For those that missed it, news broke last week that indicated Soundcloud, the popular audio sharing network, only had enough money to survive for a few more months at most. For years, Soundcloud has been the gold standard for audio sharing and while targeted at musicians looking to share their creations, it was an ideal platform for sportscasters to showcase their talents too. Whether demo clips, interviews or highlights, the generous free upload space, easy sharing and embedding into websites made it a very popular option.
In the event that the Soundcloud bubble bursts, where should sportscasters upload their stuff for promotion, preservation and posterity? We’ve taken a look at some of the Soundcloud alternatives, and here are our five favourite options:
Self Hosting
If you want something done right, do it yourself. Why rely on (and maybe pay) someone else to host your audio when you can do the same thing under your own domain? The advantages of self hosting are endless and can lead to creating your own portfolio website where you control all the content and how it’s not only displayed, but archived as well. Self hosting can be relatively cheap, with start up plans for only a few dollars a month. Investigate Host Gator, BlueHost and SiteGround as three popular shared hosting options if you’re not hooked up with some web space already.
Dropbox
Along the same lines of self-hosting are various cloud based storage systems like Dropbox. Most (if not all) allow for easy sharing not only via a link in an email, but to social media as well. Dropbox offers a good amount of storage space for free and you can control how and where your content is shown.
YouTube
YouTube is not just for video. Now while it’s true that you can’t upload strictly audio to the popular video service, there are a couple of easy work arounds to using YouTube as a solid alternative to Soundcloud. One of these workarounds is a service called TunesToTube. Essentially you connect TunesToTube with your YouTube account, upload your audio and a corresponding still image (portfolio shot, game photo, graphic) and the service will combine the two into a “video” on YouTube. The chances of YouTube having only a few months worth of cash are fairly slim and your audio should be quite safe on this platform.
Audiomack
By all accounts, Audiomack seems to be the heir-apparent to Soundcloud and is poised to fill that gap in the market place should the need arise. Already it has cemented itself as a solid platform for artists to showcase their material and helps promote their music as well. Audiomack functions much in the same way that Soundcloud does and the interface looks pretty simple as well. If you’re after a like-for-like replacement, this might be it.
Clyp.It
Perhaps even easier than Soundcloud or Audiomack is Clyp.It. The instant upload service is great for quick uploads, single or limited use clips or other short-term uploads. Think Photobucket or Imgur for audio. You don’t have to have an account to upload audio, just grab and go. However you can create yourself an account to better organize your tracks.
Of course there are countless more audio uploaders available, however these are some of the more reputable and reliable options currently on the market.
There’s no question that Soundcloud has been great to sportscasters over the years, and if it is going away then it has had a great run. However regardless of whether or not we’re forced to port everything to another host, or the Soundcloud world keeps spinning, one lesson should be very very clear…and that’s to backup your audio. Just because it lives on a reputable website doesn’t mean it’s immune to being lost forever. Even if Soundcloud survives, use this as a great opportunity to use one of these services to make sure your work is safe for all time.
