Sound sharing for journalists (Part 1) – SoundCloud

Earlier this year the Berlin-based sound sharing service SoundCloud announced it had hit 10 million users worldwide – since then users have risen to 13 million. At the same time, more and more media organisations are using the site to host and distribute their news. So, how good is it really and what do you need to know?

The concept

The idea for SoundCloud came from Alex Ljung and Eric Wahlforss – two Swedes with a musical background who were looking for a better way to share their music and get feedback.

However journalists have also taken to using SoundCloud particularly to report on events in near real time and distribute their audio dispatches or interviews through websites, blogs and social media. For example, foreign correspondents and reporters working for The Times (UK) are using SoundCloud to produce short audio dispatches and interviews (and to quite good effect during the Olympic Torch relay). And, Time Out London has also used SoundCloud to submit a series (or in SoundCloud speak “a set”) of reviews from the 2011 Edinburgh Comedy festival.

Creating and sharing audio

SoundCloud doesn’t just give you or your media organisation the ability to create a playlist with your best audio tracks, it also allows you to embed the interviews you’ve produced on other sites – with an attached picture and waveform – as you can see in the track below from DW Akademie Africa. That’s pretty handy for what is – at the basic level at least – a free service.

In comparison to music sharing websites such as Myspace, users on SoundCloud can make a comment right on the audio wave file, giving the original creators of the audio immediate and exact feedback on their work. Some people like this function, others find it distracting. SoundCloud also allows you to make your recorded audio downloadable (mp3), this means that the file you post on SoundCloud could also be used easily by your editorial team for radio programming or in other multimedia stories.

Mobile capabilities

SoundCloud does seem to be making a bit of an effort to make their site more useful for journalists.  For those keen to file dispatches out on the road using SoundCloud, there are apps available for iPhone and Android available for free download. Using the app as a roaming reporter can be a mixed experience – searching for other specific users or topics is good and the recording interface is particularly easy to use. But keep in mind there is no facility to edit sounds that you want to post. That means what you record is what goes out, so plan accordingly.

You might think that if you have a good enough data connection, why not simply send the file you record by email to your editors back in the newsroom? Well, there are a number of benefits of uploading to SoundCloud. If the recording is good to go, then your colleagues can simply embed your file on their website; the downloadable SoundCloud file is in a mp3 format (as opposed to other smartphone audio formats that may not be compatible with your newsroom systems); and you can upload files to SoundCloud that might be too big for your phone’s email application.

For times when you don’t have a fast internet connection, SoundCloud says it offers an importer function to post sounds to SoundCloud via telephone. For the moment there are only numbers for the US, the UK and Germany. We’ve tried this service recently (all three numbers) and found the lines were permanently engaged. A bug in the system or a service being scaled back? Let us know if you’ve tried the phone service or have also encountered similar problems. Needless to say, whatever app or service you use for producing and filing materials, you have to check and ensure they are functioning rather than having to deal with technical problems during a big story.

Plans for the future

SoundCloud is planning to release a new version: “Next Soundcloud”. Currently, it is in the Beta form and is accessible for users that sign up for it individually. From what I can see, it seems to have mainly aesthetic changes. Of interest will be whether any sort of a basic editing function is included in the future, especially for apps.

Overall, SoundCloud is a useful service for journalists to explore. As with any web service or app, particularly if you are using the free versions, it’s best to think through what you and your newsroom need and plan around any limitations accordingly.

In Part 2 of Sharing Sounds for Journalists, we’ll take a look at Audioboo.

Author: André Leslie