SoundCloud Voices

SoundCloud Voices is a new weekly Community feature focusing on spoken word creators found on SoundCloud. It might be a podcast, radio show, audio book, interview, audio messages, a poem, anything! Keep an eye out every Thursday for a new post.

This week we’re talking journalism. A while back we took a look at how SoundCloud had been used by news organisations for podcasts (read that blog post here), this time we’re taking a look at how reporters have incorporated audio into their articles. Text, images and video are often used within web posts, why not audio!? Tech Crunch editor Erick Schonfeld, european Tech Crunch editor Mike Butcher and All Things Digital tech journalist Arik Hesseldahl are prime examples of how audio can add to a post.

There’s been a lot of talk in the news of late around the Carol Bartz and the goings on at Yahoo.  Well back in June, Erick Schonfeld reported on a Yahoo annual shareholder’s meeting where a angry shareholder, Steve Landry, stood up and questioned the underperformance over the last three years.  Instead of completely transcribing this diatribe, it was posted as part of the article using SoundCloud.  You can listen to the post below and read more over at Tech Crunch.

Yahoo Sharehloder Rant by erickschonfeld

Next up Mike Butcher, editor of Tech Crunch Europe, who recently reported on how mobile technology was used during the UK riots.  As well as a very in depth report, Mike posted a three part interview with a contact who gave further insight into how Blackberry’s were used to swap information and coordinate the riots. This interview was recorded using the SoundCloud iPhone app.  Take a listen to the first part of the interview below and to read more (and to listen to more) vist the post on Tech Crunch.
Part 1 Interview about mobile use in #LondonRiots by mikebutcher

And finally, Arik Hesseldahl from All Things Digital.  Last month Arik wrote a piece entitle “Hewlett Packard’s PC Business:  What Happens Next?”, which discussed the future and plans of Hewlett-Packard’s personal computer business.  As part of the post Arik also posted a recording of CEO Leo Apotheker’s conference call with analysts  concerning HP’s decision to “explore strategic options” for its PC business, shutdown its Web OS hardware business, and acquire autonomy.
Leospeaks81811 by ahess247

As you can see with all these posts, adding audio adds another dimension of transparency to the report that text alone cannot provide, particularly when the audio is an interview from someone related to the topic.

If you are interested in trying out SoundCloud as a spoken word podcast platform we are currently running a beta program which you can sign up for via this form. Successful candidates will be emailed with further details.