Author Topic: I'm going all Soundcloud - thoughts? (Read 6171 times)

geequeue · « **on:** July 02, 2013, 12:39:15 PM »

I find that I'm way too busy these days to track out tunes, but would still like to share them quickly. For this reason, I purchased a Pro Unlimited account on Soundcloud and have started sharing all my flacs with the 'allow download' option. This allows me to 'outsource' the tracking work to the end-user should they want such, but to me the beauty of soundcloud streaming is that you can just click on the wavform to queue up wherever you like.

Just curious if anyone else has gone all-soundcloud and if so, should I be wary of anything associated with its use? The Pro Unlimited account cost 99 Euros a year (about $128 US) with a 30 hour per week upload cap. To me, cost is worth its weight in gold due to my time constraints. Before next year's Wanee Festival I should have more 'best of' stuff tracked out!

https://soundcloud.com/geequeue

acidjack · « **Reply #1 on:** July 02, 2013, 12:46:02 PM »

I love SoundCloud for what I use it for (streaming samples of my stuff) but I believe it's downsampling your FLACs into very lossy compressed formats, and that is also what the resulting downloads would be. All the tracks I hear have obvious artifacts, which is alright for sampling a song or two but not, IMHO, archiving.

See this discussion on GS: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/moan-zone/710835-anyone-else-notice-obvious-limiting-soundcloud-when-you-upload-song.html

geequeue · « **Reply #2 on:** July 02, 2013, 12:57:41 PM »

I tested that - If I upload a 400MB flac file, it does indeed transcode it, but ONLY for web streaming purposes. When I click the download link, I got the same 400MB flac file back.

page · « **Reply #3 on:** July 02, 2013, 01:42:24 PM »

Quote from: geequeue on July 02, 2013, 12:39:15 PM

I find that I'm way too busy these days to track out tunes, but would still like to share them quickly. For this reason, I purchased a Pro Unlimited account on Soundcloud and have started sharing all my flacs with the 'allow download' option.

Neato. One question, if you have permission to share, why not just torrent the untracked flac?

geequeue · « **Reply #4 on:** July 02, 2013, 02:03:52 PM »

Most honest reason? Pain in the ass.

page · « **Reply #5 on:** July 02, 2013, 02:08:40 PM »

Quote from: geequeue on July 02, 2013, 02:03:52 PM

Most honest reason? Pain in the ass.

I value honesty!

What makes it more cumbersome than doing the http upload for soundcloud? The torrent creation process and registration or the client?

http uploads are more difficult for me to throttle and instead saturate my home network so I'm adverse to http uploading when/where possible. Different perspective is all.

404 Not Found · « **Reply #6 on:** July 02, 2013, 02:16:36 PM »

Love Soundcloud! You are correct as noted on the DL of the file, as the DL will remain the intact version and format of what was uploaded. It also streams well on my Galaxy S4 on the listening end...as does Dropbox. GL!

runonce · « **Reply #7 on:** July 02, 2013, 02:20:33 PM »

I have a Premium Account - and doubt I'll be renewing.

Going premium only prolongs hitting the limit a bit longer.

I have a hard time managing music based on minutes...vs..."sets" - too confusing.

When posting on Facebook - on some FB groups - posts have a longer shelf life. (so who knows how long to leave a clip up)

And - I get too many - "wont play" comments on FB too...

404 Not Found · « **Reply #8 on:** July 02, 2013, 02:27:59 PM »

Pro Unlimited does not restrict your upload-storage-file sizes...it is as they are advertising "unlimited".

geequeue · « **Reply #9 on:** July 02, 2013, 02:28:50 PM »

Quote from: page on July 02, 2013, 02:08:40 PM

Quote from: geequeue on July 02, 2013, 02:03:52 PM
Most honest reason? Pain in the ass.

I value honesty!

What makes it more cumbersome than doing the http upload for soundcloud? The torrent creation process and registration or the client?

http uploads are more difficult for me to throttle and instead saturate my home network so I'm adverse to http uploading when/where possible. Different perspective is all.

Yeah, just the whole process and time it takes. Not that I am lazy (I am quite the perfectionist), but I wanted to be able to share as quickly as possible with the least amount of post production. I have 2 separate networks at my disposal, so uploading isn't a big deal.

runonce - I am a step or two above premium at 'Pro Unlimited'. Seems just the case, they cap the uploads at 30 hours per week.

runonce · « **Reply #10 on:** July 02, 2013, 02:33:30 PM »

It sounds like you dont really need soundcloud - you dont seem to be want to use the streaming and embedding functions - that seem to be "the product"

Why not just use google drive or dropbox if you dont need the slick front end to publish with?

geequeue · « **Reply #11 on:** July 02, 2013, 02:37:09 PM »

Quote from: runonce on July 02, 2013, 02:33:30 PM

It sounds like you dont really need soundcloud - you dont seem to be want to use the streaming and embedding functions - that seem to be "the product"

Why not just use google drive or dropbox if you dont need the slick front end to publish with?

