This document examines the concept of sound in social media and reviews several audio-based social networks including SoundCloud, Audioboo, Bubbly, and Qwips. SoundCloud has grown significantly in recent years and now has around 10 million users after receiving $50 million in funding. It allows users to share a variety of audio content beyond just music. Audioboo focuses on short audio updates but has a smaller user base. Bubbly and Qwips target Asian and North American markets respectively with short voice messages. The document recommends keeping an eye on SoundCloud's continued growth and potential to become an important platform for brands.

1. The Rabbit Feed - The Sound edition
(Updated January 2012)

2. The Rabbitfeed on
In fact, Mary Meeker's firm KPCB has now
sound come on board with SoundCloud as a lead
investor in a $50 million round of funding.
Who still listens to podcasts, asked the BBC We'll give a run-down of SoundCloud and
back in July, pointing out that the genre the other players in this space...
was attracting a relatively small amount of
attention.
The answer according to the BBC, is that
podcasting is actually more popular than Audioboo
Twitter. 16% of the population has
downloaded podcasts, with almost half
listening to one at least once a week.
Apparently US figures show the same
percentages.
The BBC's conclusion was that the overall
concept of podcasting is powerful, but it
now appears unremarkable and hence
almost invisible.
Our take would be that it shows that an
appetite for online audio as a whole is
certainly there, and that is precisely what
audio-based social network SoundCloud and
a range of similar services are trying to
create.
This fourth in our series of Rabbitgram
briefing guides, examines the concept of A UK company, Audioboo essentially allows
sound in greater detail. anyone to post instant podcast type
broadcasts (with a three minute limit) from
your smartphone Founded in 2009,
1 - The next big thing - your ears Audioboo founder Mark Rock was one of the
2 - Audioboo Guardian's Media 100 in 2010.
3 - Bubbly
4 - Qwip As a British technology firm (though Mark
5 - SoundCloud Rock claims 50%+ listens are in the US), the
6 - SoundCloud accounts to follow service has a number of UK media
7 - Conclusion companies signed up including the Guardian
and BBC Radio One and Two.
A Poynter.org piece says that Audioboo is
The next big thing - trying to position itself as owning the
spoken word in contrast to SoundCloud
your ears being about music.
However, SoundCloud has long since
branched out from being a music-only
Back in October futurologist and pundit service and it will be interesting to see
Mary Meeker produced one of her regular whether SoundCloud's new deep pockets
Internet trend reports. One slide talks and high profile, could end up in Audioboo
about the 'the next big things - those two being drowned out.
big things on the sides of your head.'
From sound recognition services such as
Apple’s Siri, to SoundCloud and music
streaming site Spotify, Mary Meeker
reproduced a quote from SoundCloud
founder Alexander Ljung -
"Sound is going to be bigger than video.
'Record' is the new QWERTY."

