For today's Advent Calendar treat we look at SoundCloud, a free online music streaming and hosting service. Whether you need somewhere to upload your recordings or want to stay up to date with your favourite artists, SoundCloud has the answer!
Streaming music
SoundCloud has both a free and premium service depending on your needs. As a free user you have access to hundreds of thousands of recordings shared by musicians and artists around the world, ranging from audiobooks and podcasts to trap, future-funk and Scandinavian black metal! When you find an artist you particularly enjoy, click the follow button on their page to keep up to date with their newest releases as they are uploaded!
Uploading sounds
If you're more interested in uploading and sharing music, you'll be pleased to know how easy it is to get started on SoundCloud. Signing up with a free account provides up to two hours of upload space as well as access to basic statistics like play counts, likes, comments, and downloads. For a small subscription fee of €3 a month you can increase your upload time to four hours and unlock more statistics. For €9 a month you receive unlimited upload time and the ability to view which sites your tracks are being played on.
Downloads
SoundCloud is available to everyone through your internet browser, but smartphone users get the added benefit of a mobile app to browse the service. Currently the app is only available through the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, but the SoundCloud website is optimised for mobile browsers, so your Windows Phone or BlackBerry will have no problem connecting to the service.
If you're installing the Android version of SoundCloud's app you'll notice a bright orange widget making an appearance on your phone or tablet, perfect for those emergency recordings you desperately need to capture. Adding the widget to your home screen is very simple. In most cases you will need to press your finger down on the background picture of your phone's home screen for two to three seconds and select Widgets. Then scroll through your list of widgets until you find SoundCloud . Tap on it once to add the widget to your home screen and you're done!