Connect with SoundCloud

With a lot of new integrations on the way and Music Hack Day coming up in Stockholm this weekend, we wanted to shed some light on what we call Connect with SoundCloud. The idea is to make it really easy for users to connect third-party apps and services to their SoundCloud accounts and thus get an even better flow for handling audio on the web.

Connect with SoundCloud is built on OAuth – “An open protocol to allow secure API authorization in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications” – also used by Twitter and YouTube among others. The main benefit is that you don’t have to store your SoundCloud login credentials in any third-party app or service.

There are two common use cases:

• Export to SoundCloud: upload tracks to SoundCloud account from a third-party application. Case study: FiRe Field Recorder
• Import from SoundCloud: transfer tracks from SoundCloud account to a third-party service. Case study: Abbey Road Online Mastering

The authorization flow is similar in both cases:

• Click “Connect with SoundCloud” in the third-party app.
• This opens up the connect page on our server.
• You can login (or sign up for a new account) and allow access.
• An authorization token is sent to the third-party app.
• The app can store the token and access the account until the user revokes the access in the SoundCloud account settings. That way you’re able to revoke the access without changing your SoundCloud password and also to change your SoundCloud password without affecting the third-party authorization.

So when you see this button on a web page, you know that you’re only two clicks away from connecting the service to your SoundCloud account and let it accessing to your tracks.

To get started with the implementation:

• Check out the general description of Connect with SoundCloud.
• Try connecting with SoundBoard.
• Read the guide for implementing and the API documentation.
• Make sure you get the right buttons.