SoundCloud Audio
Over the next few weeks I plan on adding some audio to this blog. I think this will be a cool feature to add because I have a fairly large audio collection.
For many years, when I wanted to add streaming audio I would add it to my Real Audio page using Real Audio format by RealNetworks. The Real Audio format has seemed to die, so I decided to seek an alternative solution. Looks like SoundCloud is the best choice for hosting audio files.
The problem that I found with SoundCloud is understanding their subscription plan. What exact do you get for the Free plan? Is the Pro plan worth it?
Turns out that SoundCloud measures storage by time. Whereas other cloud services, like Dropbox, measures usage by disk space size. A measurement that most people might be familiar with.
So in the free plan, called "Partner", you are allowed to add up to 3 hours of audio files. This is the total amount that your allowed to have. So once you reach that limit you can't upload any more audio. You would need to remove audio files to make room for new audio files. This isn't a total amount to upload per day, it's the total time amount that you're allowed to upload.
Not enough time? You can double the upload time to 6 hours with the Pro Plan and get some extensive stats information for $7 a month. If you're really big into audio you can go unlimited with the 'Pro Unlimited' plan for only $15 a month. Honestly, if you're doing a lot of podcasting, your best bet would be the 'Pro Unlimited' plan.
As of now, I'll be sticking with the Partner plan, I don't plan on uploading more than a couple of hours of audio.
Steve Jobs - Challenging Times
This is an audio clip of Steve Jobs at MacWorld, 2003 or 2002, talking about the challenging times that is facing the computer industry. This is a poor quality audio as I was recording on my computer from a live stream. The picture of Steve Jobs with the audio clip is from my collection, I took it at the Palo Alto Apple store grand opening.