SoudCloud

I mentioned SoundCloud the other day in passing and thought to write a little more about it.

So what is it?
SoundCloud is a recording and sharing site for musicians. It has the ability to record tracks and keep them on the site for others to hear. There is also a comments function that allows mid song comments by listeners. It has a community focus as well with sharing functions allowing listeners to spread a recording through sites such as facebook, twitter, MySpace as well as via email. Artists can attend meetups where groups of SoundClouders can get together to share tips and socialise with others that use the software. According to wikipedia it has been around since 2007 and the fact that I have only just heard of it suggests that its popularity has primarily been among artists rather than music fans to date - in May 2010 it surpassed 1 million subscribers.

What are the legal implications?
Provided the site complies with take down notices there should be no other legal consequences than for any other website. The site does have sharing at its core and it is possible to upload other people's music but there is a clear intention to provide something other than file sharing. The central objectives of the site are to establish community connections between artists and fans... it will be a question of time and how often infringing files are found before we find out whether this site survives the legal issues that so often complicate the sharing of music on the internet.

More Information
SoundCloud < http://soundcloud.com/ > at 13 March 2011

Wikipedia, Sound Cloud (7 March 2011) < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundCloud > at 13 March 2011