Screengrab from soundcloud.com
I had a great online experience recently with Soundcloud. It provides a beautiful solution for quick and easy music distribution.
Problem: I’d asked my DJ friend Chris to spin some tunes at my birthday. We sort of discussed what I liked, and what he tended to play, but sharing a mixed playlist of tunes that he might play on the night was something that involved either burning discs, or using an FTP dropbox – and I couldn’t be bothered with either.
Solution: Soundcloud. Chris recorded an hour-long mix, and uploaded it to Soundcloud. He then invited me to listen and comment – not just a single comment on the whole thing, but multiple comments attached to different points in the music. I created an account on Soundcloud, so now I can follow other users’ uploads, and return to listen again whenever I like.
The whole site worked really well – it was a totally surprising and seamless 15 minutes on the internet.