I think it does work, it just requires a fairly high level of engagement from your audience. I’d guess that your audience would be the kind that would do that. And it also acknowledges that it’s better to have someone listening than not listening, especially when it’s not costing you anything for them to have it.

Both Soundcloud and Bandcamp will work for that

That was interesting to read, because that is exactly the model I’ve been planning for a while I’m going to use. I know it may well lead to a bit less money, but I really like the idea of people paying only when they’ve had a chance to get their own intuitive sense of what each song was worth, and then paying per song rather than just donating via a donate button. It makes the money into a kind of communication to me about “these are the songs I appreciate most”. And I don’t think it does really require loads of commitment; I think if you like one song, you’ll be back in a while to see what else is there, and while you’re getting the next lot you can pay for the last lot.

well, that is the way I’m thinking at the moment, anyway.

thanks so much for this great post and your comments. Happy to see SoundCloud has been of value to you.

We’re releasing new exciting stuff in a couple weeks so make sure to keep an eye out on the newsletter/blog.
@SteveClark: can’t tell more now but there might be some news interesting for your kind of usage.

Thanks again!

The lack of a file size limit is such a useful tool. Embedding entire gigs as ‘a gig’ rather than a collection of tracks is a nice way to get people thinking about it as an integrated event. I’m glad they went with limiting the number of files as their free option rather than limiting the size of more files…

So, given that you could have up to 10 entire concerts embedded for the listening pleasure of your audience. Or 5 concerts and 5 podcasts, or whatever, I think there’s enough there for anyone to get stuck into and get a lot of value from before they decide if the light account is worth having. (I do think the light account should be slightly cheaper, just from a ‘how the market seems to work online’ point of view, but they aren’t asking me )

As for other sites – not sure. Your best bet might actually be a Dreamhost web-hosting account, then you could embed them in a blog, and even have password only access to them, and manage it all via wordpress…

So it good value for money for others? Other sites that host files for free seem to be limited in various ways. I like some of the SoundCloud features such as comments and being able to follow people. The waveform display is neat too. I did have issues with uploading multiple files.

Any suggestions for other sites that would let me post things like rehearsal recordings to share with a few friends, preferably without them having to register.

I’ve seen some really creative sites embedding the SoundCloud player as well.