Soundcloud gets loud

Chris Faffler, Read & Watch Video Editor

A place to listen to music, Soundcloud is rising in popularity. Although the site is not new, many students are just starting to discover how easy it is to find new music and artists through tags, friends reposts, and the radio feature.

Soundcloud was founded almost 9 years ago in Stockholm, Sweden to allow musicians to share their music with each other. In 2008, the site shifted to a full publishing tool, allowing musicians to distribute their music tracks. As of December 2014, Soundcloud has around 175 million unique listeners every month. With around 10 million music creators and over 100 million sounds, Soundcloud is one of the biggest music distribution platforms out there.

The platform is popular around the school. Students log on to pick and choose their favorite genres and artists, or explore new ones. On their personal home pages, users can find trending and recommended songs.

“Soundcloud is a place where people come together to bring new ideas and make people happy with music” said junior Kwabena Boadhu Mensa. “I use Soundcloud to listen to new songs that people make.”

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The versatility of Soundcloud gives its users the ability to listen to a diverse selection of music, and to create a music library that defines them to play that music whenever, and wherever they want. Through on demand streaming, replaying favorite songs or searching for new ones is made very easy.

“To me, music is what fills the silence. I like to listen to music when I drive or when doing chores super loud because that’s usually when I’m alone,” sophomore Abby Armstrong said.

Soundcloud gives options other music distributors do not. Each user has his or her own profile, like any social media site, and are given the ability to personalize playlists, ‘re-post’ songs on their profile and follow friends profiles to see what they like. There is also the option to easily share songs and playlists to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter with the click of a button, so friends and families never miss a beat.

“I use Soundcloud because on the radio there’s commercials and not a lot of the stations have variety,” said Armstrong. “On Soundcloud, I can pick what song I want to listen to, when I want to listen to it, in the order I want them.”

New artists upload music constantly, leaving users a lifetime of sounds to explore and inevitably encounter a genre that suits them. With an average of 12 hours of music uploaded every minute, there is something there for everyone.

“By using Soundcloud I discovered tons of new songs that I never knew existed because of what the people I follow had re-posted, and continue to re-post,” said Armstrong.

By using Soundcloud I discovered tons of new songs that I never knew existed because of what the people I follow had re-posted, and continue to re-post.

— Abby Armstrong

As of now, many people think Soundcloud is a really great platform, but in these times, technology seems to get replaced pretty quickly.

“I think that like most things, popular apps come and go, and this is what most people consider the best app for listening to music right now. But I think that soon enough there will be a new music app that is better and even more popular,” said Armstrong.

Music is a way of expression and makes people happy. It hass been a part of our culture for tens of thousands of years. Soundcloud continues this legacy by making music easily accessible through a massive online library for people to share with the world what music is to them.

“I just think it’s a really good place to go to find new artists and music. It’s just a place where people go to be happy,” said Kwabena.