by Ayana Antoine ‘20

If you were a teenager 20 years ago, you probably would have discovered a band by word-of-mouth, from the cover of a magazine, or on the radio on your favorite radio station. You would then save up your money and buy a CD from your local record store and that was just the way life was. Fast forward to 2018 where record stores are replaced by apps on a cell phone or computer and a hit song can be recorded without stepping into a professional recording booth even once.

SoundCloud is seemingly the best music streaming website to stay on top of new and upcoming artists. Initially, the app was not taken very seriously because there were many amateur artists creating songs that did not have much popularity outside of the app, especially because for many years they were very few songs and artist that were actually worth hearing. However the sites unique benefits has won over a large span of users. SoundCloud’s unique ability to upload files via URLs allows songs to be embedded in social media posts on Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, making access easy. According to Hypebot, a website that specializes in music industry commentary, “SoundCloud remains more universally accessible and, more importantly, free option for both fans and musicians.”

What makes SoundCloud truly appealing to aspiring musicians is that it gives the song creators rights to their music, allowing them to collect profit and build their music career. Since users are able to listen to unlimited audio and may upload up to 180 minutes of audio to their profile at no cost, SoundCloud is a great platform for a beginning artist.

Within the last five years, the app has been a springboard for some successful careers. These include well-known artist such as Lil Peep, who reached Billboard’s top 200; Lil Pump, who has a record deal with Warner Brothers, and Lil Uzi Vert, who won MTV Video Music Award for the Best Song of the Summer and BET Award for Best Collaboration. Other artist such as Lil Xan, XXXTentacion, Post Malone and Kehlani, have all had at least one hit song. Their success forces the app to be taken more seriously as a music promotion platform. Instead of only a place for people just make music on their free time.