…soundclouds biggest downside is, everybody’s abusing it for dumping all their “shit”…
todays liberized and pseudo democratized music world is suffering the most from drowning in all sorts of sonic mess…making it harder and harder to still stumble over the truu nuggets and discover real new sonic hints…
so, please…let’s at least handle the last record store of the planet with some care, respect and love…
don’t abuse bandcamp also as some next for free cloudservice for whatever u came up with next in ur bedrooms…
use it as intented…a place where recording artists can display their work AND sell their work to people who really appreciate digging for sonic nuggets…it’s a great place to discover and enjoy music for real…if this place is also overrun by ur next countless demos, semi pro wannabe dj mixes and whatnot else…it will ruin aaaaall the magic for everybody…
only post/release ur stuff if u really mean it and know that u’d put some effort / will for creation / curated concept into ur stuff…
sorry hard disagree here. you curate your own stream of music, so this actually has zero impact on anyones user experience on Soundcloud. i dont see how this is a downside at all.
speaking as a person who made a show (on and off for the past 8 years) specifically about stumbling over the hidden gems on Souncloud, its still the best place available to do it, and its easy to get set up with a stream that leads you in those directions.
The similarities to TV/video/content dawned on me recently… YouTubers walking around with handheld cameras, ‘content and lots of it’ mentality, very low production values, etc… I tune into YouTube more than regular tv these days, or Netflix, but I do appreciate the artistry and craft of professional video production.
Soundcloud is the music equivalent unfortunately.
FWIW, I currently have about 450 tracks on Soundcloud, 9 of which are public and released… all the rest are private. Maybe I should just flick the switch and join the problem.
It’s a lot cleaner/slicker as an interface and I like how I can decide (and keep it lossless) the file resolution.
I dislike all the ‘features’ SoundCloud tries to push to me when I upload tracks… I appreciate that this is dependent on personal usage, but pushing ‘mastering’ services and ‘track boosts’, asking me what the ‘album’ is, etc etc, when I just want to upload tracks to share with collaborators; SC annoys me.
Samply is great for me so far, it’s frictionless when it comes to uploading for private sharing/collaboration.
I only picked up on it recently when a mastering engineer recently shared a track for me to approve… I instantly knew if he was recommending it that the sound quality must be there. He’s always refused to use SoundCloud too, btw.
I use Samply for sending band practice recordings, demos, etc. to band mates or collaborators and its great for that (much better than Google Drive which we were using before, especially for listening back on your phone)
I have used private link Soundcloud to send music to labels and stuff because you can see listen counts and know if they actually listened to it. It’s messy because you need to upload the album over and over again so everyone has their own unique link
But I don’t think I would use either to share my music with others
It’s four years later, but I just want to say that this is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read on the internet. Some might call it soppy utopianism, but only because the ills that this post discusses are so normalised. How much different the world could be if money did not rule supreme. (No, I’m not hating on money; but man is it misused and held up as a false god.)
any way to work around that error when uploading waveform art?
I rendered in different resolutions and formats, doesnt seem to be repeatable sometimes it accepts my images, sometimes it doesnt.
In my process of reviewing commercial companies that I’m supporting with my money and attention as a music listener and music producer, I have decided to renew my subscription to Soundcloud Go (to access a commercial music catalog) and Soundcloud for Artists (to reach to an audience beyond the Fediverse).
In detriment of Spotify and YouTube Music (I never really used Amazon or Apple platforms). And also choosing over Bandcamp.
I remember when Soundcloud started back in 2007-2008. Back then I worked at the Maemo team and my colleague Jussi came from Berlin explaining how cool this project and these people were. Soundcloud would become a platform supporting a lot of the music and the artists I like.
Soundcloud has lost its cool, sure, but look what happened to the rest. And I have been a paying customer in the past couple of years and I think they are improving. Not the rest.
These days there is more discussion about European alternatives to US applications, platforms and services. It’s also in this context where I ask what better alternatives would you recommend? I mean commercial alternatives. For Fediverse / 100% independent platform I’m sticking to Bandwagon and the Funkwhale instance of my community (keeping an eye on Mirlo).
