SoundCloud seems to be the all-around, easy to use, drop-and-play solution for any digital audiophile around. It supports a majority of uploadable file formats, including aiff, wave, mp3, ogg, flac and aac. It’s widget is even easier to use, point and click the share button and in no time the widget is implemented on your website. Their file uploads and streaming are raging fast which is based on the KISS principle.

There are three widgets available:

1. “sets” which will show the active waveform and album art; together with a “buy now” link (example)
2. “track” which will show the tracks waveform, comments and “buy now” link; (example)
3. “dropbox” which can be put on any website, which is an universal portable way to move digital music without any hassle at all! (example)

The RESTful API of SoundCloud seems to be simple and yet sturdy, aimed towards open-standards. It’s API (console) supports oAuth, XML and JSON to give the smallest details of the SoundCloud owner. They encourage hacks and apps towards their audio platform, because their believe lies that audio is a key part of the web. The SoundCloud developer team has an open transparant foundation which encourages feedback and suggestions to improve it’s platform. Their file storage is based on Amazon 3S. There are extensive examples available through the website like A Javascript player; Python, Ruby or Cocoa API wrapper and more!

SoundCloud has a Developer Manifesto on-line, which states “we aim towards a platform where artists, labels and music professionals from around the planet can host, share and receive music in the smartest and most efficient way imaginable”.  This platform will complement the VisualDreams platform towards portable music for music professionels around the planet without breaking any bank beforehand!

Their application was first not supported by WordPress before going through hoola-hoops; although I’ve changed that a few days ago with the visual-sound-plugin-for-wordpress which also supports the ArtistBlog.ME and ArtistPlug.ME (VisualDreams) API immediately. More examples about this plugin is available at development.artistblog.me/visualsound-plugin

I’ll be looking forward to implement this application through ArtistBlog.ME with the VisualDreams engine, so it’ll be the added glue towards the users convenience to get their hard-labor heard, discussed and promoted.

As a last nice thing … Check out this!

Admin Screen v1.04

Welcome to VisualSound, the WordPress (MU compatible) plug-in with built-in SoundCloud & VisualDreams support.

After searching for a long time on the Internet, I’ve not found any clue for any SoundCloud widget available; so I’ve started development of VisualSound; which is currently in use at some of the Wildchild pages. The applet has a natural interfacing towards SoundCloud & other multimedia providers.

Later support will include direct API support towards SoundCloud and VisualDreams/VisualMix.

The configuration screen allows easy access to a few applet options, available to the users convenience.

* (this SoundCloud widget should autostart!)

WARNING !!!

v1.10+: The standard soundcloud URL can be used as command like {soundcloud play url} and {soundcloud autoplay url}.

pre-v1.0: This plug-in has been simplified with commands.

 
• Double check your previous posts/page syntax if you upgrade from pre-v1.0!
• Disable/Re-enable plug-in for full support to upgrade from pre-v1.0!
• For Soundcloud: use [keyword] soundcloud and [provider] soundcloud in the configuration screen!
• If your plug-in does not work, try as [provider] beta
  

 

Old syntax: [visualsound username mode location] – New syntax: [keyword mode username location]

Newest Syntax: [keyword mode url] where keyword is soundcloud for SoundCloud!

Syntax line:

[keyword mode username location]

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Downloads:

• Download link: visual-sound-1.10.tgz (5 November 2009)
• WordPress plug-in link: wordpress.org/extend/plugins/visual-sound (v1.06)
• readme.txt v1.06

Revision History:

• 0.8 – Initial release
• 0.9 – Public release
• 0.91 – fixed open DIV tags
• 0.92 – cosmetic fixes and corrected links
• 0.93 – autoplay works only on single posts, so a cacafony is ruled out!
• 0.99 – had contact with Soundcloud and they sure motivated me to finish this release!
• 1.00 – Advanced configuration possible, soundcloudplayer and more!
• 1.01 – Rewrote database upgrade code + more configurable parameters on user-demand;
• 1.02 – Added additional artwork, playcount widget parameters and fixed colors for SoundCloud sets;
• 1.03 – Support Plug-IN parameter gives additionally the sample widget preview which is quite handy!
• 1.04 – Added support for hidden applet parameters & beta provider for diagnose (out after beta test!)
• 1.05 – Bugfixes for pages and addition of groups
• 1.06 – Bugfixes for groups …
• 1.10 – Added new Soundcloud url parsing to avoid bugs of groups and sets not loading correctly