Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie

Sending and Receiving Music Should Be Easy!

“Ever had trouble sending a track to somebody?”

If you answered no to that question, then you’ve probably never had to send a song to someone before and this post probably won’t be for you. If you happened to answer yes, well then keep reading.

Soundcloud.com is a website that seeks to ease the hassle of sharing music online. If you’re like me, you’ve tried to email a track or song to someone before and come across a few problems. Either the song file was too big for you to email, or was too big for your recipient to receive. Maybe you FTPed it to a server, but the person you sent it to couldn’t/wasn’t sure figure out how to download the file. The people at soundcloud have obviously dealt with these issues so they have created a website that makes sharing music as easy as possible. All you need to do is upload the file through their website and that’s it. No email, no FTP, no weird site where the people who have to download the file have to wait 5 minutes before it starts unless they pay to become a member. Simple.

Once you’ve uploaded your file, you can choose how you would like to share it. If you would like to make and keep the song public, that’s an option. If you would like to make it private, but share it with specific people, that is also an option. If you just want people to stream your music, that’s also an option. Would you like comments or critique? Again, an option. Commenters can also leave comments for specific sections of your song. You can even enter genre, BPMs, record labels and links to where the song can be purchased online.

When uploading you can also upload any file type you’d like. AAC, mp3, WAV, AIFF, you name it, it’s supported without a file size limit. Let me repeat that… no file size limit. Sharing music just become simple.

This is a great tool for collaboration. If you have a friend who lives across town or the U.S., upload a master audio file, keep it private of course, but share it with the individual(s) you want. They can work on their end of the song and then send you any work they’ve done. It’s a great tool to use for long distance work or even for private critiques.

Also, a nice feature provided by the site that helps make collaboration easier is the DropBox. Every user get a drop box where people can send you tracks or files for sharing. If a band has a few members and one member has worked on a particular part and would like to share it with someone else, they can add it to their DropBox by logging into the site, or by using an embedded widget on their blog or website. you can see my DropBox widget on sidebar of this blog under the Communicate! heading.

Of course, the site does have some social networking aspects as well. You can follow others and they can follow you so whenever you provide a public track they are notified from their dashboard and can come listen to your new track and leave comments. It makes for embedded community that provides critique of music. You can also embed your uploaded tracks via flash with a player that is provided.

For some more info about what you can do, check out the short SoundCloud tour.

Any musicians out there excited about the opportunities and potential this site can bring for collaboration?

Leave a comment below if you’re interested in the site. It’s currently in a private beta, but I have 5 invites available for those interested in checking out SoundCloud. Get signed up and let me know what you think.

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