PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Why use Soundcloud?

Dear Forum Friends,
I've got a webpage on Soundclick which I think I'm pretty happy with but recently had to open a Soundcloud page for the Berklee Songwriting course. I find it difficult to use. Can anyone give me a good reason to maintain the SoundCloud page? Thanks for your comments and insights.
SD

I think it is a personal choice really, but one reason I can think of off the top of my head is some of the major DAWS like Sonar, Studio One, Logic Pro X all seem to be including it in their programs to publish your music. I don't have any experience with either myself.

Brian

SD,

Brian makes a good point. Hot kid on the block now and easy uploading. And some like the comments on the track feature.

I've used both. Left the click a couple of years ago looking for better sound but can't say cloud is any better.

One of the things I don't like about cloud is no control over the related tracks that come up with your songs.

In the end being on both can't hurt you. In hindsight I wish I'd kept my page on click since they made some improvements after I took it down. You're stuck with ads or something you don't like on all the free sites.

What do you find difficult about it? I think it's actually rather simple compared to SoundClick's constant past desire to open new windows and put advertising for paid soundclick member songs across the top.

Have you had a look at this page? http://help.soundcloud.com/customer/portal/topics/109406-the-basics/articles

Last night I had a update to my Studio One DAW which added this new feature:

SoundCloud dashboard on Start page*
The SoundCloud dashboard on the Start page displays key statistics from a user's SoundCloud account, as well as a scrolling display of the SoundCloud activity stream.

I guess like Josie said it is the hot kid on the block for now.

Another choice is Drop Box and Box.com.

One of the pitfalls of reverbnation, sound cloud, and sound click is that they restrict the size of files and have their own built in players and compression formats. This can adversely affect the music you upload to them.....especially the "free" accounts.

Using them however, some of them have rankings and ratings based on plays and downloads and it's a nice thing to see your song at #1 in category if only for a day.....

By using drop box and box dot com you can upload waves and 320kbs MP3's and they can be any length song. You can also keep the song as a streaming only song or allow free downloads of the song. the cool thing is the song will playback with the same fidelity as you uploaded originally.

I have started to use these new methods on some of the newer tunes I have..... my wed site is linked to my soundclick account.... so the stuff in my dropbox is not available to everyone unless you have that specific link. I need to figure out if there is a way to link to those accounts...... maybe later.

but there's a few more options for you.... ones that I consider to be a bit more private than the soundclick/cloud accounts.

Thanks everyone. I haven't heard a compelling reason to switch from Click to Cloud but I'll check into dropbox.
SD

Why one or the other? A whole bunch of people have their songs on many of those data-dump type pages.

Is not SoundCloud the new default for BIAB since version 2013? PG Music has incorporated SC into the program which greatly simplifies the upload of your tunes.

Eddie,
Maybe I'll try holding on to the SoundCloud for a while andd see what come s of it. Thanks.
SD

Don,
And there's the "Aha Moment." PG made SoundCloud the default upload site from BIAB (I'd assume from RB as well)so I see a lot of the Forum Friends using it.
I don't think that's going work for me. First, I'm running BB2011 and I probably won't upgrade this year ( I've bought a bunch of other equipment for the studio this year). Second, I always send songs the copyright office before posting to the website.
SD

Noble.... but generally a waste of time and money.

before you blast me out of the water, hear me out.

I've been trying to get some of the big name publishers to listen .... simply listen to my stuff. Do you know how hard that is? In Nashville for example, there are thousands of really good, top level writers. Why would they waste time trying to rip off my stuff? Anyone associated with a claim of theft of songs..... either the publisher or the artist or the writers, do not want to deal with that. Reputation is everything and trust is crucial. None of them are setting there scanning the sound click and cloud sites looking for song ideas from people who have failed to copyright their songs. Seriously, when was the last time you heard about a song being ripped off?

First and foremost, the act of recording the song establishes the copyright for you at that very moment. All the LOC does is certify the date that they got a particular song in their door.

I write lots of tunes and I don't copyright any of them with the USLOC (US Library of Congress) and I sleep well at night. Copyright for every song I have written would be thousands of dollars and who knows if any of them are worth it? So far, nothing I have written has climbed the charts, so I guess not. In the early days of writing, I was super paranoid and had to get the copyright before I would even play something for friends. So I do have a number of songs copyrighted. But now, I don't waste the time or the money to do that.

There's better ways, and I don't mean mail it to yourself certified either.....that doesn't hold up in court.

There are a number of third party companies that do date stamping on your tune when it's uploaded to their secure servers. (Google search for them). I use one that is built in and included with my Masterwriter Software called Songuard. A court order is required to get anything OUT of the server. It's quick and easy and cheap to put stuff in. So I can even register small ideas that are not yet songs. I also register my guitar parts that I put on other people's songs. When you're paying pennies as opposed to $45 a pop on LOC copyright, you can do that. Yeah I know you can copyright collections for one fee with LOC.

Next.... you are aware, I'm sure, that every computer and every internet server like Soundclick and Sound Cloud do date stamping on every file they create or store. Look at your song in PROPERTIES.

Next, if, and when a publisher or library decides to pick up and sign your song to their catalog, they would actually prefer it to be non-copyrighted by you. They will complete and pay for the copyright for you when they sign it. All you do is sign the song to them and give them your CAE/IPI number.

I work with one library owner in particular who asked me not to copyright my stuff because as busy as he is, he doesn't wish to waste time amending copyrights of copyrighted songs. If you don't trust your publisher or library owner to be totally honest in their dealings, ask yourself why you would want to do business with them.

Any way... that's my 2.5 cents

BTW: I always do include the words COPYRIGHT 2013 BY ME

Herb,
Thanks. I read your entire post. I appreciate you taking the time to explain things so thoroughly. I had to look up CAE/IPI number. Do you find it worthwhile to registered with the Performer Rights Organizations like ASCPA, BMI or SESAC?

Hey Herb, Thanks for that post. Seems very reasonable.

Wonder what you think of including the date vs. leaving it off. I had someone tell me to leave off the copyright notice entirely or at least leave off the date because you risk dating your songs. Yeah, I know it is unlikely anyone is gonna pick up my song anyway but just in case they were to consider me would it hurt me to show a song is 5 years old (or older)? His point was publishers already understand copyright and know your song is copyrighted even without the notice so it could do more harm than good.