Actually, the streaming part is a HUGE plus to me. i.e. today a friend who wanted one of the sets is driving, I just told her to pull it up and stream until she got home. The other cool thing about the interface is how you can jump to any spot with a mouseclick, somewhat eliminating need to track out the sets. Also, the stats functionality is also pretty handy.

404 Not Found · « **Reply #12 on:** July 02, 2013, 02:41:57 PM »

You can stream from Soundcloud as well as from Dropbox. I think that DB is a much more private re. means of sharing, as to which SC is a public sharing site, noting the "follow" and "search" functions available.

acidjack · « **Reply #13 on:** July 02, 2013, 03:10:37 PM »

Quote from: runonce on July 02, 2013, 02:20:33 PM

I have a Premium Account - and doubt I'll be renewing.

Going premium only prolongs hitting the limit a bit longer.

Not any more. Now the $9.99/mo account is truly unlimited.

rastasean · « **Reply #14 on:** July 05, 2013, 08:48:54 PM »

Quote from: acidjack on July 02, 2013, 03:10:37 PM

Quote from: runonce on July 02, 2013, 02:20:33 PM
I have a Premium Account - and doubt I'll be renewing.

Going premium only prolongs hitting the limit a bit longer.

Not any more. Now the $9.99/mo account is truly unlimited.

He said premium, which I thought was a plan before but now they have pro and pro unlimited. I only briefly looked into the paid plans in the past without any serious consideration.

The thing about online storage is that its a luxury that we enjoy when we sign up but what about when that year has elapsed? It's hard to imagine people would want to continue paying $100+ a year to have access to some tracks/files/pictures when you could buy a $100 hard drive and keep it forever. Online backups do have their time and place, though.

danny3 · « **Reply #15 on:** July 06, 2013, 08:17:46 AM »

Quote from: 404 Not Found on July 02, 2013, 02:41:57 PM

You can stream from Soundcloud as well as from Dropbox. I think that DB is a much more private re. means of sharing, as to which SC is a public sharing site, noting the "follow" and "search" functions available.

Are you sure that streaming is available in Dropbox?
When I go into my Dropbox folders on my own computer, clicking on a track will open up Media Player and play the track. But I am pretty sure that when you share a link to a dropbox folder, the recipient can view any photos or text file, but music files have to be downloaded individually and cannot be streamed; although I would be glad to learn that I am mistaken.

shownomarcy · « **Reply #16 on:** July 08, 2013, 03:41:57 AM »

I only uploaded 1-2 songs as samples. It's good for it.

404 Not Found · « **Reply #17 on:** July 08, 2013, 10:03:36 AM »

Quote from: danny3 on July 06, 2013, 08:17:46 AM

Quote from: 404 Not Found on July 02, 2013, 02:41:57 PM
You can stream from Soundcloud as well as from Dropbox. I think that DB is a much more private re. means of sharing, as to which SC is a public sharing site, noting the "follow" and "search" functions available.

Are you sure that streaming is available in Dropbox?
When I go into my Dropbox folders on my own computer, clicking on a track will open up Media Player and play the track. But I am pretty sure that when you share a link to a dropbox folder, the recipient can view any photos or text file, but music files have to be downloaded individually and cannot be streamed; although I would be glad to learn that I am mistaken.

I am using the Samsung 4 of which the DB app allows me to stream. Keep in mind that the file needs to load first. BTW, I am extremely anti mp3, but I did load a few converted .wav to mp3 files up to my DB account and there was no load wait and it streamed very well. Not sure how well it works on other mobile phones?

For the record, I would never put all my recordings up on SC, unless it was my band and I was promoting the songs and or re-mixes many bands do. I prefer the privacy of DB over SC, but this is because I am dealing with who I recorded on a personal level and am not openly sharing as one can with followers using SC. I like both, but they are used for different purposes.

Red Boink · « **Reply #18 on:** July 26, 2013, 11:19:41 PM »

I don't like the idea of not having control of my data. Do you want important material on a server in a 3rd world country? Cloud sounds nice,but well you can imagine the potential long term problems.

geequeue · « **Reply #19 on:** July 27, 2013, 12:22:57 AM »

Quote from: Red Boink on July 26, 2013, 11:19:41 PM

I don't like the idea of not having control of my data. Do you want important material on a server in a 3rd world country? Cloud sounds nice,but well you can imagine the potential long term problems.

To me, the whole idea about uploading a copy of shows where copyright isn't concerned is all about promoting the artists globally if possible.