Overview
In a previous post, I mentioned that I wanted to make the MP3 files of the songs I’ve created available for download, but I’ve started to feel that even if I made them available for direct download from this blog, no one would actually use them (it’s probably something most people would be too scared to do…). Still, I figured I should at least make them available for download through some platform, so I asked Google Gemini if there were any file-hosting services for MP3s. I specified that I wanted platforms that seemed to be okay with AI-generated music, and it gave me a few suggestions. From those, I decided to try out SoundCloud and BOOTH (pixiv), so this post will briefly explain how to use them.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a German company and appears to be the go-to platform for sharing indie music and AI-generated music. It hosts a massive number of uploaded tracks and has a huge user base (reportedly in the hundreds of millions), and it seems you can upload up to a total of 120 minutes of music (roughly the equivalent of two or three albums) for free. It seems you can use the service for free if you’re uploading around 20 to 30 songs. However, if you’re like me and tend to upload every song you create that you like, it’s probably better to just subscribe to a paid plan.
Basically, you can only play or download one song at a time; it doesn’t seem possible to download an entire album at once (though it’s possible I just don’t know how to set it up or use the interface). To group songs together in an album-like format, you need to organize them into a playlist. If you click “Add to playlist” on an uploaded song, you’ll be taken to the playlist editing screen, where you can make your changes (the process is generally intuitive, so I’ll skip the details).
As a trial, I created a playlist of seven songs—six tracks with the same lyrics as “I’m Still Me” but different melodies, plus a piano instrumental remix—so I’ll include the link here. It appears you need to create a free account to download the MP3 files. Going forward, I plan to upload content in this format whenever I can organize songs into a music album-style collection.
BOOTH
This is a service I’d never heard of before, but it seems to be provided by the company that operates pixiv. While pixiv is a service run by a Japanese company, it’s now widely used overseas—in Asia, the U.S., and elsewhere—and I was told it can be used as a platform for distributing music files. BOOTH appears to be a platform for selling digital content for a fee, but by setting the price to 0 (free item), it can also be used as a free file-hosting service (though I suspect the platform operators aren’t too happy about this use case…).
If you’re using it for the first time, you might be confused about how to use it, but you can figure out the basics by doing a quick online search, so I won’t go into detail here. The structure involves creating your own “shop” page and adding products to it. Since it allows you to bundle download files into a ZIP archive, you can let users download all the MP3 files from a music album at once. Basically, since it’s a platform for selling paid products, you’ll need to create a free Pixiv account to download anything. It might come in handy if you want to monetize by selling some kind of product in the future (though I have no such plans).
Just like on SoundCloud, I created a page for the “I’m Still Me” album, so I’ll post the link here.
Conclusion
Since both services basically require you to create a free account to download anything—which is an extra step—I can’t help but wonder if anyone is really willing to go to that trouble just to get an MP3 file. Well, there might be some people who want the option to use the music offline, so I guess I’m just keeping these options available as a precaution. With that in mind, I’ve decided that from now on, I’ll post links to SoundCloud and BOOTH for the music albums I create, and stop allowing direct file downloads from the blog.
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