We can call Music in the cloud to allow users to send and share audio files stored remotely, instead of locally, and accessible to listen on demand. In recent years SoundCloud and MixCloud have appeared; two audio distribution platforms in the cloud, in which productions, mixes, sessions, podcasts, or radio shows can be published, promote, and distribute. These two services have become a serious alternative to traditional online music services through Spotify or Pandora. In this article, let’s find out what is the best platform that suits you.
What is MixCloud?
MixCloud is a music streaming platform competing with players like SoundCloud. MixCloud is mainly used to listen to long audio genres, like podcasts or DJ sets. The British company has launched a new service which aims to bring artists closer to their community. It is a social platform that allows you to upload music sessions to the cloud and share it, but more focused from its creation to DJs and radio producers, as the name suggests. It allows all users to browse and stream audio content uploaded to the site.
MixCloud users can upload and also promote their content from MixCloud’s own social media widget. MixCloud has an API that users can upload and search for content using their sites. Since the platform is free and provides many features without upgrading, users who want to get on with these platforms prefer it. They also have an upgraded subscription where users can add additional features to their package. Unfortunately, MixCloud doesn’t provide the capability to download videos through their website. But not to worry. We have the best solution for it.
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What is SoundCloud?
SoundCloud is one of the largest audio distribution platforms and music sharing websites which allows users to promote, share, upload audio and also provides DSP that helps its users to stream audio online. Since it can be embedded into web pages or other social networks, it is categorized as a social player. Hence, these sites that link the player can update the SoundCloud profile every time either add or remove from any music track simultaneously and automatically. The way to distribute music on SoundCloud is through the use of applications and widgets.
Soundcloud is not just a platform to share music, it is also a community that unites the entire professional industry, at the same time that allows users to easily filter the music they want to listen to, follow the creations of artists of their style and discover new tracks. It also has a Dropbox where musicians can receive audio files from their followers. The platform is developed with Ruby and has a powerful API on which more than 100 applications have already been created.
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MixCloud vs. SoundCloud
There are significant differences between the two platforms when it comes to features they provided to users. Both the platforms are perfect if you are a music lover, and let’s deep dive into the differences.
| Comparison Parameter | SoundCloud | MixCloud |
|---|---|---|
| Uploads | Copyrighted contents are prohibited and free users have limited upload time | Permitted upload any music shows, live shows, talks, mashups and full tracks with no restriction |
| Listening | Can be used as a personal music player where we can save, repost, and share any music track | Less interaction compared to SoundCloud and act as a radio with no fast forwarding |
| Copyright | Highly concerned about copyrights since they signed with major music labels in the industry | Less copyright restrictions |
| Downloading | 100 downloads are given for free users and the process is easy | No downloading allowed. |
| User base | Over 175 million active users per month | Over 10 million active users per month |
| Analytics | User activities are allowed track like comments, reposts, likes and downloads | No analytics are provided for free users. Upgrading is needed to view analytics |
Main Differences between SoundCloud vs. MixCloud
- SoundCloud is for original content creators to reach out to their audience, while MixCloud is for radio presenters and DJs to present their mashups and remixed contents.
- SoundCloud is user-friendly and provides more features to users to control the experience. In MixCloud, users can change the track settings like users can’t fast forward the track they are listening to.
- MixCloud has fewer restrictions on copyrights where it allows to upload any music show, track, podcasts, etc. In contrast, SoundCloud has very strict rules on copyrights, and it will enable only the original content to be uploaded.
- The rate of content upload in SoundCloud is estimated at 12 hours per minute, while MixCloud has 4 hours per minute.
- Compared to MixCloud, a SoundCloud subscription is expensive. It is true that there are already many other options that offer more storage space at a lower cost or even completely free just like MixCloud. But user support provided by SoundCloud is unmatchable. It also gives them the possibility of downloading the sounds for offline listening or consulting the list of songs played. In addition, new features are currently under development to bring subscribers closer to artists.
- More users found that the mobile app of SoundCloud is much user friendly and easy to use than the MixCloud mobile app. Since many users travel and listen to music, having an intuitive user interface has driven SoundCloud to go beyond what MixCloud can think of.
Though SoundCloud can download videos, MixCloud doesn’t provide the capability. We have introduced iTubeGo Youtube Downloader software that helps you download any music video from SoundCloud and MixCloud without bothering about the restrictions imposed on downloading. By using iTubeGo, any video can be downloaded with the original quality.
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Final Thoughts
As a music lover, I declare myself a fan of these two music social networks. SoundCloud has a friendly interface, and it is easier to use, but the price is expensive. That makes users bet more on MixCloud since it is more of a free alternative to SoundCloud. As we discussed the features of both, it is up to the users to select the platform they want. Whatever the platform you choose, iTubeGo Youtube Downloader would be a handy software to download the videos from one place without bothering about the download restrictions.