouTube or any number of other sites, but this is different. These comments are timed, meaning that users have the opportunity to comment on specific moments within the song. This is useful in a number of ways: musicians can receive feedback if they have questions about certain areas, and they can hear from their fans what their favorite parts are. This gives them the ability to take the information and possibly create more music in that style. For the user, this feature gives the opportunity to see what other fans are saying, and reply to specific comments are the given times.
The community of SoundCloud can be overlooked, but it should not be. It creates a key environment for music discovery. For artists, you can see exactly who has mentioned you in a comment, uploaded new music, and who has “favorited” a track you uploaded to the site. Depending on how you are using the site, you can keep tracks private, share with specific people for collaboration, or make them public for the world to hear. Additionally, there are groups that range from different genres, styles, and people. If you want to share music, you can share it with different groups as well, because everyone likes different kinds of music—you wouldn’t want to share a new hip hop track with your friends who only like country music.
Sharing throughout the rest of the Internet is easy, too! You are not limited to members of SoundCloud. You can share on many different social networking and blogging sites, such as Twitter, Blogger, WordPress, Facebook and MySpace. There are Widgets and Apps available to help in these processes, including the opportunity to share a Waveform directly through your blog or website.
Perhaps the most important and valuable portion of SoundCloud (for the artist) is the availability of statistics. The site shows changes from day to day, who is listening to your track, where they are geographically, and many other pieces of information that are invaluable to musicians trying to increase their fan base. In addition to the stats, there are a number of other opportunities to help artists share their tracks and push their profiles to other social networks.
SoundCloud has been gaining more and more momentum lately, with a highly recognizable band recently uploading their entire new album for preview on the site. The Foo Fighters shared “Wasting Light,” their latest release, beginning April 1, 2011.
Hopefully this brings more attention to the growing site and all that it has to offer. The free sharing on SoundCloud has brought about thousands of comments and millions of plays of the songs. Users have the opportunity to send messages, share the tracks, comment, listen, and follow the artist for future uploads. The high visibility of the artist will only mean good things for SoundCloud.
For all of you who have used SoundCloud: how has your experience been? Would you recommend it to a friend–musician or fan?
Despite an embarrassing start to the season for the Boston Red Sox, they did win their first game of the season against the Yankees (though they went on to lose last night). As a lifelong Sox fan, and a huge John Krasinski fan, I fell in love with this video the moment I saw it!
What do you think of this as an advertising venture for New Era?
They just released the first full-length Captain America trailer. I, for one, think it looks awesome, and I will most definitely be seeing it in the theaters. For those of you who aren’t comic book aficionados (myself included), but like the films, keep and ear out for the names that you’ll recognize from other recent films–like Mr. Stark (from Iron Man). They’re all connected, which I think is pretty awesome.
Also, we need to point out what an incredible job they did of making Chris Evans look tiny at the beginning and then incredible after the transformation. I have no idea how that stuff works, but I’m very impressed. The rest of the effects look great, too, as it is sure to be an action-packed film. It has a great cast, as well, including Stanley Tucci, of whom I am a big fan.
Check out the trailer, and be sure to watch the related videos on IMDB, because they’ll only increase your excitement to see the film, if you’re anything like me.
Okay, let’s recap on the streaming video names we’ve talked about recently: YouTube, Facebook, Hulu, Netflix. The latest development was Facebook starting movie rentals with “The Dark Knight” (discussed here).
Popcornflix.com is reminding me of the turn of the music industry towards the independent musician having much more power with the availability of the Internet and social media. The site is owned by Screen Media Ventures, and has hundreds of independent movies currently. The number is growing and the expectation is 1,500 by December. It is said that their goal is to create income from making the service ad-supported.
A heads-up for the consumer: these ads will run about every 10 minutes, so you’ll see about 9 ads per movie (depending on the length, of course).
Yes, it’s another infographic. But let’s take a look at it for a great breakdown of the music industry and how digital has affected it in the form of music piracy. Keep in mind that the numbers are over a year old, so some might be slightly off, but it’s a good look at history.
How do you think social networking has played a part in this?
I know I seem a bit obsessed with these Infographics lately, but here’s another one for you that I found on Mashable (of course), describing how we are not alone in our Facebook obsession.
Via: Online Schools
Security has been something of a hot topic in the recent months in regards to social media. Anyone who has read about it knows that there has been a good deal of controversy surrounding Facebook and the rounds of privacy policies it has published. Whether it is directly related or not (my guess is that it is, but not in a vindictive way), Twitter has recently taken a big step forward in this security game.
While many of us may not even know what “http” stands for, adding a little “s” on the end makes all the difference here. The newest option for Twitter users is the ability to permanently turn on https, which means the secure exchange of information between the site and the user. The option for https has been available previously, but users are now able to go to their settings and hit that “permanent” button.
The majority of teenage Twitter users might not care, but to anyone who is at all concerned about secure information exchange over the big, bad Internet, this means a lot. For mobile users, the permanent option is not here yet, but do know that you can log in using https://mobile.twitter.com to enter the secure site.
Does security on a site like Twitter matter to you? Or do you find security laughable on a site that is designed to help us share our lives with the world?
