SoundCloud is great for putting up sounds and sharing them across the web. Sharing is easy on SoundCloud, but sometimes you want a little more privacy right? You want to send your music to a journalist or pitch some sounds to a music supervisor. Or maybe you’ve got an unfinished sound that you need your vocalist to hear but certainly isn’t ready for primetime.

Before You Start

SoundCloud is easy for the recipient, easy on the eye and let’s your music take center stage. And of course, we can also help you keep it private and secure.

Upload Your Release

You can use the tips in our Upload 101 to get your sounds on the 'Cloud.

Mark as ‘Private’

This will make the sound completely private and secure. It won’t show up on your public SoundCloud page and can’t be searched for either. No one can get to the sound unless you have given them access.

Select who has Access

There are 4 different ways that you can give people access to the sound or set that you just created.

i. add their email address(es)

ii. add their SoundCloud username(s)

iii. add a previously created Contact List

iv. create a ‘secret link’

Mark the Sound Downloadable or Don't

Now you can decide if you want the sound(s) to be downloadable by the recipient or if you want to give them streaming access only. If you mark as downloadable the recipient can access the original file (WAV, MP3, AIFF etc) as well as the preview quality stream that SoundCloud creates. You can mark this downloadable in your track edit section.

Get Your Sounds Heard

Once you have given someone access to the sound they will receive an email notification that you have shared the sound(s) with them. Inside the email there is a unique link that takes them directly to the sound page that you created on SoundCloud that includes all the information you added. They can also download the original artwork or view any video links that you included.

Does the Recepient Have to Sign Up?

Yes, and no. If the person you’re sending music to doesn’t already have an account then we automatically create them a temporary account and all they need to do is put in a password, known only to them. This has to be done in order to make sure your sound is only available to those you’ve given access. This is an incredibly quick process.

If you want still want your sounds to be private but you don’t need this top level of security then you can use our ‘Secret Link’ feature which is available for anyone with a premium account.

More Info

• For more information on sharing in general, please check out our basic sharing 101 that can be found in The Basics section of our 101's.