I've been messing around with a new music-sharing service called SoundCloud that offers lots of promise but leaves me frustrated because I see a lot of missed opportunities.
As you may have read previously, I'm something of a hack audiophile, not the geekiest by any means but moreso than your average person who thinks the quality of MP3s is all that. So I was excited to test out a service that presents music in a visual way, with the song's audio map front and center (a completely new view for many people).
SoundCloud offers an easy way to share music, whether a link through social media, widget music players or by placing an actual song file in someone's SoundCloud Drop Box. Depending on the settings, songs also can be downloaded or syndicated via web players (such as are attached in this post). Musicians and record labels are starting to share more music in SoundCloud. It's especially popular for those creating electronica.
So here's where I think SoundCloud excels and where it could use some work:
- It's very easy to create personal playlists with one click on a song you like. Here's my list. And here's a set list of some fantastic '90s guitar pop by someone with the handle D-Waves.(UPDATE: D Waves deleted his playlist after a dispute iwth SoundCloud)
- I love the idea of being able to add comments at specific points in a song. For example, at the 3:40 mark of Devo's "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA," I was able to comment on how I love the bridge that connects the two songs. My comment was simple, but could have gone deeper in terms of the mix, echo, etc. These can be the equivalent of audio footnotes, something musicians and fans contribute to add new dimensions to artwork. Sadly, the comments on most songs are junk (here are some for Them Crooked Vultures' "New Fang"). I know this kind of complaint makes me sound like the old man yelling, "Get off my lawn, you crazy kids!" I get that. But that lack of a filter is a serious flaw for me, the music geek. Maybe here's a chance at a premium model, where audiophiles can pay $5 a month for versions that feature only comments from subscribers. That'd eliminate 99 percent of the chaff.
- There's a strong sense of serendipity in SoundCloud, as you find
My playlist on SoundCloud. yourself digging deeper into the site in search of new and exciting discoveries. It's fun to rediscover old treasures as well as hundreds of experimental mashups (a large number involving Jay-Z vs. rock acts of all kinds). - Songs can be categorized, but there's a real lack of hierarchy in the search. There doesn't appear to be much fielded data (such as structured fields for artist name, song name, summary, etc.) so simple searches for song names are often challenging. Unless the person uploading the file added the artist's name, you have to play each file in the search results to get what you're looking for. And there's no differentiation between original versions and cover versions, which is frustrating when you're waiding through dozens of versions of "Creep" in search of the original (more on that below).
- It's easy to share, add others' songs to your playlist and follow other people with interesting musical tastes. Many songs can be downloaded (some in violation of copyright).
- The audio map of each song file is very telling, showing when things are loud and when the volume falls. As noted in previous posts, I've lamented the propensity for audio compression to artificially make songs sound punchier at the expense of "air" in MP3 files. A quick scan of songs in SoundCloud shows most audio bands are almost all gray from start to finish, meaning they're jammed with audio data, loud and without dynamic range. The problem with files like that is they all sound the same. Here, on the other hand is a song by Jeff Beck and Joss Stone that breathes because the soundband changes.
;)
Jeff Beck (feat Joss Stone) - I Put A Spell On You by Jeff Beck
Then there's the issue of remixing, mash-ups and cover versions. SoundCloud is full of them, but I've found only a few worth repeated listens. And some are maddening.
Take this jazzy cover of Radiohead's "Creep" by Karen Souza, which is one of the worst pieces of music I've ever heard. I consider "Creep" to be a rock classic, with incredibly emotional lyrics that resonate different ways if you're a male or a female. And, oh, that crunchy guitar.
Sadly, Souza and her backing hacks take a richly layered song full of some of the rawest emotions ever recorded and turn it into a cartoon. I'd get if they were having a goof, but they aren't. Major #FAIL.
04 - creep - radiohead(karen souza) by marshania202
I like SoundCloud a lot. But unless the developers don't address some of these usability issues, it won't be a site I will actively seek to visit, outside of periodically launching some great music streams.