Michael Maroussas, creator of the of the great sonicskepsi blog, has launched a new and very interesting project, called “The Sound Collectors’ Club“, inspired by great projects like HISS and a ROAR and Soundsnap. Basically, it’s a place where you can go, upload sound effects (according to a specific topic) to a SoundCloud group. Then you will have access to all the sounds uploaded by other users. A fantastic way to make your library bigger and full of unique sounds.
The Sound Collectors’ Club is basically a private account I’ve set up on Soundcloud. The idea is that people can upload their recordings on a given monthly theme to this account via the dropbox on the club homepage. Once the recording or recordings have been transferred into that month’s private ‘set’ (by me) I will then e-mail you a private link which will give you direct access to all the tracks which that set contains and which you are free to download and use within commercial projects without any restriction (other than you obviously mustn’t go and sell them on as sound effects – individually or as libraries). Hence, from contributing just one recording you could end up with a small arsenal of sounds to add to your library. However, a contribution is necessary in order to even be able to audition any recordings within the private set.
Part of the big appeal for me of using Soundcloud for this venture is that some of it’s ‘Stat’ features come in really handy. Once you’ve gained access to a set you can comment on each other’s recordings and ‘favourite’ a sound – all of which I’m hoping will soon be able to be automatically documented on Twitter for people to follow. The creator of the track that gets the most downloads (or decided by the number of ‘favourites’ that a recording gets if several tracks’ download numbers are tied) gets to choose the theme or topic for the following month. In this way, participants get a chance to supplement their libraries in the way that best suits them rather than me dictating the subject matter every month.
As is probably evident from this idea, I’ve been very inspired by the flurry of activity that has occurred over the past year or so within this global sound community that is currently thriving online. The Sound Collectors’ Club borrows ideas from several of the products of this community that have come before it but tailors them into a package which best suits me and my interests.
The theme for this month is Rain. If you want to contribute, or know more about the project, pleas visit the official website.
cool! And nice Theme to begin with.
I could not find a deadline?
I’m running it by the month, so the winner will be called and a new theme chosen asap at the start of December and hence the deadline for the theme of rain will be midnight on November 30th. I’ll send out reminders and probably post a deadline warning on the site and Twitter nearer the time.
Best,
Michael Maroussas
Forgot to add; thanks for the mention, Miguel – should really help spread the word, and obviously the more the merrier!