Methodology:
There are two distinct aspects to the methodology of SoundCloud, firstly there are the aspects of their methods that they share with their peers and secondly there are the aspects that set them apart.
To focus first on the aspects they share, one would say SoundCloud is an online music/audio platform where “creators” can share their music/audio with the world by uploading/posting and where the world can in turn use SoundCloud to get access to said music/audio. In that basic sense, the methodology of SoundCloud isn’t that far different from their peer platforms of Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, etc. but if that is true and SoundCloud and these other platforms share so much in common then why is it SoundCloud that created all these unique musical artists and viral sensations all without the interference of record labels? And that is where the key differences in methodology really make their impact felt.
SoundCloud, from the beginning, was open. It was open source, open resources, open doors, it was a digital humanities project in its methodology where its competition were simply not. It was a conscious choice as one of SoundCloud’s main founders Eric Wahlforss puts it, “The way you can interact, became important that it could be part of the fabric of the web everywhere. Also you have a great degree of control as a creator of what you publish and how you can publish it and you can sort of spread it around in a way that enables virality.” And one of the [technical] methods by which this online virality was achieved was through SoundCloud’s open “embeddability.”
Embeddability: SoundCloud was the first music/audio service of its kind to enable/allow audio embeds on Twitter, Facebook, this website, any website, and anywhere else you can think of really. Click on your favorite music blog, or any blog for that matter. SoundCloud is everywhere. As it should be. And that was always part of the plan. [Paraphrased from Gizmodo: “How SoundCloud changed music forever”]
SoundCloud, unlike Spotify or Pandora, isn’t concerned with keeping people on “site” by using redirecting links instead it wants to take the audio that is posted to its site and spread it around as easily, quickly, and virally as possible; without the use of advertising or record contracts as its peers do. And it does so by allowing its audio, the music its content creators post to the platform, to as Wahlforss said “become part of the fabric of the web everywhere” through embedded links. Basically, when you share a song from Apple Music or Spotify it will only play once you are redirected back to Spotify/Apple Music and once your account information is verified whereas when you share a song from SoundCloud it is immediately playable wherever you share it. That instant playability, through the use of embedded audio links, is a huge component in what makes SoundCloud the platform for unsigned, unsponsored, unknown musical artists to literally blow up and become millionaires within mere months, minutes, or even one moment.
