Tag Archives: soundcloud

David Second Act: The New Upload & Sharing Flow

Welcome to the second act – it’s all about getting your sounds up in the cloud and ready for sharing as quickly, transparently and easily as possible.

Summary:

- Secret Link and Secret Widgets are now available on all account plans
- New upload/transcoding progress bar
- Redesigned description and metadata fields
- Sharing overlay

Second Act: The New Upload & Sharing Flow

Upload:

To make the uploading and transcoding process more transparent, we’ve added a new progress bar that will keep you informed about the state of your upload including how much time our robots will approximately need to get your track ready for the Cloud.

While your file is uploading and transcoding, you’re able to upload artwork, edit the track description and metadata and can save your input at any time without interrupting the upload. You’ll see that we’ve reviewed the design a bit and that you can toggle open additional options to add a buy and video link to your track.

You’ll notice that we’ve also redesigned the track and set settings and added three buttons to make it easier for you to select the settings when sharing your track or set. You’re still able to make your track public or private and the three new icons will let you enable/disable downloads, widget sharing and streaming via third-party applications:

Downloads: enable or disable downloads of your original track

Widget sharing: allow anyone to click the share button and embed the widget for your track or set. Alternatively, you can choose the share button to be only visible to yourself.

Apps: you can choose to make your track available for streaming via third-party applications.

When you make your track private and click Add/Remove people that will open an overlay where you can select the people you’d like to give access to your track.

Clicking Save will take you to a second screen for something called the Sharing Note which we introduce in depth in this blog post.

Now here’s something else new: we’re making the Secret Link feature available for all account plans. It’s now possible to get a Secret Link with a free account! The cool thing: it also lets you create Secret Widgets to embed your track or set to your website without making it publicly available on SoundCloud. To learn how to use the Secret Widget, read this extensive blog post. You can find the Secret Link and embed code for your track when clicking the Share button above your track or set (considering it’s set to private):

What do you think? Let us know what you think in the comments and read about today’s First and Third Act in case you’ve missed them.

David Friday Fun: Interview Time With ‘The Numbers Guy’ Ole

After a longish hiatus, we are bringing back our interview series with SoundCloud staffers! As the team continues to grow, we feel like this is a good way for you to get to know us.

This week, I would like to introduce to your our very own Web Analyst wizard: Ole.

What do you do at SoundCloud?

I look into everything data-wise at SoundCloud: what people are using/not using, the apps, the widgets, the connections from the client applications, the website itself, how users interact, how users use their accounts, why people are signing up for Pro accounts, and the most used features–to name a few.

Wow. Is Google Analytics your homepage?

Google Analytics is a big part of my work, and we track many things on our databases. Everything in the back-end is stored there, but I aggregate data from many different sources.

What did you do before coming to SoundCloud?

I worked for Ableton. Before that, I was a freelance consultant doing everything from setting-up small websites for business to offering services to various companies.

What’s your background in analytics?

I come from a very mathematical corner of science, so it came quite naturally for me.

Where are you from?

I’ve lived for almost 30 years in Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen). Then my wife got a job in Berlin, so we’ve moved here.

Spare time. How do you spend it?

Well, I have a two year-old daughter, which pretty much takes up all my spare time. But I do enjoy cycling and photography.

Anything else you’d like to say to the SoundCloud Community/the interweb?

It’s really exciting working at SoundCloud. It feels like a real startup. It’s fun to work with so many people, who are really good at what they do. It’s a great environment and I feel really happy to be a part of the company’s growth and success!

David Hello my name is SoundCloud, and it sure was nice to have met you!

Clear skies (no planes), sunshine, foods, drinks, great people, and a deck overlooking Berlin — what more can one ask for on a Saturday afternoon in April? Last Saturday we had a very successful inaugural SoundCloud meetup on the sun-deck of our cloudy Headquarters in Berlin, Germany.

About 50 of you made it out to spend some time with other Berlin-based users and most of the SoundCloud staff to talk about music, production, technology and the interwebs. It was great to finally meet some of you in person after having only known you “online” until Saturday.

We also witnessed an impromptu live session by SoundCloud user Onyx Ashanti who brought his Electronic Wind Instrument (connected to his iPhone for additional effects) and treated everyone with a fifteen-minute Beatjazz live improv’. Watch a short video of Onyx’s performance below:

It was great to catch up with all of you! Make sure to visit some of the attendee’s SoundCloud profiles: Michelle Owen, Gabor Molnar, Bleepstreet Records, Madeleine Bloom, Ric Colair, Santi Hernandez, Walter Marinelli, Shawn Balm.

I want to take this chance to thank all the users and potential users that came out and said “Hej”. See you soon for a second Berlin meetup! Pictures:

More pictures here and here and here!

We just confirmed more global meetups — next up is Amsterdam, London, Barcelona, Brisbane and Lyon. Check out our Meetups page for details and get in touch with us if you want to organize one in your city. It’s super-easy: select a date, a location and we’ll support you getting the word out to other users from your area.

(Photo Credits: Jan Berkel, Willy Rachow, JC Tu)