SoundCloud 101

Whether you want to post a simple piece of audio and share it across the web or crowd source audio from your audience, SoundCloud can help using our players, record capabilities and some of our new innovative labs products.

Sharing Audio and Recording Audio

Sharing and recording with SoundCloud is very easy. So whether you are holding an interview or doing some field reporting you can capture and distribute your content quickly. There are various ways to do this - you can record via our site or you can use our iPhone or Android apps. Take a read of the following guides for more info.

Record with iPhone

Record via site

Take Time Out London for example. During Edinburgh Fringe Festival the Time Out reviewers used the SoundCloud iPhone app to record mini reviews of the hundreds of shows they were watching. These were then simply added to a set player on SoundCloud and embedded on their site! Visit their site to listen to the reviews Further examples

Tech Crunch - used to post a recording of Yahoo's shareholder meeting.

All Things Digital - recording of the final question of Oracle's earnings conference call.

Crowd Source Audio

Gathering audio from your audience can be done in a variety of ways. The main options are using the iPhone or Android apps, or using your drop box and allowing people to record message directly in the browser. A drop box is way for people to submit you audio - you can upload audio directly to a user for review but there is also a record button allowing you to record directly in the browser straight to the users account. More info on the drop box can be found here

Take NPR radio show All Song's Considered. They call out to their listeners to record messages by embedding the drop box widget on their site. Listeners click on the widget and are taken to the All Song's Considered account where they can record and upload directly to then be used in the show!


Alternatively you can use our iphone and android apps to gather audio. One great way to do this is to make an audio map. And audio map is a way for people to plot sounds to locations . For example, if you were on location interviewing someone during a conference or a city wide festival you can set the location, therefore adding extra context to the interview. Using our iPhone or Android app people can record on location, set the location and then recording is reflected on a map at that exact point. This then provides a central place for people to easily submit their audio - and visually it looks great! We recently set one up for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival - anyone from comedians, to visitors, journalists, venues could record audio and plot it to their exact location on the map!



TakesQuestions.com - an audio Question and Answer Site

A SoundCloud labs product, takesquestions.com provides anyone to have a way for fans, followers, friends etc to ask you questions. A great way for journalists to receive questions themselves or as a way to source questions for a featured interview. Take a look at the following examples and sign up at TakesQuestions.com for a page.

X Factor star Joe McElderry

Boy Band JLS

Musician Charlotte Wessels

Podcasting

Currently in beta testing, SoundCloud can now provide an RSS feed for any spoken word accounts. For more information and to apply for the RSS feed, take a look at this guide.

Upload Audio Via Phone

No internet or smart phone? No problem, our SoundCloud Labs product Importer allows you to phone up one of three numbers (currently German, U.S and U.K numbers available) and leave a message - this will then get uploaded to your account! Go to the Importer Page for more details, select the "Import via phone call" tab.