3. voice email signatures to adding 'nuance
Bubbly and passion' to tweets.
Qwips has just launched an iPhone
application, which according to Zdnet,
among other things allows you to 'filter'
your voice to sound like a chipmunk or a
Robot. Zdnet calls it a fun addition with
potential for special occasions such as e-
cards, but questions whether it will really
catch on as an audio accompaniment to
social media status updates.
Emerging economies are of course the big
online growth market and what the New
York Times calls 'social voice messaging' is
starting to take off in Asia.
SoundCloud
The most prominent of these services is
Singapore based Bubbly, which has 12
The most high profile of all the social sound
million users in India, Indonesia, The
services is the newly funded (to the tune of
Philippines and Japan.
$50 million) SoundCloud.
Bubbly describes itself as a 'voice based
Berlin-headquartered SoundCloud currently
Twitter', though in reality what it seems to
has somewhere between 5-10 million users,
be used for is as a way for Asian sports stars
80% of which joined in the past year. Like
and celebrities to share recorded updates
Audioboo you can record any sound - voice,
via participating mobile phone operators.
music or otherwise - via a smartphone
application or the website and then upload
This makes it more of a one way service,
and share. However, unlike Audioboo there
and as several news reports have pointed
is no three minute recording limit (you have
out, it is also more difficult to sort through
two hours for free).
messages you don't want as on Twitter.
Still, the service is growing at 100,000 users
SoundCloud was initially primarily geared
a week.
towards music artists, but now has
extended to the spoken word. Indeed, the
'SoundCloud for' page of the site lists a
number of examples of how it can be used -
Qwips for comedy, for audio books, for education,
for for band collaboration, for journalists
and for field recordings. Note that only
one of these are explicitly music based.
SoundCloud has amassed a lot of very
influential fans. For example, writing
about SoundCloud's "massive" new funding,
ReadWriteWeb's Marshall Kirkpatrick calls it
"an inspiring community of audio producers
and fans leveraging new technology."
Kirkpatrick compares it to the best of
YouTube in the early days, eulogising
"SoundCloud feels like the kind of creative
place that the Internet was meant to be."
Central to that creativity is the SoundCloud
Though Bubbly intends to expand beyond eco-system, with the API being built into
Asia in 2012, a US based service, Qwips, 250+ 3rd party applications and services.
already claims to offer "social voice" for
European and American users. Another example of innovation is
SoundCloud labs, which features "cutting
The Qwips site shows what you can do with edge ideas" from the development team.
the 30 second (max) clips you can record One is 'social unlock' which allows you to
and upload via the service, from providing exchange downloads for 'social

4. interactions' (e.g. liking a Facebook page) 4 - Penguin Books
Meanwhile 'Takes Questions' is an audio-
based, personalised Q and A page.
Though there are not currently many brands
using SoundCloud, past projects have given
a clue as to how it can be used. For
example during the 2011 Edinburgh
Festival, SoundCloud produced a 'Sounds of
the Fringe' map, with audio tagged to
different Edinburgh locations, as well as
having so-called Sound Ambassadors on site. Book reviews and readings from the likes of
Jenny Agutter and Tony Robinson.
SoundCloud accounts 5 - The South Bank Centre
to follow
Recordings from London's major arts venue.
At the moment, most non-music artist
SoundCloud accounts are dominated by the
media, publishing and education. If 6 - The World Health Organisation
creating an account, here is a selection to
follow:
As yet infrequent updates from the UN
affiliated body.
1 - The NextWeb Daily Dose
7 - Intelligence2
A daily round-up from the popular tech
news website.
Interviews and segments with everyone
from Umberto Eco to Jimmy Carter.
2 - The Economist podcast on SoundCloud
8 - Richard Herring
The comedian, writer and broadcaster
presents an audio version of his blog, the
second longest running in the world.
3 - Journalismnews
Regular podcasts from the media news site.

5. Conclusion Rabbit Library
Looking for more resource documents and
At just short of ten million users, presentations? We've grouped them all in
SoundCloud's user base is still relatively the Rabbit Library where you can view and
small. However, a combination of the eco- download them.
system it has developed, the influential and
committed fans it has on board, and its
deep pockets should see it scale up in 2012.
Whether it ends up being the YouTube of
sound or not, it definitely needs to be on
brands' radars over the coming year.
In contrast, we're less convinced about the
other services. Audioboo continues to
provide a quick and easy way to record
commentary on the go (e.g. from an event)
and while Qwip and Bubbly may serve niche
markets, it is difficult to see them
becoming the twitter of audio.
Finally - did you know?
We have our own digital audio expertise in-
house that we can offer you. Recent
Rabbit recruit Leanne Rice is a co-host of
the High Tea Cast podcast. Get the latest
episodes here.
Lea is currently working on a weekly digest
of Rabbitgram (our daily news updates -
sign up here) which will shortly be on
SoundCloud.
We’re a young (February 2010) agency that
this year has already won six industry
awards, and counting.
As a social media ideas agency, we look at
the different ways in which online social
tools can be integrated into organisations.
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