Image - Mobile

Channeling the orange

  • Music
  • Feature
  • 3 minute read

“Anyone with a laptop and Fruity Loops can be a DJ/Producer nowadays!” Not quite m8.

 

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, and the last thing you listened to was a Stereophonics album on cassette, then you’ve probably realised at some point during your daily commute to work that we live in a world brimming with technology, social media and music. Your Nan has access to Facebook, that prick you used to hate at school keeps trying to ‘connect with you on LinkedIn’, and you know at least one person who’s uploaded a ‘mix’ to Soundcloud.

 

With that in mind; we’re living in a digital age in which information spreads quickly. Gone are the days where you had to awkwardly sit pressing your phone against your friend’s, waiting for a Dizzee Rascal remix over Bluetooth. Like a new tune? Whack it in the group chat and you’ll have a discussion worthy of the panel of the Grammys underway in seconds. Sites like Soundcloud have capitalised on this and turned on its head the ways in which we create, consume and share music. Effectively MySpace’s slightly cooler, gets-more-girls younger brother, Soundcloud has given a plethora of up and coming, unheard talents a platform to gain plays, followers and crucially, exposure. It’s not often that up and comers like San Holo get to play on the same field as Drake, and that’s exactly what Soundcloud does; it gives young, hungry artists the opportunity to really feel like they’re part of the game, part of something bigger with the comfort of knowing that industry giants are directly uploading to the same site as them.

From a fan’s perspective, one of the most gratifying user experiences is the sense of community that is intertwined in Soundcloud’s entire ethos and ideology. As a consumer, I can click on the profile of an artist I like and know what they’re into and listening to right now, which artists they rate the most, and if I feel like bothering them – I can sling them a message to ask “Yo, when’s the next tune? (this is the fuckin’ next tune, are you dumb!?)”.

As this community continues to grow and progress naturally and organically, we can expect to see some heavy acts emerging from the stems of the growth. Let’s just hope Soundcoud doesn’t take after its older brother and become the site that only your most hipster mate uses ‘cause he’s “sick of gentrification”. What people appreciate more than anything online nowadays is a strong set of community beliefs, and it is of that which Soundcloud continues to be the undisputed champion. Keep an ear to the ground, I think that prick you know from sixth form’s just uploaded another dubstep remix.

 

By Cameron George