SoundCloud

About

SoundCloud is an audio-sharing platform with social networking features based in Berlin, Germany.

History

In August 2007, Swedish sound designer Alex Ljung and Swedish artist Eric Wahlforss began working on SoundCloud as a platform for recording artists to share music. In an interview with the technology magazine Wired,^[2] Ljung revealed that the site was initially made out of frustration for not having a proper platform to collaborate on music. The site SoundCloud.com^[5] was launched in October 2008. In April 2009, SoundCloud received €2.5 million in Series A funding from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures.^[1] In January 2011, SoundCloud raised $10 million in Series B funding from Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures.^[3] On January 23rd, 2012, SoundCloud announced that had reached more than 10 million users and posted a story wheel on their official blog^[4] to mark the occasion (shown below).

Features

SoundCloud users can upload audio files to share on their public feeds, with each given a distinctive URL. Audio tracks are automatically visualized as waveforms and users can leave comments at specific parts on a track’s timeline. Registered users are allowed to upload up to 120 minutes of audio to their profile for free and can pay a subscription fee to upload additional content.

Highlights

Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf

Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf is a comedy song portraying the actor Shia LaBeouf as a homicidal cannibal. The song inspired several photoshopped images and animated GIFs of LeBeouf after it was uploaded to SoundCloud in March 2012.

Comcast Customer Service Fiasco

Comcast Customer Service Fiasco refers to the online backlash surrounding a recorded telephone conversation in which tech blogger Ryan Block repeatedly tries to request a Comcast customer service representative to cancel his cable service subscription over the course of an 18 minute-long call. The recording instantly went viral after Block uploaded a portion of the conversation to SoundCloud in July 2014, which ultimately prompted the American cable company to issue a personal apology.

Traffic

On July 17th, 2013, USA Today^[7] reported that SoundCloud^[7] had reached 40 million registered users and 200 million unique listeners worldwide. As of July 2014, the site has a global rank of 206 and a United States rank of 126 on the traffic analytics site Alexa,^[6]

Search Interest

External References