Sharing Your Music

Good to know from RUCHI Design on Etsy

Sorry for the silence this week. I am starring in my own version of the zombie apocalypse. Armed with disinfectant spray and wipes I am attempting to eradicate the evil forces that have taken hold of my two children. Wash your hands. Be well.

One of my participants in the Challenge of Music asked me if I had any suggestions for sharing the music on a blog. Good question! I hadn't thought about that (duh!) when making up the Challenge rules, one of which is you need to find a way to share the song on your blog.

So I did a little research and came up with some options for sharing music on your blog whether you are in the Challenge of Music or not.

YouTube

This is the website that a lot of people, including me, would turn to for music sharing. But this site relies on videos that are uploaded by other users. That might be fine, and you might find the song that you are looking for, but the quality of the videos is generally questionable. Still, if you can find a video with the song you want to share that is acceptable, they make it very easy to grab the code that you need to embed the video into your post. Select Share>Embed, copy the code they give you, and select the HTML tab in your blog editor and paste that code into the field.

SoundCloud
SoundCloud is popular with musicians and music-lovers both. You can upload your songs to SoundCloud to share, which is pretty cool if you are a musician and you want the world to hear your sound, or you can search the database for thousands of songs. Find the song you want and select Share. From there you can choose the site you are interested in sharing the music on, like Facebook or Blogger, or you can copy the code provided to embed. When you select the little pencil button next to the widget code, this allows you to Edit the Widget by changing the look of the player. I especially like the graphical representation of the sound

 
GrooveShark
Another music sharing site that has a lot of songs available is GrooveShark. Find the song you like and then you can click the little arrow button to find different ways to share. 

Like the others, the embed code is provided. And you can share it using different themes and preview before committing. I like that this is a very small and simple widget.
 

When you select a song to listen to through GrooveShark, a widget pops up at the bottom of the screen and you can load up the tray to play a whole personal playlist. I can see that I will be using this service in the future for late night studio sessions!

For those of you working on the Challenge with me, please know that I am in the same creative boat as you. There are so many wonderful pieces of instrumental music to choose from.But that is the hardest part. I know that once I settle on the instrumental song that I will be inspired by the music to create. It is finding the music that is the true challenge. I am looking for something that forms images in my mind and evokes strong emotions. As I have been listening to songs I have been sketching, but I have no idea what song I will pick and what these scribbles will have to do with the finished project. These doodles might not look like much, but I am certain that they are helping to form the rhythm and the balance of the piece that I will create. If you are in the Challenge, what are you doing to help you pick the music for your inspiration?

If you have found some other music sharing sites, feel free to share them in the comments.