This is a list of 5 free websites to upload and share your music apart from enjoying other’s tracks. These web services are used mostly to enjoy music freely. What most people don’t explore is the ‘sharing’ part where people can garner a lot of views even if the audio is gibberish and experimental. For some services, tracks can be shared on various social platforms, along with an embedded player. Some websites in this list have upload limits while some have content limitations. Make sure you check out each of them to find the most suitable one for you.
If you’re dabbling in music production, make sure you check out these 9 free sequencers to make leads and beats on your PC.
Bandcamp
Bandcamp is much more of a commercial music hosting site. On Bandcamp, users can upload their music and sell it to people. So if you have something that you think you’ll be able to market, pop it in Bandcamp! To host music on Bandcamp, users need to make their own artist account. Bandcamp has no storage limit nor does it have an upload limit. People will get free full length previews of your uploaded songs.
Users can easily share and embed the players for other people to listen and enjoy. Albums can be shared on Facebook, Google+, Tumblr and Twitter. Bandcamp mainly hosts independent artists and underground bands. However, you can also find a few mainstream artists in the vast collection. If you want to generate a profit from your work, Bandcamp is the best service to use.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is what pops in your mind when you think about uploading and sharing music. It is a very prominent platform where you can find thousands of tracks, indie and mainstream alike. The most notable of this application has to be the audio quality.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/268565914″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]When it comes to uploading your own work, free users can only upload a total of 3 hours of tracks. Formats of files that are supported are- AIFF, WAV, FLAC, ALAC, OGG, MP2, MP3, AAC, AMR and WMA. I would suggest you to use only AIFF, WAV or FLAC since these audio formats are lossless and your audience will love the quality.
Once your music is uploaded, sharing is quite easy. Just click on Share below the track to embed or message the track. SoundCloud also lets you share tracks over well known social sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. in some cases, you can also download Soundcloud songs.
There is a lot you can do on SoundCloud. Liking a particular label or artist on SoundCloud will deliver you their new posts in the Stream tab every time they release a track. You’ll be able to browse latest trending tracks on SoundCloud. You’ll also be updated with music based on your taste.
Jamendo
Jamendo is one of the best free web application to enjoy independent music. So before you start, let me point out that Jamendo is favorable only if you’re an indie or underground artist. Jamendo is quite neat and fun to use. It provides you a host of indie tracks from awesome independent artists and music.
Jamendo isn’t your regular upload and share music hosting site. Despite that, I don’t think you will have any problems making a simple artist account and hosting your own work on Jamendo. Jamendo only accepts WAV, FLAC and AIFF audio files. Furthermore, the maximum file size you can upload is 480 MB. Uploading otherwise, is unlimited.
Your music will be categorized under the category you mention. The most notable feature of Jamendo is its radio. The radio plays random tracks based on the genre of radio being browsed. Your uploaded music will play on the radio of the genre you labeled your work as. Other users can also directly download your song while its being played on the radio.
Hearthis.at
Hearthis.at can be regarded as an unidentical twin of SoundCloud. The similarity with SoundCloud includes a waveform seek bar and, time comments and the UI, among many features. As for the upload limit, Hearthis.at allows only 2 MB of MP3 uploads per week. Moreover, upload is only allowed until 10 plays and 5 downloads. In spite of this, users can upload as many tracks as they like. This is slightly restricted as compared to SoundCloud, but way better since unlimited number of tracks can be uploaded. Popular and Featured tabs showcase the most played and trending tracks on Hearthis.at. This music hosting site features indie and underground artists mostly.
Once your music is uploaded, to share your track you can simply click Share. The track can be shared on Twitter (requires short link), Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and it can also be embedded.
Hearthis.at makes browsing music easier by providing an advanced search bar on all of the tabs. You just have to choose genre, length and date range of the track. The most unique feature of Heathis.at is the Map. Here, users will have access to different artists and tracks based on geographical location.
Mixcloud
Mixcloud is different from rest of the members in this list in terms of content. While rest of the entries host album tracks, singles and other artist specific content; Mixcloud focuses on hosting radio shows, podcasts, and DJ mixes. However, I did come across instances that flouted the ‘no full album’ rule.
The best thing about Mixcloud has to be its seamless upload. Users can upload as many tracks as they like with no file limit. It seems all of this is supported by the advertisements Mixcloud shows. Despite that, if you plan on sharing tracks, you’ll be disappointed to know that Mixcloud does not cater share-specific options. You can only copy the URL of your track and paste it wherever required.
To browse music on Mixcloud, choose genres of music that you would like to see in your feed. You can browse more of the stuff in Trending and New uploads. Like in YouTube, the tracks can be marked to be listened later.
Conclusion
Bandcamp has unlimited uploads and you can use it specifically for your commercial endeavors. Therefore, the winner is clearly Bandcamp. However, SoundCloud happens to be more famous than Bandcamp and provides support for more formats. So if you want to share music casually, SoundCloud is your best bet. Other entries in this list are good options if you want to remain in the underground scene.
