I was wondering where all the remix/re-edit producers had disappeared to, in light of Soundcloud’s new policies, and it appears that it’s to Hearthis. There’s been alotta negative press about Soundcloud’s corporate shift, and while I’m bummed at the turn of events, it really only affects me as a downloader. For DJs/Producers, who have spent years building thousands of followers, while creating Soundcloud’s customer base, only to receive threats of track removal, account closures, etc., the new Soundcloud policies are a quick and painful change. As someone who has benefited from the use of Soundcloud for quite a long time, I can only begrudge them the right to see more profit and recognize copyright law, so much. That being said, it’s sad that such a prolific platform for the medium is losing one of it’s major features, and the DJ community is losing that sense of support. Soundcloud is still a great resource for bands/labels and original content, but the DJ friendly vibe is all but history.
Having just signed up for a free Hearthis account, I can’t offer much of an opinion or info. The free accounts only allow MP3 uploads, though there does not seem to be a limit as to how many. There is, however, a limit regarding the amount of times other users can play your tracks, in as much as after 10,000 plays, you can no longer upload material, presumably until upgrading your account. Similarly, there is a download limit of 5000,though I’m sure the play limit would be reached faster. It also has a chat feature for those of you interested in the real time social networking aspect. In general the setup is much the same as Soundcloud, and it allows for no hassle transfer of Soundcloud and Mixcloud tracks/mixes, making it extremely convenient for those looking to move on.
As stated, many of my favorite Soundcloud users have set up shop on Hearthis, taking a big drop in followers/likes in the process. The good news for Hearthis users is, as a new platform, it helps to even the playing field for the non-veteran set, with far less clutter for general browsing. Unfortunately as a free wordpress.com user, I’m not sure how to embed currently, whereas wordpress.org has a functioning plug-in, but hopefully that issue will soon be resolved. I’m not sure how long Hearthis has been up and running, but it seems that it’s getting a significant amount of Soundcloud turnover recently, and is definitely worth checking out for the casual browser or the dedicated producer.
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