Topic: Audio streaming/hosting service to control access and distribution

[Ultfris101]

Are there services like Soundcloud which make it easy to host and stream audio, but allow you to control access rather than instantly making it available to the world as seems to be the only option on quick inspection at Soundcloud?

I'm thinking of something which makes it easier to let somebody you made a recording for hear the results without having to pull them off a "shady" file sharing site or even an otherwise upstanding service like Dropbox or Google Drive because as easy as that is for many, for some people getting the files into a usable location is still a challenge.

LMA is great if a band already knows they want it shared, but I'm thinking of allowing somebody to preview, maybe open up at some point.

I can setup my own server at a hosting company but I'm really not into all the back end work that would entail to maintain. I've done that kind of stuff for a living and would rather pay somebody else if I can.

[bombdiggity]

Well it's not hosting but WeTransfer is very useful for 1-to-1.  Fast, easy, free, up to 2gb in each transfer, controlled access, you can send the files as wavs for the really challenged (assuming they know how to find and open a zip file they download/save as...). 

Nothing short of very specific instructions (tailored to the mode of delivery) will solve the "I downloaded it where did it go" or "I downloaded it now what" sorts of issues. 

Wuala or a pro Dropbox subscription are pretty flexible but not necessarily intuitive and Wuala is pretty slow.  FTP is probably not noob friendly either though. 

If you know German there's a file host/transfer site I really like (as a recipient) and would like to have if it had an English interface.  Personally I don't mind trying to learn a little German but it is far from intuitive so you have to be able to translate.  No idea how much it is... 

 

[jefflester]

Could youtube work for that purpose? Make it a private link.

Never thought of that before, but there's this thread:
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=160345.0

[Ultfris101]

I saw some of that thread. Probably not for what I had in mind.  The fact that this didn't yield any "yes, check this out, it's what you want" or "yeah, i did that like this" tells me I'm either thinking about it wrong or it's just not something that comes up much in this forum.

I'm thinking I'll prowl around some of the forums like recording.org that are more studio focused and see. What I'm envisioning seems like it would be of interest to artists collaborating with other artists over long distances for example.

There are some content management systems like Drupal which seem to have some of this type of capability available with some customization if you want to home grow something but it's been several years since I've messed with web design and programming much so I'm not up to date.

Thanks to both of you for taking a look and responding. I'll put some more thought into this.

[bombdiggity]

I saw some of that thread. Probably not for what I had in mind.  The fact that this didn't yield any "yes, check this out, it's what you want" or "yeah, i did that like this" tells me I'm either thinking about it wrong or it's just not something that comes up much in this forum.

I'm thinking I'll prowl around some of the forums like recording.org that are more studio focused and see. What I'm envisioning seems like it would be of interest to artists collaborating with other artists over long distances for example.

There are some content management systems like Drupal which seem to have some of this type of capability available with some customization if you want to home grow something but it's been several years since I've messed with web design and programming much so I'm not up to date.

Thanks to both of you for taking a look and responding. I'll put some more thought into this.

Let me know if you find anything worthwhile.  Most performing artists are not necessarily too up to date on file transfers (or even flac it seems).  The ambient/dj set definitely are but those I know seemed to use ftp a lot.  Most of the management/label types that are savvy like YouSendIt but you need to subscribe for anything useful for our purposes. 

[runonce]

If you can handle WordPress - the CodeArt Google mp3 player might be what you are looking for.

Seems to be limited to a WordPress plug-in. I couldn't find a standalone version.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-mp3-audio-player/

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

You can make a track on Soundcloud private.

Personally I just disable downloading, but you can also make it private so that only authorized users can listen to it (and download it if you let them). They will have to register an account with Soundcloud, but otherwise it's pretty easy to do. The settings are under Advanced Settings at the bottom of the page when you are uploading your file.

[Ultfris101]

You can make a track on Soundcloud private.

Personally I just disable downloading, but you can also make it private so that only authorized users can listen to it (and download it if you let them). They will have to register an account with Soundcloud, but otherwise it's pretty easy to do. The settings are under Advanced Settings at the bottom of the page when you are uploading your file.

I looked at soundcloud a bit and didn't see info on making things private like that. Thank you! I'll check that again.

[rastasean]

soundcloud may be your best option if you don't want to do a lot of managing.

[Ultfris101]

soundcloud may be your best option if you don't want to do a lot of managing.

Yes, if you can make stuff private it could work well. Saves on bandwidth costs over self hosting too I would think.