As most of you know who read the site regularly we have a weekly podcast called The Technology Geek. As we are always looking to expand our site and content to other platforms I decided to take a look at Soundcloud Pro.
We have always uploaded our podcast to Soundcloud because Soundcloud is considered by most to be the most popular platform for music and podcasts on the internet. When you are doing long-form talk radio like our show the issue comes down to space. Soundcloud restricts space not by the size but by the length of the MP3 file. Free Soundcloud gives you three hours of storage and limited listener analytics. The free analytics show just how many downloads you have had for that particular file. Free sound cloud is great if you are uploading a few songs for friends to listen to, but bad if you are unloading an hour and a half podcast episode because you can only upload 2 episodes.
Soundcloud has two paid options the first is Soundcloud pro which doubles your upload time to 6 hours from the free 3 hours offered and gives a tiny but better listener analytics by adding plays by country. Soundcloud Pro adds an additional feature called Spotlight which allows you to pin tracks and playlists to the top of your profile. The price for this is not too bad $7/month or $63/year is cheap for what you’re getting in my opinion.
Soundcloud Pro Unlimited really unlocks the power of Soundcloud. Soundcloud Pro Unlimited removes the three or six-hour upload limit and lets you unload as much as you want anytime, perfect for podcasters with huge archives of shows. The listener analytics is amazing breaking down listenership by country, city, website and app. I have to say I was overly impressed with the listening analytics breakdown on Soundcloud Unlimited Pro you can tell Soundcloud put a lot of time into that piece of the service. They offer any Soundcloud Pro Unlimited subscriber for an additional $1.99/month you get there Apple Music, Spotify competitor Soundcloud GO which is usually a $9.99 a month service. Soundcloud Pro unlimited has a steep price of $15/month or $135/year.
Soundcloud provides two great apps the Soundcloud Listening app for every user and Soundcloud Pulse for creators. The Soundcloud Pulse app works great and can provide some insight into your audience if you are using a free or Soundcloud Pro account, but to really use and enjoy the power of the app you need Unlimited which offers better notifications, stats and track options.
I have to say for the full package $15/month is a lot of money but Soundcloud does say they have 175 million people listening on SoundCloud each month. That is a huge audience of people listening to the service every month more than most other podcast or music hosting services. Since Soundcloud has been in the business so long they are like Pandora in the sense they integrate with almost every service out there for music or podcasting, services like Clammr, Garageband, Audacity, iRig, Shopify and many others which count for a lot if you’re planning long term.
I think Soundcloud Pro is a great service all around but it’s the best if you get the Pro Unlimited version. If you are going to be podcasting Pro Unlimited is the only way to go if you’re hosting your show exclusively on Soundcloud. Soundcloud Pro would be good if you’re just hosting music, both plans Pro and Pro unlimited are great and reliable I would recommend Soundcloud to anyone even if you are just using the free version.