I'm sure by now everyone has heard about my switch to SoundCloud, but if not, consider yourself in the know. Today I reached another one of the milestones by replacing my website players with set and track widgets from SoundCloud. There is an unfortunate side effect of slightly slower load times for these plugins, but their ease of use, both from the user side and the admin side, is worth every additional second.
A couple of the huge user benefits are tracking controls and download access. The tracking controls will come in handy for anyone that needs to rewind to listen closer, or to fast forward to a specific spot. Download access will not be available for all tracks. For those which are downloadable, the player will show a download button by the track name for set widgets, or on the border for single track widgets.
Over the next couple weeks I will be porting more tracks over to SoundCloud, most of which were probably overlooked in their previous locations. I will be making occasional publishes to Facebook and Twitter regarding new uploads, so be on the lookout for tracks you may have previously missed.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
I'm Sharable!
As you may have noticed, I have been transitioning my audio streams over to Soundcloud. This move allows me to categorize items better, embed my tracks on Facebook and keep stats on plays and downloads. Another feature I will be using in the future is the ability to privately share tracks, meaning that I can share special items with my Facebook fans and those who are on my mailing list. Speaking of which, if you are not on the mailing list, now is a good time to join!
The best reason behind joining Soundcloud however, is less about what I can do and more about what everyone else can do; share the music! All of my public streams on Soundcloud can be embedded on personal sites, blogs, etc. without worries of copyright infringement. As long as you use the Soundcloud widgets (players), the tracks properly link back to me as the artist.
To share the tracks, head over to my Soundcloud page, find the track or set you want to share and click the "Share" button which is on the player. This will pop up a window giving you some options, including direct feeds to various social media sites as well as the actual code to embed the player. If you want to be super fancy, you can click the "Customize Player" button which will give you size, style and color options, so you can be sure it fits nicely on your page.
When you are done, you could have a player just like this:
Relentless Soundtrack Samples by Nick Olman
The best reason behind joining Soundcloud however, is less about what I can do and more about what everyone else can do; share the music! All of my public streams on Soundcloud can be embedded on personal sites, blogs, etc. without worries of copyright infringement. As long as you use the Soundcloud widgets (players), the tracks properly link back to me as the artist.
To share the tracks, head over to my Soundcloud page, find the track or set you want to share and click the "Share" button which is on the player. This will pop up a window giving you some options, including direct feeds to various social media sites as well as the actual code to embed the player. If you want to be super fancy, you can click the "Customize Player" button which will give you size, style and color options, so you can be sure it fits nicely on your page.
When you are done, you could have a player just like this:
Relentless Soundtrack Samples by Nick Olman
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Spirit Day Reprieve
In honor of spirit day, I'd like to take a brief reprieve from the world of music and talk a bit about another topic: ignorance. During one of my daily visits to reddit I came across this page which entails a list of bands that apparently are supporters and/or promoters of the gay lifestyle. One of the recommendations outlined on the page is to look through your children's CD collection and burn any of the albums by these artists; in front of them. Looking at the page all I can say is, "Seriously?"
I have always been a huge supporter of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of basically any choice which does not infringe upon the freedoms of others. To me it's the only logical way to live, given that life itself does not grant us a set of rules; there is no instruction manual. All we can go on is what we are taught and what we discover.
Many people will argue that life does indeed have an instruction manual, though. Problem is, this "manual" changes based on what religion each person belongs to. Everyone says they are right, but no one can prove it. I realize that is why we call it faith, but how can anyone say, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that what they believe is the one and only truth? How can something which has no physical evidence be infallible? Over the years science has proven more against all religions than it has for any single one of them.
So, would it not be ignorant for us to turn a cheek on everyone that believes differently than we do? If all we were ever taught was wrong, how would we know? We have to see all sides. We have to hear the statements of others. We have to choose for ourselves.
Listening to music is not going to make you gay any more than it is going to make you straight. Curiousity is in our blood, and what is more curious in life than all that is taboo? An overly sheltered life leads to ignorance. Our ignorance will lead to intolerance. Our intolerance will lead to destruction.
There is no reason to make outcasts out of innocent people.
I have always been a huge supporter of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of basically any choice which does not infringe upon the freedoms of others. To me it's the only logical way to live, given that life itself does not grant us a set of rules; there is no instruction manual. All we can go on is what we are taught and what we discover.
Many people will argue that life does indeed have an instruction manual, though. Problem is, this "manual" changes based on what religion each person belongs to. Everyone says they are right, but no one can prove it. I realize that is why we call it faith, but how can anyone say, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that what they believe is the one and only truth? How can something which has no physical evidence be infallible? Over the years science has proven more against all religions than it has for any single one of them.
So, would it not be ignorant for us to turn a cheek on everyone that believes differently than we do? If all we were ever taught was wrong, how would we know? We have to see all sides. We have to hear the statements of others. We have to choose for ourselves.
Listening to music is not going to make you gay any more than it is going to make you straight. Curiousity is in our blood, and what is more curious in life than all that is taboo? An overly sheltered life leads to ignorance. Our ignorance will lead to intolerance. Our intolerance will lead to destruction.
There is no reason to make outcasts out of innocent people.
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