SoundCloud
SoundCloud (██)
SoundCloud is the dominant social platform for sharing audio.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Over 125 million tracks (In comparison, Spotify only has 30million) | Organize your audio in a central location |
| Artists have full control over on how they want to present their track, either for free or on the premium subscription | SoundCloud takes “guilty until proven innocent” approach tocopyrighted materials, even if you have fair use. Audioboom is more permissive, but is smaller (see entry in “Other distribution tools). |
Audience
In 2015 (most recent data available), Soundcloud had 175 million
registered users (compared with 70 million Pandora users in 2013), and 90%
of tracks uploaded were played at least once, compared to 80% on Spotify.
Metrics
With a free account, users can see numbers of play counts, downloads,
likes, and comments over time. Referrers (data on how listeners are
finding your page) and audience demographics require a Pro account.
Case studies
Newsroom
The
BBC’s
World Service Soundcloud
page,
one of the BBC’s many channels on the platform features short (mostly
under 5 minute) segments from the World Service, in curated playlists.
Other organizations that use Soundcloud include PRI's the
World, The New Yorker, and CBS News.
Additional resources
Tutorial\/help: See Getting
started and
Soundcloud
FAQ for
basics. Soundcloud’s Creator
Guide provides
more in-depth tips on optimizing your profile, uploading tracks, setting
up an RSS feed for podcasts, distributing to iTunes, and analyzing
metrics.